Raymond E. Murphy

The Economic Geography of a Micronesian Atoll

A s an incidental result of World War II the United States acquired a new island-strewn domain in the mid-Pacific. Sometimes popularly referred to as American Micronesia, the area coming under American control is now officially known as the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Though the general facts are known regarding the trade of the islands there have been heretofore no detailed studies of their economic geography. The purpose of this paper is to present such a detailed study of one element of American Micronesia-Mokil, an island group in the eastern Carolines. The land area represented by all of the islands of the Trust Territory together is small and Mokil forms only a tiny fraction of this land area. But it is only through the detailed study of such unit areas here and there throughout American Micronesia that a reliable over-all picture can be obtained of Americas new island charges in the Pacific. In addition to its significance as a unit of the newly acquired island empire, Mokil is representative of a class of island clusters that is widely distributed throughout the tropical Pacific, the atoll. Since people behave differently even in similar natural environments, no atoll can be considered typical of all atolls in its economic geography. But atolls as a class are remarkably uniform in their physical characteristics and especially in the limitations they impose upon human occupance, and one cannot fail to be impressed by observable similarities even in the human phases of geography as one atoll after another is visited. The present study in addition to the information it contains regarding Mokil, an element of American Micronesia, is presented as a contribution to the economic geography of Pacific atolls as a class.

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