Editing Pacific Ocean (section)

== History ==
=== Prehistory ===
Across the continents of Asia, [[Australia (continent)|Australia]] and the [[Americas]], more than 25,000 islands, large and small, rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Multiple islands were the shells of former active [[volcano]]es that have lain dormant for thousands of years. Close to the equator, without vast areas of blue ocean, are a dot of [[atoll]]s that have over intervals of time been formed by [[seamounts]] as a result of tiny coral islands strung in a ring within surroundings of a central [[lagoon]].

=== Early migrations ===
{{Main|Peopling of Southeast Asia|Austronesian peoples}}
[[File:Fijian double canoe, model, Otago Museum, 2016-01-29.jpg|thumb|Model of a [[Fiji]]an [[drua]], an example of an [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian vessel]] with a double-canoe ([[catamaran]]) hull and a [[crab claw sail]]]]
Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Modern humans first reached the western Pacific in the [[Paleolithic]], at around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Originating from a southern coastal human migration out of Africa, they reached [[East Asia]], [[Mainland Southeast Asia]], the Philippines, [[New Guinea]], and then Australia by making the sea crossing of at least {{convert|80|km}} between [[Sundaland]] and [[Australia (continent)|Sahul]]. It is not known with any certainty what level of maritime technology was used by these groups{{snd}}the presumption is that they used large bamboo rafts which may have been equipped with some sort of sail. The reduction in favourable winds for a crossing to Sahul after 58,000 B.P. fits with the dating of the settlement of Australia, with no later migrations in the prehistoric period. The seafaring abilities of pre-Austronesian residents of Island South-east Asia are confirmed by the settlement of [[Buka, Papua New Guinea|Buka]] by 32,000 B.P. and [[Manus Island|Manus]] by 25,000 B.P. Journeys of {{convert|180|km}} and {{convert|230|km}} are involved, respectively.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Connor |first1=Sue |last2=Hiscock |first2=Peter |editor1-last=Cochrane |editor1-first=Ethan E |editor2-last=Hunt |editor2-first=Terry L. |title=The Oxford handbook of prehistoric Oceania |date=2018 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199925070 |chapter=The Peopling of Sahul and Near Oceania}}</ref>

The descendants of these migrations today are the [[Negritos]], [[Melanesians]], and [[Indigenous Australians]]. Their populations in [[maritime Southeast Asia]], coastal [[New Guinea]], and [[Island Melanesia]] later intermarried with the incoming [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] settlers from [[Taiwan]] and the northern [[Philippines]], but also earlier groups associated with [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic-speakers]], resulting in the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania.<ref name="Jett2017">{{cite book |last1=Jett |first1=Stephen C. |title=Ancient Ocean Crossings: Reconsidering the Case for Contacts with the Pre-Columbian Americas |date=2017 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0817319397 |pages=168–171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgOUDgAAQBAJ |access-date=4 June 2020 |archive-date=26 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726125617/https://books.google.com/books?id=EgOUDgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Waruno2017">{{cite book|author =Mahdi, Waruno|editor =Acri, Andrea|editor2 =Blench, Roger|editor3 =Landmann, Alexandra|title =Spirits and Ships: Cultural Transfers in Early Monsoon Asia|chapter =Pre-Austronesian Origins of Seafaring in Insular Southeast Asia|publisher =ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute|year =2017|pages =325–440|isbn =978-9814762755|chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=uJsnDwAAQBAJ|access-date =4 June 2020|archive-date =26 July 2020|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20200726134025/https://books.google.com/books?id=uJsnDwAAQBAJ|url-status =live}}</ref>

