Palau, officially the Republic of Palau (Palau Beluu er a Belau,
English Republic of Palau, Jap. パラオ共和国) is an island nation
associated with the United States in the Philippine Sea of the
Pacific Ocean, located 800 km east of the Philippines and to the
north from Indonesia.
Consists of 328 islands with a total
area of 458 km², belongs to Micronesia.
According to the
2005 census, the population of the country was about 19,907 people
(in 2008 - 20.9 thousand, an estimate for July 2014 - 21,186, 2015 -
21,271).
The main religion is Christianity (Catholics and
Protestants). About 8.7% of the population professes local beliefs,
the syncretic cult of modekngei.
The country's capital is
Ngerulmud, Melekeok State. There is an international airport.
The country consists of 16 states.
The head of the
executive branch is the president, the legislature is a bicameral
national legislative assembly (the Senate and the House of
Delegates).
The average temperature on the islands is
+24-28°C.
The name of the islands in Palau is probably derived from beluu ("village"), or from aibebelau ("indirect answers") referring to the creation myth. In English, the name "Palau" came from the Spanish. Los Palaos through it. Palau. The archaic name for the islands in English was the "Pellew Islands". "Palau" should not be confused with "Pulau", a Malay word for "island" found in several place names in the region.
Palau is an archipelago consisting of many (more than 250) islands.
The climate is tropical, the rainy season is from May to November.
1500 species of tropical fish and many rare mammals live in the
coastal waters. Also, according to environmentalists, off the coast of
Palau live 130 species of sharks from among those threatened with
extinction. In 1995, Palau was declared an underwater wonder of the
world by the International Committee of Marine Biologists and
Conservationists. Palau's tropical gardens and forests are home to
orchids and many exotic flowers, as well as about 50 species of birds.
Eil Malk Island has a popular tourist destination, Jellyfish Lake, which
is home to millions of jellyfish.
The Palau archipelago is the western part of the Caroline
Islands.
The Palau Islands were inhabited in the III-II
millennium BC, apparently from the Philippines. Until the 12th
century, a population close to the Negritos lived here, but they
were driven out by immigrants from the Sunda Islands.
The
first European to see the Palau Islands was probably the Spaniard
Ruy López de Villalobos in 1543. In 1686, Spain claimed them as its
own, but did nothing to colonize them.
In 1697, immigrants
from Palau reached the Philippine island of Samar, where they were
wrecked. When communicating with a local missionary, the Czech
Jesuit Pavel Klein, they folded a map of the Palau Islands from
pebbles on a local beach, from 87 pebbles. This aroused interest in
the islands among the Spaniards. Several expeditions were undertaken
from 1700 to 1711, which were accompanied by failures - either
because of the elements, or for other reasons. As a result of this
chain of failures in their attempts to reach the islands, Spain gave
them the name Islas Encantadas - "Charmed".
Contacts between
the islanders and Europeans were established only in 1783, when the
ship "Antelope" of the English captain Henry Wilson crashed on the
reefs near Oolong Island. The supreme leader of the island of Koror
Ibedul ordered to help repair the ship and sent his son Lebuu to
study in England. Lebuu died of illness shortly after his arrival in
London. A new ship was sent to Koror with gifts and goods. Other
European merchants followed. Great Britain became Palau's most
important trading partner and remained so until the islands were
captured by Spain.
In 1885, Pope Leo XIII officially
recognized Spain's right to the Caroline Islands, including Palau. 2
churches were built, and the Capuchin priests, sent there, achieved
an end to hostility between individual villages and spread writing.
In 1899, after the Spanish-American War and the loss of the
Philippines, Spain sold the Caroline Islands to Germany, which began
to actively develop the islands and exploit natural and human
resources. Due to the fact that the inhabitants of Palau were not
immune to diseases brought by strangers, the islanders died. The
inhabitants of Palau suffered not only from imported diseases, but
also from interference in the national way of life, traditions, and
religion.
At the end of 1914, after the outbreak of the First
World War, Japan captured the islands and received a mandate from
the League of Nations in 1920 to govern them (see South Pacific
Mandate).
During World War II, the islands were occupied by
American troops during the Mariana operation.
Since 1947,
Palau, part of Micronesia, has been administered by the United
States as a Trust Territory. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were
attempts to enshrine in the constitution a non-nuclear status for
Palau, which met with opposition from the United States.
In
November 1993, a referendum in Palau approved Palau's status as "a
state freely associated with the United States". On October 1, 1994,
the independence of Palau was proclaimed.
The population is 20.9 thousand (July 2010 estimate).
