Palau Overview

Palau, known as the Republic of Palau (officially), is an island country situated in the Western Pacific. It consists of about 340 islands and connects the Caroline Islands western chain and certain parts of Federated States of Micronesia.

Geography of Palau
Palau boasts 466 square kilometers of total area. Koror is the most populated city of Palau, but the capital of the country is Ngerulmud. Ngerulmud is located in Melekeok State, nearby Babeldaob island.

The island country is sharing its maritime borders with international waters, Indonesia, Micronesia, and the Philippines.

Historical overview of Palau
About 3,000 years ago, migrants from Maritime Southeast Asia settled the country for the first time. At the same time, Spain was the first nation in Europe to explore these islands during the 16th century.

However, these islands were sold to Imperial Germany after the defeat of Spain in Spanish–American War happened in 1898. After the 1st world war, these islands became a part of the South Seas Mandate ruled by the Japanese by the League of Nations. In 1994 these islands gained their full sovereignty with the US under the Compact of Free Association. Now the island country is a presidential republic, politically, in free association with the US.

Culture of Palau
Palau is following a strictly matrilineal system. Therefore, you can see Matrilineal practices in almost every aspect of the culture here, more particularly in marriage, inheritance, funeral, and passing the traditional titles.

The origin of this system is probably the Philippine archipelago. It had a similar culture before being colonized by Spain.

References

• Geonames
• Wikipedia

Other Databases

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