[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|upright=2|Map showing the [[Austronesian peoples#Migration from Taiwan|migration]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]]]]
A later seaborne migration is the [[Neolithic]] [[Austronesian expansion]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]]. Austronesians originated from the island of [[Taiwanese aborigines|Taiwan]] {{c.|3000}}–1500 BCE. They are associated with distinctive maritime sailing technologies (notably [[outrigger boat]]s, [[catamaran]]s, [[lashed-lug]] boats, and the [[crab claw sail]]){{snd}}it is likely that the progressive development of these technologies were related to the later steps of settlement into Near and Remote Oceania. Starting at around 2200 BCE, Austronesians sailed southwards to settle the [[Philippines]]. From, probably, the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] they crossed the western Pacific to reach the [[Marianas Islands]] by 1500 BCE,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Winter |first1=Olaf |last2=Clark |first2=Geoffrey |last3=Anderson |first3=Atholl |last4=Lindahl |first4=Anders |title=Austronesian sailing to the northern Marianas, a comment on Hung et al. (2011) |journal=Antiquity |date=September 2012 |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=898–910 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047992|s2cid=161735451 |issn=0003-598X }}</ref> as well as [[Palau]] and [[Yap]] by 1000 BCE. They were the first humans to reach [[Remote Oceania]], and the first to cross vast distances of open water. They also continued spreading southwards and settling the rest of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], reaching [[Indonesia]] and [[Malaysia]] by 1500 BCE, and further west to [[Madagascar]] and the [[Comoros]] in the [[Indian Ocean]] by around 500 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Heiske|first1=Margit|last2=Alva|first2=Omar|last3=Pereda-Loth|first3=Veronica|last4=Van Schalkwyk|first4=Matthew|last5=Radimilahy|first5=Chantal|last6=Letellier|first6=Thierry|last7=Rakotarisoa|first7=Jean-Aimé|last8=Pierron|first8=Denis|date=22 January 2021|title=Genetic evidence and historical theories of the Asian and African origins of the present Malagasy population|journal=Human Molecular Genetics|volume=30|issue=R1|pages=R72–R78|doi=10.1093/hmg/ddab018|pmid=33481023|issn=0964-6906|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Gray-et-al2009">{{cite journal | vauthors = Gray RD, Drummond AJ, Greenhill SJ | s2cid = 29838345 | title = Language phylogenies reveal expansion pulses and pauses in Pacific settlement | journal = Science | volume = 323 | issue = 5913 | pages = 479–483 | date = January 2009 | pmid = 19164742 | doi = 10.1126/science.1166858 | bibcode = 2009Sci...323..479G }}</ref><ref name="Pawley2002">{{cite book | vauthors = Pawley A |chapter=The Austronesian dispersal: languages, technologies and people |editor1-first=Peter S. |editor1-last=Bellwood |editor2-first=Colin |editor2-last=Renfrew |title=Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis |publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge |year=2002 |isbn=978-1902937205 |pages=251–273 }}</ref> More recently, it is suggested that Austronesians expanded already earlier, arriving in the Philippines already in 7000 BCE. Additional earlier migrations into Insular Southeast Asia, associated with Austroasiatic-speakers from Mainland Southeast Asia, are estimated to have taken place already in 15000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Larena |first=Maximilian |date= 22 March 2021|title=Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=118 |issue=13 |pages=e2026132118 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2026132118 |pmid=33753512 |pmc=8020671 |bibcode=2021PNAS..11826132L |doi-access=free }}</ref>

At around 1300 to 1200 BCE, a branch of the Austronesian migrations known as the [[Lapita culture]] reached the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], the [[Solomon Islands]], [[Vanuatu]], [[Fiji]], and [[New Caledonia]]. From there, they settled [[Tonga]] and [[Samoa]] by 900 to 800 BCE. Some also back-migrated northwards in 200 BCE to settle the islands of eastern [[Micronesia]] (including the [[Caroline Islands|Carolines]], the [[Marshall Islands]], and [[Kiribati]]), mixing with earlier Austronesian migrations in the region. This remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into [[Polynesia]] until around 700 CE when there was another surge of island exploration. They reached the [[Cook Islands]], [[Tahiti]], and the [[Marquesas]] by 700 CE; [[Hawaii|Hawai{{okina}}i]] by 900 CE; [[Rapa Nui]] by 1000 CE; and finally New Zealand by 1200 CE.<ref name="Gray-et-al2009"/><ref name="Stanley2004">{{cite book|last=Stanley|first=David|title=South Pacific|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EDGapfBX-CAC|date=2004|publisher=Avalon Travel |isbn=978-1-56691-411-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_EDGapfBX-CAC/page/n38 19]}}</ref><ref name="gibbons">{{cite web |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title='Game-changing' study suggests first Polynesians voyaged all the way from East Asia |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia |website=Science |access-date=23 March 2019 |archive-date=13 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413063912/https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia |url-status=live }}</ref> Austronesians may have also reached as far as the [[Americas]], although evidence for this remains inconclusive.<ref>Van Tilburg, Jo Anne. 1994. ''Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture.'' Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press</ref><ref>Langdon, Robert. The Bamboo Raft as a Key to the Introduction of the Sweet Potato in Prehistoric Polynesia, ''The Journal of Pacific History'', Vol. 36, No. 1, 2001</ref>

