United Nations trust territories
This article needs additional citations for verification. (May 2009) |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Palau_District_Police_greet_the_UN_Visiting_Mission.jpg/220px-Palau_District_Police_greet_the_UN_Visiting_Mission.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/TTPI_UN_Mission_1978.jpg/220px-TTPI_UN_Mission_1978.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Map_of_UN_trust_territories.png/220px-Map_of_UN_trust_territories.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/UN_Trust_Territory_successors.svg/220px-UN_Trust_Territory_successors.svg.png)
United Nations trust territories were the successors of the remaining League of Nations mandates and came into being when the League of Nations ceased to exist in 1946. All of the trust territories were administered through the United Nations Trusteeship Council. The concept is distinct from a territory temporarily and directly governed by the United Nations.
The one League of Nation mandate not succeeded by a trust territory was South-West Africa, at South Africa's insistence. South Africa's apartheid regime refused to commit to preparing the territory for independence and majority rule, as required by the trust territory guidelines, among other objections. South-West Africa eventually gained independence in 1990 as Namibia.
All trust territories have either attained self-government or independence. The last was Palau, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which became a member state of the United Nations in December 1994.
Trust territories (and administering powers)
Former German Schutzgebiete
All these territories previously were League of Nations mandates.
Trust territories | United Nations Trusteeship Power | Prior name | Prior sov. | Comments | Current state |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
Kamerun | ![]() |
Following a plebiscite, Northern Cameroons became part of Nigeria in May 1961 and Southern Cameroons joined Cameroon in October 1961. | ![]() |
![]() | |||||
![]() |
![]() |
Achieved independence as Cameroon in 1960. | |||
![]() |
![]() |
German New Guinea | In 1975, the two entities were legally unified and granted independence as Papua New Guinea. The western half of the island, formerly Dutch and now part of Indonesia, was never part of either territory. | ![]() | |
![]() |
![]() |
German East Africa | Separately gained independence in 1962 as Republic of Rwanda and Kingdom of Burundi. | ![]() | |
![]() | |||||
![]() |
![]() |
Granted independence in 1961. Federated with the former British protectorate Zanzibar in 1964 to form Tanzania. | ![]() | ||
![]() |
![]() |
Togoland | Became independent as Togo in 1960. | ![]() | |
![]() |
![]() |
This territory was merged in 1956 with the British colony of the Gold Coast, which was granted independence as Ghana in 1957. | ![]() | ||
![]() |
![]() |
German Samoa | Granted independence in 1962, known since 1997 simply as Samoa. | ![]() |
Former German and Japanese colonies
Trust territories | United Nations Trusteeship Power | Prior name | Prior sov. | Current state | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
German New Guinea | ![]() |
![]() |
Granted independence in 1968. |
![]() |
![]() |
South Seas Mandate | ![]() |
![]() |
Became US Commonwealth in 1986. |
![]() |
Became an associated state of the United States after signing a Compact of Free Association in 1986. | ||||
![]() |
Became an associated state of United States after signing a Compact of Free Association in 1986. | ||||
![]() |
Became an associated state of United States after signing and ratifying a Compact of Free Association going into effect in 1994. |
Former Italian possessions
Trust territories | United Nations Trusteeship Power | Prior name | Prior sov. | Current state | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
![]() |
Italian East Africa | ![]() |
![]() |
In 1960, the Trust Territory merged with the former British Somaliland protectorate to form the Somali Republic |
Proposed trust territories
- Jerusalem: Under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Jerusalem would've become a corpus separatum territory under United Nations Trusteeship Council administration. Both Palestinian Arabs and the Yishuv opposed this solution.
- Korea: In wartime talks, Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed that Korea be placed under an American–Soviet trust administration. The plan was eclipsed after Roosevelt's death on 12 April 1945, although it was expressed in the December Moscow Conference, and caused considerable civil unrest in Korea.[1]
- Vietnam: Roosevelt also proposed that French Indochina be placed under an international trusteeship as an alternative to French colonial rule and immediate independence.[2]
- Italian Libya: Between 1945 and 1947 the Soviet Union made various proposals that Tripolitania be placed under Soviet trusteeship for ten years, or a joint trusteeship with the United Kingdom and the United States, or that Libya as a whole become an Italian trusteeship.[3]
- Mandatory Palestine: The United States government under Harry Truman proposed a UN trusteeship status for the Mandatory Palestine in 1948.[4][5]
- Ryukyu Islands and Bonin Islands: the Treaty of San Francisco included provisions which provided the United States the right to convert its administration over the Ryukyu and Bonin Islands into a trust territory, but it never did so before sovereignty was voluntarily reverted to Japan.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Gang Man-gil (1994). "한국사 17: 분단구조의 정착 1" ["17 Korean history: the settlement of the division structure 1"], pp. 133–137. 한길사 [Hangilsa], ISBN 978-89-356-0086-1
- ^ Bradley, Mark Philip (31 December 2010), Anderson, David L. (ed.), "1. Setting the Stage: Vietnamese Revolutionary Nationalism and the First Vietnam War", The Columbia History of the Vietnam War, Columbia University Press, pp. 93–119, doi:10.7312/ande13480-003, ISBN 978-0-231-13480-4, retrieved 9 November 2021
- ^ St John, Ronald Bruce (April 1982). "The Soviet Penetration of Libya". The World Today. 38 (4): 131–138. JSTOR 40395373.
- ^ "The United States and the Recognition of Israel: A Chronology". Compiled by Raymond H. Geselbracht from Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Westport, Connecticut, 1997) by Michael T. Benson. Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
- ^ Pugh, Jeffrey D. (1 November 2012). "Whose Brother's Keeper? International Trusteeship and the Search for Peace in the Palestinian Territories". International Studies Perspectives. 13 (4): 321–343. doi:10.1111/j.1528-3585.2012.00483.x. ISSN 1528-3577.
- ^ https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20136/volume-136-I-1832-English.pdf [bare URL PDF]
Bibliography
- The United Nations and Decolonization: Trust Territories that Have Achieved Self-Determination
- WorldStatesmen – Index of Possessions and Colonies
External links
Media related to United Nations Trust Territories at Wikimedia Commons