Some key events in Palau’s history:
c. 2500BC – Palau’s first inhabitants – thought to have come from present-day eastern Indonesia – settle in the islands. The early Palauans develop complex social systems, practice fishing and farming.
1783 – English captain Henry Wilson is shipwrecked on a reef and becomes the first Westerner to visit.
1885 – Spain asserts its claim to the islands, which it administers as part of the Philippines.
1899 – Spain sells Palau to Germany as part of German New Guinea in the German-Spanish Treaty. Germany begins to exploit the islands’ resources using native labour. Phosphate is mined and coconut plantations are developed.
1914 – Shortly after the outbreak of World War One, Japan seizes the islands from Germany and annexes them.
1919 – Following World War One, the League of Nations formally places the islands under Japanese administration as part of its South Seas Mandate.
1939-45 – World War Two
1941-42 – Japan uses Palau as a base to support its invasion and conquest of the Philippines.
1944 – US forces retake the islands in a bitter campaign amid controversy over the island’s negligible wartime strategic value and the high casualty rate, which exceeded that of all other amphibious operations during the Pacific fighting.
1947 – Palau becomes a United Nations Trust Territory under US administration.
1979 – While four UN Trust Territories join to form the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands vote against the proposed constitution.
1981 – Republic of Palau comes into being, following the territory’s adoption of a constitution.
1982 – Palau signs a Compact of Free Association with the US, gaining access to US aid in return for US military rights.
1994 – Palau becomes independent under the Compact of Free Association with the US. Palau receives financial and other aid from Washington, and the US retains responsibility for defence and the right to operate military bases. Palau joins the UN.
2022 – Palau agrees to host a sophisticated $100m US air force over-the-horizon radar station, which is due to be operational by 2026.
2024 – Palau, which is one of Taiwan’s allies, claims China led a cyber-attack which stole over 20,000 government documents. Beijing denies knowledge of any attack.