=== European exploration ===
{{Main|Exploration of the Pacific}}
[[File:Waldseemuller map 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|''Universalis Cosmographia'', also known as the [[Waldseemüller map]], dated 1507, was the first map to show the [[Americas]] separating two distinct oceans. South America was generally considered the [[New World]] and shows the name "America" for the first time, after [[Amerigo Vespucci]]]]
The first contact of European navigators with the western edge of the Pacific Ocean was made by the Portuguese expeditions of [[António de Abreu]] and [[Francisco Serrão]], via the [[Lesser Sunda Islands]], to the [[Maluku Islands]], in 1512,<ref>{{cite book|last=Hannard|first=Willard A.|title=Indonesian Banda: Colonialism and its Aftermath in the Nutmeg Islands|publisher=Yayasan Warisan dan Budaya Banda Naira|year=1991|location=[[Bandanaira]]|page=7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Milton|first=Giles|author-link=Giles Milton|title=Nathaniel's Nutmeg|publisher=Sceptre|date=1999|location=London|pages=5, 7|isbn= 978-0-340-69676-7}}</ref> and with [[Jorge Álvares]]'s expedition to southern China in 1513,<ref name="Porter, Jonathan 1996">Porter, Jonathan. (1996). ''Macau, the Imaginary City: Culture and Society, 1557 to the Present''. Westview Press. {{ISBN|0-8133-3749-6}}</ref> both ordered by [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] from [[Portuguese Malacca|Malacca]].

The eastern side of the ocean was encountered by Spanish explorer [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] in 1513 after his expedition crossed the [[Isthmus of Panama]] and reached a new ocean.<ref name="Ober">{{cite book|last=Ober|first=Frederick Albion|title=Vasco Nuñez de Balboa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98zUIbdvAYgC&pg=PT129|publisher=Library of Alexandria|isbn=978-1-4655-7034-5|page=129|year=2010}}</ref> He named it ''Mar del Sur'' ("Sea of the South" or [[South Seas|"South Sea"]]) because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific.

In 1520, navigator [[Ferdinand Magellan]] and his crew were the first to cross the Pacific in recorded history. They were part of a [[Magellan–Elcano circumnavigation|Spanish expedition]] to the [[Spice Islands]] that would eventually result in the first world [[circumnavigation]]. Magellan called the ocean ''Pacífico'' (or "Pacific" meaning, "peaceful") because, after sailing through the stormy seas off [[Cape Horn]], the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the '''Sea of Magellan''' in his honor until the eighteenth century.<ref>Camino, Mercedes Maroto. ''Producing the Pacific: Maps and Narratives of Spanish Exploration (1567–1606)'', p. 76. 2005.</ref> Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at [[Guam]] in March 1521.<ref>Guampedia entry on ''Ferdinand Magellan''| url = https://www.guampedia.com/ferdinand-magellan/</ref> Although Magellan himself died in the [[Philippines]] in 1521, Spanish navigator [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] led the remains of the expedition back to Spain across the [[Indian Ocean]] and round the [[Cape of Good Hope]], completing the first world circumnavigation in 1522.<ref name=oceanario>[https://archive.today/20130616003402/http://www.oceanario.pt/cms/1316/ "Life in the sea: Pacific Ocean"], Oceanário de Lisboa. Retrieved 9 June 2013.</ref> Sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions encountered the [[Caroline Islands]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Galvano|first=Antonio|title=The Discoveries of the World from Their First Original Unto the Year of Our Lord 1555, issued by the Hakluyt Society|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|orig-year=1563|date=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XivHTiZoMycC&pg=1|isbn=978-0-7661-9022-1|ref=Galvano 1563|author-link=António Galvão|page=168}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> the [[Aru Islands Regency|Aru Islands]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Kratoska |first=Paul H. |title=South East Asia, Colonial History: Imperialism before 1800, Volume 1 de South East Asia, Colonial History |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2001 |pages=52–56}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9U-FUPS3DkC]</ref> and [[Papua New Guinea]].<ref name=Whiteway>{{cite book|last=Whiteway|first=Richard Stephen|title=The rise of Portuguese power in India, 1497–1550|publisher=A. Constable|date=1899|location=Westminster|url=https://archive.org/details/riseportuguesep00whitgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/riseportuguesep00whitgoog/page/n353 333]}}</ref> In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan.<ref>Steven Thomas, {{cite web|url=http://balagan.info/portuguese-in-japan|title=Portuguese in Japan|publisher=Steven's Balagan|access-date=22 May 2015|date=25 April 2006}}</ref>

