Pohnpei Trade

Nineteenth-century Pacific commerce centered on Pohnpei (Ponape) in the Caroline Islands, a provisioning and trading call for the central-Pacific whaling fleet from the 1830s and later a copra-trading port. Whalers took on water, wood, and provisions at its harbors; beachcombers and traders settled around Kolonia. Spain claimed the Carolines, then sold them to Germany in 1899; Japan administered Pohnpei under a League of Nations mandate after 1920. It is now part of the Federated States of Micronesia.