They did not have equal footing for 300 years. They have had fairly equal footing for the last 38 years, since they signed the Covenant.
In 1945, there were only about 3,100 natives left on the Islands. The Spanish had ruled from about 1665 to 1899, The Germans, 1899 to 1914, the Japanese 1914 to 1944, the U.S. from 1944 to 1978 (as a trust territory from 47-78, the U.S. under commonwealth status from 1978 to present.
The Spanish seen to have been the worst; the Japanese considerably better, the Spanish decent, the Americans the best, in terms of the locals.
That should be “the Germans decent”, not “the Spanish decent”