In 1564, five Spanish ships carrying 379 soldiers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by [[Miguel López de Legazpi]], and colonized the [[Philippines]] and [[Mariana Islands]].<ref name="HendersonDelpar2000">{{cite book|last1=Henderson|first1=James D.|last2=Delpar|first2=Helen|last3=Brungardt|first3=Maurice Philip|author4=Weldon, Richard N.|title=A Reference Guide to Latin American History|url=https://archive.org/details/referenceguideto00hend|url-access=registration|year=2000|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-1-56324-744-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/referenceguideto00hend/page/28 28]}}</ref> For the remainder of the 16th century, Spain maintained military and mercantile control, with ships sailing from Mexico and [[Peru]] across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines via [[Guam]], and establishing the [[Spanish East Indies]]. The [[Manila galleon]]s operated for two and a half centuries, linking [[Manila]] and [[Acapulco]], in one of the longest trade routes in history. Spanish expeditions also arrived at [[Tuvalu]], the [[Marquesas Islands|Marquesas]], the [[Cook Islands]], the [[Solomon Islands]], [[Vanuatu]], the [[Marshall Islands|Marshalls]] and the [[Admiralty Islands]] in the South Pacific.<ref name="Fernandez-Armesto 2006 305–307">{{cite book|last=Fernandez-Armesto|first=Felipe|title=Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration|date=2006|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|isbn=978-0-393-06259-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/pathfindersgloba00fern/page/305 305–307]|url=https://archive.org/details/pathfindersgloba00fern/page/305}}</ref>

Later, in the quest for [[Terra Australis]] ("the [great] Southern Land"), Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator [[Pedro Fernandes de Queirós]], arrived at the [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn]] and [[Vanuatu]] archipelagos, and sailed the [[Torres Strait]] between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator [[Luís Vaz de Torres]]. Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in exploration and trade; [[Willem Janszoon]], made the first completely documented European landing in Australia (1606), in [[Cape York Peninsula]],<ref>J.P. Sigmond and L.H. Zuiderbaan (1979) ''Dutch Discoveries of Australia''.Rigby Ltd, Australia. pp. 19–30 {{ISBN|0-7270-0800-5}}</ref> and [[Abel Tasman|Abel Janszoon Tasman]] circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and arrived at [[Tasmania]] and New Zealand in 1642.<ref>{{cite book|title=Primary Australian History: Book F [B6] Ages 10–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_i98Pu5dDhkC&pg=PA6|date=2008|publisher=R.I.C. Publications|isbn=978-1-74126-688-7|page=6}}</ref>

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a ''[[mare clausum]]''{{snd}}a sea closed to other naval powers. As the only known entrance from the Atlantic, the [[Strait of Magellan]] was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent the entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western side of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the [[Philippines|Spanish Philippines]].<ref name=lytle>{{Citation|last=Lytle Schurz|first=William|title=The Spanish Lake|journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=5|issue=2|date=1922|pages=181–194|jstor=2506024|doi=10.2307/2506024}}</ref>

The 18th century marked the beginning of major exploration by the Russians in [[Alaska]] and the [[Aleutian Islands]], such as the [[First Kamchatka expedition]] and the [[Great Northern Expedition]], led by the Danish-born Russian navy officer [[Vitus Bering]]. Spain also sent [[Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest|expeditions to the Pacific Northwest]], reaching [[Vancouver Island]] in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and colonized [[Polynesia]], and the British made three voyages with [[James Cook]] to the South Pacific and Australia, [[Hawaii]], and the North American [[Pacific Northwest]]. In 1768, [[Pierre-Antoine Véron]], a young [[astronomer]] accompanying [[Louis Antoine de Bougainville]] on his voyage of exploration, established the width of the Pacific with precision for the first time in history.<ref name="Williams2004">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Glyndwr|title=Captain Cook: Explorations And Reassessments|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqDHGru-zcIC&pg=PA143|date=2004|publisher=Boydell Press|isbn=978-1-84383-100-6|page=143}}</ref> One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the [[Malaspina Expedition]] of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific.<ref name="Fernandez-Armesto 2006 305–307" />

