Far East Kingdoms

Melekeok (Palau / Micronesia) (Oceania)
Incorporating Heads of State (1700s-2024)

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Considered in some quarters to be a watery continent in its own right, Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Its territory is somewhat debatable, but the area which constitutes Micronesia consists of islands in the South Pacific which begin in the west with Palau and continue with Micronesia, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, and the Gilbert Islands (which belong to Kiribati).

Melekeok is a state and chiefdom on the eastern-central coast of Palau's Babelthuab region. This region forms Palau's northernmost main island, while Melekeok has a ritual name in the form of Ngetelngal. Palau's capital since 2006 has been Ngerulmud, which is located in this state and which has a population of close to three hundred. The largest fresh-water lake can also be found in Melekeok.

The tribal chiefs of Melekeok originally had the title tmekei. These chiefs were followed by a line of chiefs which came from the Udes dynasty who carried the title reklai, which remains in use today. The reklai is the highest-ranking chief in Babelthuab.

Chiefs are the supreme authority for matters which relate to traditional law. Their authority has been greatly reduced since the introduction of elected state governors in 1981, when Palau's constitution was adopted. Information on specific chiefs is somewhat thin and tenuous (and nonexistent during the Neolithic Oceania period). In the case of Melekeok, the earliest-known chief is Tangesechel, who is reported to have reigned in the eighteenth century, but he was certainly not the first such chief.

Please note that the History Files does not regularly monitor changes in modern heads of state or their representatives. Get in touch here if this section requires updating.

Principal author(s): Page created: Page last updated:

(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from National Geographic (June 1995), and from External Links: Palau (Encyclopaedia Britannica), and Palau (Flags of the World), and Palau (Rulers.org), and Palau (World Statesmen), and PalauGov, and High Chief Reklai facilitates support for MOJ (Island Times), and Melekeok (Encyclopaedia Britannica).)

fl 1700s

Earliest-known chief of Melekeok on Palau.

fl 1700s

Chief of Melekeok.

fl 1700s

Chief of Melekeok.

fl 1700s

Chief of Melekeok.

fl 1800s

Chief of Melekeok.

? - 1862

Chief of Melekeok.

1874 - 1885

Germans establish a trading station in Palau in 1874, and in 1885 they make a formal claim to possess Palau. They do put an end to tribal warfare though, with occasionally-visiting whalers and traders having introduced firearms alongside various diseases.

The Badrulchau stone monoliths can be dated to about AD 161, during Palau's 'Earthwork Era' (circa 450 BC-AD 850) and are part of the thirty-eight monoliths on the islands of Babledaob and Oreor (Koror), twenty-eight of which had human features

1880? - 1890?

Chief of Melekeok.

late 1800s

Chief of Melekeok.

1898 - 1899

The revolutionary government of Aguinaldo in the Philippines nominally lays claim to Palau in 1898, but the American occupation of the Philippines ends any pretence of ownership of the islands. Germany assigns Palau to 'German New Guinea' in 1899.

early 1900s?

Chief of Melekeok.

early 1900s

Chief of Melekeok.

? - 1914

Chief of Melekeok.

1914 - 1934

Chief of Melekeok.

1914 - 1918

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Japan seizes Palau from Germany in the same year. Germany formally relinquished the islands at the end of the war which, along with the Caroline Islands and Northern Mariana Islands, became part of the League of Nations South Seas Islands mandate.

Japanese troops enter Haiphong in Vietnam as part of the empire's wartime expansion across the Pacific region until 1945

1934 - 1960?

Chief of Melekeok.

1940 - 1947

During the Second World War's Battle of Peleliu in 1944, the United States captures Palau from Japan, which had already annexed the islands. Palau subsequently becomes part of the American Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947, a United Nations trust territory.

1968 - 1974

Chief of Melekeok. Died 1970s.

1974 - 1983

Acting chief. Born 1916. Died 1989.

1981

Palau becomes an autonomous republic within the trust territory and it promulgates its own constitution. Yutaka Gibbons, chief of Koror, is instrumental in securing a constitutional prohibition on the use, storage, or disposal of nuclear weapons in Palau, but the republic's new constitution introduces elected governors at the expense of chiefly authority.

Yutaka Gibbons succeeded as paramount chief in 1972, while he was serving as a cook in the US Army, so the Palau legislature obtained his release from army service so that he could assume his duties as ibedul

1983 - 1992

Chief. Born 1918. Died 1992.

1993 - On

Chief. Born 1932. Retired US marine gunnery sgt.

1994

Palau becomes an independent republic on 1 October 1994. It becomes independent within a 'Compact of Free Association' with the United States, which gives the islands certain privileges in its relationship with its former colonial power. The United States provides for the country's defence.