The Republic of Palau (Belau in the national language, Palauan) is an independent island nation of
the Western Pacific, consisting of an archipelago of
around 350 small islands stretched across 400 miles
of ocean. Its nearest neighbors are the Philippines to
the west, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to the
south, the Federated States of Micronesia to the east,
and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands to the northeast. The population of the islands
in 2000 was 19 129 (see Office of Planning and Statistics, 2000 for this and all subsequent population
data in this entry), of which almost 70% live in
the Capital State of Koror. Sixty-seven percent of
the population was born in Palau. For most of the
20th century, Palau was under colonial administration: by Spain (1885–1899), Germany (1899–1914),
Japan (1914–1945), and finally, the United States
of America (1945–1994). It gained its independence in
1994, though as we will see, this colonial past has had
significant linguistic and sociolinguistic consequences.