Chuuk << chook >> Islands, formerly the Truk Islands, form a large island group in the western Pacific Ocean. The Chuuk Islands, in the Caroline Island chain, belong to Chuuk state in the country of the Federated States of Micronesia. The Chuuk Islands include 14 volcanic islands that lie inside a barrier coral reef that forms a lagoon 40 miles (64 kilometers) wide. They also include about 50 small islets that lie along the reef. About 53,000 people live on the islands.
The French navigator Louis Duperrey first explored the islands in 1825. Spain gained control of them in 1885 and sold them to Germany in 1899. Germany lost them to Japan in World War I (1914-1918). During World War II (1939-1945), the Truk Islands had a key Japanese naval base. Allied bombing raids destroyed the base. The United States took formal control of the islands in 1947 as part of a United Nations trusteeship. In 1978, the Truk Islands and other Carolines formed the Federated States of Micronesia, a political unit that had self-government but remained under U.S. control. In 1986, the Federated States became an independent country in free association with the United States. In 1990, the Truk Islands and Truk state changed their name to Chuuk.
See also Caroline Islands; Micronesia, Federated States of.
