Description : Majuro (/ˈmædʒəroʊ/; Marshallese: Mājro ) is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometres (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometres (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of 27 °C (81 °F). Majuro has been inhabited by humans for at least 2,000 years and was first settled by the Austronesian ancestors of the modern day Marshallese people. In 1885, the Marshall Islands were annexed by the German Empire and Majuro became their first and primary trading post. The city has also been under Japanese and American administration. After the Marshall Islands broke away from the Federated States of Micronesia in 1978 to form the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Majuro became the new country's capital and meeting place of the Nitijeļā, supplanting the former capital of Jaluit. Humans have inhabited the atoll for at least 2,000 years by Austronesian peoples, including the ancestors of modern-day Marshallese residents. Majuro Atoll was claimed by the German Empire with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884, and the Germans established a trading post. As with the rest of the Marshalls, Majuro was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1914 during World War I and mandated to the Empire of Japan by the League of Nations in 1920. The island then became a part of the Japanese mandated territory of the South Seas Mandate; although the Japanese had established a government in the Mandate, local affairs were mostly left in the hands of traditional local leaders until the start of World War II.
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