Annual
increase - 0.4% (fertility - 1.73 births per woman).
The average
life expectancy is 68 years for men, 75 years for women.
Literacy
- 92%.
Ethnic composition: Palau - 72.5% (14,438 people),
Filipinos - 16.3% (3253 people), Chinese - 1.6% (317 people), Vietnamese
- 1.6% (321 people). ), other Asians - 3.4% (675 people), whites - 0.9%
(186 people), Carolinians - 1.0% (197 people), other Micronesians - 2.4%
(470 people). ), others - 0.3% (50 people) (according to the 2005
census).
Languages: Palau (state) - 62.1% (12,354 people),
English - 14.4% (2871 people), Filipino languages - 10.0% (2000
people), Chinese - 1.7% ( 331 people), other languages (according to
the 2005 census). The official languages are Palauan and English. In
some states, other languages have official status: Sonsorola and
English in Sonsorola, Tobi and English in Hatohobei, Palau, Japanese and
English in Angaura.
Religious composition
According to the
2005 census, the majority of believers are Catholics 49.4% (9825
people), Protestants - 23.2% (4610 people), Seventh-day Adventists -
5.3% (1046 people) and followers of the Modekngey religion - 8, 7% (1733
people). Followers of other religious movements (Mormons, Jehovah's
Witnesses) are few in number (according to the 2005 census).
Palau is a republic. The head of state and government is the
president, elected by the population for a 4-year term (re-election for
a second consecutive term is acceptable).
The Parliament of Palau
is bicameral and consists of the Senate (13 members elected by the
people for 4 years) and the House of Delegates (16 members elected by
the people for 4 years).
There are no political parties.
There are no armed forces.
The country retains, along with the
official, traditional institutions of power, there are leaders of the
northern and southern territories of Palau. The leader of the southern
territory, which includes the most developed island of Koror, whose
title sounds like Ibedul, is usually considered the "king" of all Palau.
The chiefs interact with the official authorities through the Council of
Chiefs, an official advisory body.
Russian-Palauan relations
Diplomatic relations between Russia and
Palau were established on August 8, 2006.
On November 28 of the
same 2006 in New York, the permanent representatives of the Russian
Federation and the Republic of Palau to the UN - Vitaly Churkin and
Stuart Beck - signed a joint statement on the establishment of
diplomatic relations between the two countries at the level of
ambassadors. The Russian Ambassador to Palau is concurrently the
Ambassador to the Philippines. Palau's interests in Russia are
represented by the US Embassy.
Israeli-Palauan relations
Israel was the first non-Pacific country to establish diplomatic
relations with Palau since that country's independence in 1994. Israel
voted for the admission of Palau to the UN and offered financial
assistance to the state. The Israeli Foreign Ministry organized trips of
agricultural and fishing specialists to Palau to educate and train the
local population. The Israeli Embassy is located in Koror.
Economy
The basis of Palau's economy is tourism (85 thousand tourists
in 2007, in 2016 - 150,000 tourists, which is 70% more than in 2010),
fishing, art crafts. In agriculture, coconut palm and tapioca are
cultivated.
The volume of GDP is $ 250 million (in 2017), mainly
provided by subsidies from the United States. GDP per capita - 8.1
thousand dollars (119th place in the world).
In 2016, the volume
of imports amounted to 185.3 million dollars, exports - 24.1 million
dollars, the negative balance of foreign trade amounted to almost 161.2
million dollars.
Export goods for 2016 are fish and seafood (up
to 60% of the value), ships and boats (up to 31% of the value). Imports
- oil products (about 13% of the value), passenger and cargo ships
(about 11% of the value), other engineering products, fish and other
food products, medicines.
Main export trading partners in 2016:
Japan ($14.1 million) - 58%, Greece ($7.4 million) - 31%, USA ($1.27
million) - 5.2%. The main trading partners for imports in 2016: the USA
(61.8 million dollars) - 33%, Japan (36.2 million dollars) - 19%,
Singapore (17 million dollars) - 9.1%.
The monetary unit is the
US dollar.
It is a member of the international organization of
African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
Rai
The Palau Islands have long served as a source of stone mining
for the manufacture (issue) of a special monetary unit - the rai of the
Yap Islands. There was no suitable material on Yap itself, so rai stones
were made in Palau and delivered by rafts to Yap. Often, when
transporting multi-ton money, people died, but this circumstance
significantly increased the cost of the stone. The stones that sank
during transportation and lay on the bottom of the sea also participated
in all financial transactions, just like those that were on land.