History

The first of January of 1528, Álvaro de Saavedra discovered the Uluthi islands and took possession of them in name of the Spanish Crown.

Known as Islands of the Sisters, of the Gardens, or of the Painted Men, after several subsequent expeditions – the last one in 1565 under Miguel López de Legazpi – nothing more was known about them until Francisco de Lezcano arrived on their coasts in 1686 and named them Carolinas, in honor of Charles II, King of Spain.

There followed different Spanish religious expeditions throughout the next century.

In April of 1537, Hernando de Grijalva embarks on an expedition from the port of San Miguel de Tangarala, in Peru, intending to discover rich islands. The expedition followed the Equator towards Las Moluccas with the vessel Santiago, captained by Grijalva himself, and the Trinidad commanded by Fernando de Alvarado. Six months after setting sail, racked by hunger and thirst, Grijalva decides to return to the New Spain, but amidst many calamities the pilot and several members of the crew die, as does Grijalva himself, possibly murdered. During the navigation to the North and South of the Equator various islands were discovered, including: O-Acea, Pescadores, Coroa, and Os Guedes, and islands of cannibals and great with-doctors were found, before arriving at New Guinea.

Just two members of the crew survived to give an account of the expedition after a terrible voyage that lasted more than eight months, in which the ships were lost, and after six more years of captivity, prisoners of the cacique of one of the islands. There, Juan Prieto proved his courage when, he was killed by the natives of the land for being fiendish and knave.

The D´Urvelli archipelago could be part of the Quirosa group, discovered by Álvaro de Mendaña in 1595, and that has never been found again. Monteverde and Nuguor were discovered by Juan Bautista Monteverde in 1806.

All these territories became possessions of the Spanish Crown, together with the rest of the islands discovered in Oceania: the Marianas and the Palao. But on 6th of August, 1885, the ambassador of the German Empire in Madrid, Count Solms-Sonnewalde, declares to the Spanish Government his intention of taking possession of The Carolinas, which Germany considers res nullius, land without owner. Patriotic demonstrations breakout in all the main cities in Spain, while two Spanish ships: the San Quintín and the Manila, set sail towards the archipelago to declare formal possession. On their arrival, the caciques of Korror and Artingal sign with Spanish representative the recognition of the sovereignty of the King of Spain over his territories, but three days later the German gunboat Iltis arrives at the islands and forces the removal of the flag. In Madrid, among popular riots, an incensed crowd attacks the German embassy. When hostilities were about to break out, Spain proposes the arbitration of Pope Leo XIII, which the German accept, and he declares the priority of Spanish rights over every territory whose limits were formed by the Equator and by the 11th degree latitude N and the 113th degree and the 164th degree latitude E.

But the Spanish economic and political crisis is big and in 1899 Spain is forced to sign the Spanish-German treaty by which the islands of the Carolinas, the Marianas, and Palao are ceded to the German Empire after the payment of twenty-five million pesetas.

In 1949, Emilio de Pastor y Santos, from the National Scientific Research Center, finds that the Spanish-German treaty of 1899 did not transfer the rights over certain groups of islands, that continued to belong de jure and de facto in to Spanish sovereignty and names them the Spanish Oceanic Province. Reported before the Cabinet Council on January 12th, 1949, the Government recognizes that the rights over these territories fully persist, but decides not to act due to of the situation of isolation the regime finds itself in.

The sovereignty of the Spanish Territories in Oceania does not appear as legally altered or extinguished until on November 14th, 2012, Augusto Prieto Fernández declares the independence of the State of Oceana from Spain, communicating it in official way to the Spanish Prime Minister, and assumes the government of the State with the title of dux.

History