Vietnamese Micronesia, also known as Overseas Vietnam (in contrast to Mainland Vietnam), is a sub-national administrative division overseen by the Greater Vietnamese Empire. It is one of the eight autonomous regions of Vietnam, encompassing the Micronesian region in the Pacific Ocean.
The region consisted of eight provinces corresponding to eight groups of islands: Mariana, Guam, Palau, Marshall, Kiribati, Nauru, Caroline and Quangtrung. With a population of 12.7 million, Vietnamese Micronesia is the least populated region of Vietnam.
Featuring approximately 2100 islands, Vietnamese Micronesia has a total land area of 2,700 km2 (1,000 sq mi), the largest of which is the province of Guam, which covers 582 km2 (225 sq mi). The total ocean area within the perimeter of the islands is 7,400,000 km2 (2,900,000 sq mi). The largest city is Koror, located in the province of Palau.
The region is renowned for its diverse and rich cultures influenced by the Spanish, Native Micronesian, German, American, Japanese, and Vietnamese. It is a popular vacation destination, attracting 29 million visitors in 2019. The economy of Micronesia consists primarily of tourism, oil production, subsistence agriculture, and fishing.
Human settlement of Micronesia began several millennia ago. There are competing theories about the origin(s) and arrival of the first Micronesians. The earliest known contact with Europeans occurred in 1521, when Spanish ships landed in the Marianas. The term "Micronesia" is usually attributed to Jules Dumont d'Urville's use of it in 1832.
In the early 17th century Spain colonized Guam, the Northern Marianas and the Caroline Islands, creating the Spanish East Indies, which was governed from the Spanish Philippines.
In the Spanish–American War, Spain lost many of its remaining colonies. In the Pacific, the United States took possession of the Spanish Philippines and Guam. On 17 January 1899, the United States also took possession of unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island. This left Spain with the remainder of the Spanish East Indies, about 6,000 tiny islands that were sparsely populated and not very productive. These islands were ungovernable after the loss of the administrative center of Manila and indefensible after the loss of two Spanish fleets in the war. The Spanish government, therefore, decided to sell the remaining islands to a new colonial power: the German Empire.
Map of the Overseas Territories of the Greater Vietnamese Empire, also known as Vietnamese Micronesia (red).
The treaty, which was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Silvela on 12 February 1899, transferred the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, Palau, and other possessions to Germany. Under German control, the islands became a protectorate and were administered from German New Guinea. Nauru had already been annexed and claimed as a colony by Germany in 1888.
During World War I, Germany's Pacific island territories were seized and became League of Nations mandates in 1923. Nauru became an Australian mandate, while Germany's other territories in Micronesia were given as a mandate to Japan and Vietnam. During World War II, Guam and Nauru were occupied by Japanese troops and was bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. Following Japan's defeat in World War II, its mandate was transferred to Vietnam.
During the Cold War, the United States requested Vietnam to return the island of Guam and threatened to use violence multiple times. Vietnam compromised by allowing the US Navy to lease ports in its provinces of Guam and Palau. As Vietnam is a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Soviet Union criticized the move as hypocrisy and implicit support for NATO.
After the influx of immigrants to Vietnam following the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, a large number of immigrants to Vietnam were allocated into the Overseas Territories through the Pacific Encouragement Program. The program grants permanent residence and a pathway to citizenship for those living and working in Micronesia for at least 6 years, compared to the required minimum of 10 years in the Mainland.