Spanish East Indies together with the Spanish West Indies, were administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain based in Mexico City. After Mexican independence, they were ruled directly from Madrid. As a result of the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Philippines and Guam were occupied by the United States while about 6,000 of the remaining smaller islands were sold to Germany in the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. The few remaining islands were ceded to the United States when the Treaty of Washington was ratified in 1901. Spanish contact began on , when a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan reached the Mariana Islands.
No. 19 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF No. 19 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF , also known as No. 19 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron, was a transport and communications unit of the "Militaire Luchtvaart van het Koninklijk Nederlands-Indisch Leger" ("Military Aviation of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army"; ML-KNIL), formed in Australia during the final stages of World War II. The squadron was formed as a Dutch unit in late 1944 from two transport flights that had previously been based in Brisbane and Melbourne, and which had run supplies to joint Australian-NEI combat squadrons in the Northern Territory and in West Papua. Upon formation the squadron was