User:Error/German–Spanish Treaty (1899)

Still a "Spanish Micronesia"?
It has been asserted that some islands (Kapingamarangi, Nukuoro, Mapia, Rongrik and Ulithi) are still in Spanish possession since they were not transferred to the United States nor to Germany.

The hypothesis appeared on 5 March 1948, when the lawyer and CSIC researcher Emilio Pastor y Santos wrote a letter claiming that Spain should establish three naval stations in the Carolinas, Marianas and Palaos, following article 31. He suggests Saipan, Yap and Koror. In October, Pastor announces that there are still four islands under Spanish sovereignty, as they were forgotten in the 1899 treaty. In 1950, Pastor publishes the book Territorios de soberanía española en Oceanía. In 12 January 1949, the question is dealt with in a Council of Ministers, but ...while the subject is not clear, it becomes to wait before dealing with the United States or the friendly powers taking part of the United Nations, since Spain has no contacts with the UN and it would be this organization which would solve the final lot of those Micronesian islands owned by Japan. However, a report of 4 January 1949 from the legal advice of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs "estimated that any hypothetical right of Spain over those islands would have been destroyed by the later trust regimes, that were those established after World War I with the transfer of those territories to Japan and, after World War II, with their attribution to the United States".

En 2014, the Spanish government closed any speculation on the issue of Spanish possession in the Pacific with an answer in the Congress to a deputy. According to its interpretation, Spain yielded in 1899 every remaining possession in the Pacific It added that "those islands were traditionally linked to the Carolinas and it ihas to be understood that, if the latter were yielded, the former were yielded too." and "the Spanish attitude between 1899 and 1948 shows that the intent of Spain by signing the treaty with Germany was to transfer to it all its possessions in the Pacific." It would be inconsistent "that Spain would have wanted to yield the Carolinas, the Palaos and the Marianas, but would have reserved the sovereignity over a few little islands of scarce economic value over which it had never exercised its factual sovereignty", concluding that Spain does not preserve any sovereignty over Pacific islands.

Currently Mapia is under Indonesian sovereignty, Kapingamarangi, Ulithi and Nukuoro under the Federated States of Micronesia and Rongerik is controlled by the Marshall Islands.


 * Gaceta de Madrid, Tomo II, página 905 el 13 de junio de 1899, número 164.
 * Gaceta de Madrid, Tomo II, página 151 el 29 de junio de 1899, número 180.
 * Gaceta de Madrid, Tomo III, página 1 el 1 de julio de 1899, número 182.
 * Pastor y Santos, Emilio. Territorios de soberanía española en Oceanía. IDEA, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Madrid, 1950.


 * Texto del Tratado germano-español de 1899.
 * «El Pacífico, en español» — Sociedad Geográfica Española.