The Marshall Islands are a series of mostly uninhabited islands located east of Indonesia, 2000 miles north of Australia. The islands resemble a circle and inside the circular series of cay’s, islets and atolls is somewhat of a lagoon/swamp. The politically correct name of these islands is: The Republic Of The Marshall Islands. Part of the reason this country is developing is because of the former atom and hydrogen bomb test sites during the 50’s (refer to article 3) located around the Bikini and Enewetak (refer to close up of isles) atolls, and that the population is still moving back in from the evacuation. Since these islands were steadily developing from 1986 (when it became one country) they required economic aid (over 1 billion)and still are a far cry from being without support from neighboring countries like the US, Indonesia and Australia.

These islands do not have any major topographical or geographical virtues that play a major role in peoples way of life. However this strip of islands borders the typhoon belt so they do sometimes come and the islands sometimes get ravaged by them occasionally. They have a wet season that goes from May to November and so many islands can be very arable after this season. It has an average tropical hot and humid climate. These islands are very open and outside of the wet season not much other than cacti, tough jungle plants and certain fruit trees (banana, pineapple, breadfruit, taro)grow. Crops are never planted during this time. The islands are open as noted before and the highest point is a mere 10 metres above sea level (unnamed point on Likiep isle).

The islands produce a wide variety of foods but is mostly subsistence agriculture, although some of the islands that are major mass fruit producers are on certain isles and they are displayed on the map accompanying the poster. All other items not manufactured or grown on the islands are imported and imports far exceed the exports.

Population Density & Distribution

My countries population is 450 670. This population is placed on the close up map enclosed on my poster. As you can see there is a legend. There is rural, urban, major farming islands and uninhabited isles. The map also displays where the major cities/ports are located and the atom and hydrogen bomb testing sites. Almost all the islands are uninhabited or 25-50people/mi2. These isles are inhabited mostly by some Indian tribes and just plainly 55-65 year old people yearning simple lives on small isles. Over 23000 people live in these area’s. Almost all of the remaining population lives on the 4 major city’s (refer to map for exact location) Ebeye, Majuro (capital), Kili and Knox. These islands have most if not almost all of the islands manufacturing and ports.

This is mainly because located north of these islands is a lagoon/swamp and those 4 islands with ports are the only islands that ships can enter safely. Those 4 cities mentioned in the latter sentences have 462 people/mi2 and as said before, hold the main manufacturers and port access. Because of this, other rural communities are getting less populated because the sons/daughters of the people who live in the rural communities are getting opportunities to get better education than their parents got and are moving to the major cities for good jobs. The women on these islands are encouraged to have babies because the birth rate has declined since the Nuclear Evacuation (refer to article 3) but are now steadily growing by 33 births/1000 people and are projected to have doubled population by 2028 making it roughly 900 000 for 2028.

Because of this, many doctors from other countries are encouraged to move to The Marshall Islands because since they are growing so fast, doctors are always needed now. Ebeye is a city of 14 square miles and it’s “claim to fame” is that it’s the city that is the most dense in the world, with a staggering 5900 people/mi2. This country is dense on some islands but has a beautiful untouched (only by some bombs) wilderness jungle on most.

Bikini And Enewetak/Current Event

The specific islands Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Isles to the north of the series of islands were property of the US during the Nuclear Age (after the war came to an end 1945-1958 were main years of thermonuclear and nuclear testing and experiments) for nuclear and thermonuclear testing. The US tested bombs here in and around these islands and in the lagoon. Prior to this testing the government undertook the “Nuclear Evacuation”. Tribes and civilians from the north end of the series of islands were evacuated. During this time, the group of islands were not an independent country but were owned by the US.

The evacuees were brought to parts of Indonesia to settle there for the duration of the Nuclear Age. These people were evacuated because of radiation sickness and bomb blast risks. Some would never leave and died either of radiation or blast effects. The islands were property of the USA until October 21st 1986 when the islands became an independent country. Shortly after Independence the evacuees from Indonesia were relocated to The Marshall Islands. This was not enough to increase the birth rate to normal because of the after effects of radiation. Since 1995, birth rates have declined. The other half of the population that did not leave the islands filed a lawsuit of 100 million dollars arguing that the US government did not take necessary precautions to clean and inspect the soil for radiation. The lawsuit also touched on how hundreds of people got radiation sickness from the radioactive bomb remnants. The group won the lawsuit.

The group vowed to spend the money only on scraping the first 16 inches of soil of all of the 10 north islands. It turned out later that 100 million was not enough to conduct the project and 6 islands were left contaminated. This group is still fighting against the USA for money to fund the great undertaking of scraping the remaining 6 islands. This event has decreased birth rate and is why the population has gone off to a slow start on expanding. Woman are encouraged to have babies to increase the birth rate. These campaigns are currently working with a steady birth rate of 33/1000 and a mortality rate of 7/1000 because of good health care. The fertility rate for the average Marshallese woman is 7.2 and many of these parents daughters/sons are getting better education opportunities than their parents had and 87 percent of people 18-35 have a high school education. These people will lead the way for the Marshall Islands with better education.