Majuro Atoll

Majuro Atoll belongs to the Ratak chain of the Marshall Islands, where low coral land encloses a broad lagoon within the open Pacific. Marine resources, coconut palms, breadfruit, and cultivated plants support communities whose land and fresh water are limited. The lagoon provides sheltered movement and fishing places, while ocean voyages require knowledge of winds, swell, and distant islands. Small areas of land therefore sustain relationships extending far beyond their immediate shores.

Marshallese society organised authority through chiefly rank, kinship and rights associated with land, while skilled canoe navigation connected the scattered islands. In 1788 the British captains Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall sighted Majuro on a voyage through the archipelago, without landing there. Their encounters formed part of a growing series of contacts between Pacific islanders and visiting ships.