Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the

Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the

Former United Nations trusteeship, administered by the U.S. from 1947 to 1986. It consisted of more than 2,000 islands scattered over about 3,000,000 sq mi (7,770,000 sq km) of the tropical western Pacific Ocean, north of the Equator. It covered the region known as Micronesia and comprised three major island groups: the Marianas, the Carolines, and the Marshalls. The seat of government was Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. In 1986 the U.S. declared the trust territory agreements no longer in effect. The Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands became sovereign states, and the Northern Mariana Islands became a commonwealth of the U.S. The Republic of Palau became a sovereign state in 1994.