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Mapia Atoll

atoll of Indonesia.

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ521002
Source-derived summary

Mapia Atoll (Indonesian: Kepulauan Mapia), historically known as the Freewill Islands or San David, is an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It is located in Papua province of Indonesia, approximately 190 kilometers north of the city of Manokwari and 630 kilometers from the islands of Palau. It consists of two main islands, Bras (Berasi) and Pegun (Mapia), the smaller Fanildo, and two minor islands, Bras Kecil (Little Bras) and Fanildo Kecil (Little Fanildo). The islands constitute a part of West Supiori District within Supiori Regency, Papua. The population at the 2020 Census was 199.

The atoll was once part of the Spanish Empire under the name of Güedes. According to Spanish researcher Emilio Pastor in a paper submitted to his government in 1948, a number of small islands in Micronesia (Kapingamarangi or Coroa, Mapia or Güedes, Ocea (now Kiritimati) or Matador, and Rongerik or Pescadores) continue legally under Spanish sovereignty. This is because the text of the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899 which transferred sovereignty of certain Spanish possessions in the Pacific to Germany, namely the Northern Mariana Islands (except Guam) and the Caroline Islands (including Palau), failed to include these smaller islands. Although the Spanish government studied the case in 1949 and accepted this interpretation, it has never formally reclaimed the islands.

The atoll was part of Tidore Sultanate as part of the Papoua Gam Sio ("The Nine Negeri of Papua"), and the local Mapia chieftain was given the title Sangaji Meraudi.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Mapia Atoll” is atoll of Indonesia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Mapia, Atoll and atoll, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 1948, 1899, 1949—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Mapia, Atoll and atoll is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “atoll of Indonesia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q521002. Authority coordinates are 0.879, 134.313. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1948, 1899 and 1949.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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  2. Expand the search: follow Mapia Atoll primary sources, Mapia Atoll archive and Mapia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mapia Atoll” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.