<gallery mode="packed">
File:Carta universal en que se contiene todo lo que del mundo se ha descubierto fasta agora hizola Diego Ribero cosmographo de su magestad, ano de 1529, en Sevilla.jpg|Made in 1529, the [[Diogo Ribeiro (cartographer)|Diogo Ribeiro]] map was the first to show the Pacific at about its proper size
File:A compleat chart of the coast of Asia and America with the great South Sea - R.W. Seale del. et sculp. NYPL465242.tiff|Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1754.
File:Ortelius - Maris Pacifici 1589.jpg|[[Maris Pacifici]] by [[Abraham Ortelius|Ortelius]] (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-01-093/|title=Library Acquires Copy of 1507 Waldseemüller World Map – News Releases (Library of Congress)|publisher=Loc.gov|access-date=April 20, 2013}}</ref>
File:A generall chart of the South Sea ... NYPL481132.tiff|Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707
</gallery>

=== New Imperialism ===
{{See also|New Imperialism|Pacific Century}}
[[File:Trieste (23 Jan 1960).jpeg|thumb|The bathyscaphe ''[[Trieste (bathyscaphe)|Trieste]]'' before her record dive to the bottom of the [[Mariana Trench]], 23 January 1960]]
[[File:TahitiDupetitThouars.jpg|thumb|[[Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars]] taking over [[Tahiti]] on 9 September 1842]]
Growing [[imperialism]] during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by European powers, and later Japan and the United States. Significant contributions to oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of [[HMS Beagle|HMS ''Beagle'']] in the 1830s, with [[Charles Darwin]] aboard;<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/charles-darwins-travel-beagle/|title=Charles Darwin's Travels on the HMS Beagle|last=Marty|first=Christoph|work=Scientific American|access-date=23 March 2018|language=en}}</ref> [[HMS Challenger (1858)|HMS ''Challenger'']] during the 1870s;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.interactiveoceans.washington.edu/story/HMS_Challenger|title=The Voyage of HMS Challenger|website=interactiveoceans.washington.edu|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> the [[USS Tuscarora (1861)|USS ''Tuscarora'']] (1873–76);<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VP9BAAAAYAAJ&q=dab|title=A Synopsis of the Cruise of the U.S.S. "Tuscarora": From the Date of Her Commission to Her Arrival in San Francisco, Cal. Sept. 2d, 1874|date=1874|publisher=Cosmopolitan printing Company|language=en}}</ref> and the German ''Gazelle'' (1874–76).<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nE0pAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA101|title=A Physical, Historical, Political, & Descriptive Geography|journal=Nature|volume=22|issue=553|page=95|last=Johnston|first=Keith|date=1881|language=en|bibcode=1880Natur..22Q..95.|doi=10.1038/022095a0|s2cid=4070183|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In Oceania, France obtained a leading position as imperial power after making [[Tahiti]] and [[New Caledonia]] protectorates in 1842 and 1853, respectively.<ref name=Asiapacific>Bernard Eccleston, Michael Dawson. 1998. ''The Asia-Pacific Profile''. Routledge. p. 250.</ref> After navy visits to [[Easter Island]] in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer [[Policarpo Toro]] negotiated the incorporation of the island into Chile with native [[Rapanui]] in 1888. By occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations.<ref name="sater">William Sater, ''Chile and the United States: Empires in Conflict'', 1990 by the University of Georgia Press, {{ISBN|0-8203-1249-5}}</ref>{{rp|page=53}} By 1900 nearly all Pacific islands were in control of Britain, France, United States, Germany, Japan, and Chile.<ref name=Asiapacific />

Although the United States gained control of [[Guam]] and the Philippines from Spain in 1898,<ref name="TewariAlvarez2008">{{cite book|last1=Tewari|first1=Nita|last2=Alvarez|first2=Alvin N.|title=Asian American Psychology: Current Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8qgAi0LVj8C&pg=PA161|year=2008|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-84169-749-9|page=161}}</ref> Japan controlled most of the western Pacific by 1914 and occupied many other islands during the [[Pacific War]]; however, by the end of that war, Japan was defeated and the [[United States Navy|U.S. Pacific Fleet]] was the virtual master of the ocean. The Japanese-ruled [[Northern Mariana Islands]] came under the control of the United States.<ref>''The Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union With the United States of America'', {{USStatute|94|241|90|263|1976|03|24}}</ref> Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent [[Sovereign state|states]].