List of islands of Spain

Spain has a claim to sovereignty over a few small islands in the Pacific Ocean including Kapingamarangi. A commission of cardinals under Pope Leo XIII arbitrated a dispute for the Caroline Islands and others extending from the Equator to 11°N Latitude and from 133°E to 164°E Longitude. Germany and Spain on 17 December 1885 agreed in a treaty that they were a part of the Spanish East Indies. In 1899, Spain sold "las Carolinas" to Germany after Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War. Japan invaded in World War II, and afterwards the islands were administered as part of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, with the Federated States of Micronesia gaining independence in 1986. Kapingamarangi is far south of the Carolines and the people are racially and culturally Polynesian, not Micronesian. In 1948, Emilio Pastor Santos of the Spanish National Research Council found that the charts and maps up to 1899 had shown that Kapingamarangi and a few other islands had never been considered part of the Carolines, were not included in the description of the territory transferred to Germany and were never ceded by Spain; therefore, Spain retained sovereignty. In 1949, the Cabinet of Diplomatic Information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following declaration:

"The Ministry recognises that it is a certain fact and historic truth due to Article 3 of the Treaty of July 1, 1899, that Spain reserved a series of rights in Micronesia and for another thing, the specifications of the territories which Spain ceded in 1899 leaves apart certain groups of islands in the same zone."

Successive Spanish governments have not abandoned Spain's sovereignty, insisted on enforcing it, or recognized the sovereignty of the Federated States of Micronesia over Kapingamarangi.[1][2]