NAURU
Country In oceania
Nauru (/nɑːˈuːruː/ nah-OO-roo[9] or /ˈnaʊruː/ NOW-roo;[10] Nauruan: Naoero), officially the Republic of Nauru (Nauruan: Repubrikin Naoero) and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in Oceania, in the Central Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 km (190 mi) to the east.[11] It further lies northwest of Tuvalu, 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast of Solomon Islands,[12] east-northeast of Papua New Guinea, southeast of the Federated States of Micronesia and south of the Marshall Islands. With only a 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi) area, Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world behind Vatican City and Monaco, making it the smallest republic as well as the smallest island nation. Its population of about 10,000 is the world's second-smallest (not including colonies or overseas territories), after Vatican City.
HISTORY OF NAURU
during the Nauruan Civil War
around 1880
Nauru was first settled by Micronesians at least 3,000 years ago, and there is evidence of possible Polynesian influence.[18] Comparatively little is known of Nauruan prehistory,[19] although the island is believed to have had a long period of isolation, which accounts for the distinct language that developed among the inhabitants.[20] There were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the twelve-pointed star on the country's flag.[21] Traditionally, Nauruans traced their descent matrilineally. Inhabitants practised aquaculture: they caught juvenile milkfish (known as ibija in Nauruan), acclimatised them to freshwater, and raised them in the Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable food source. The other locally grown components of their diet included coconuts and pandanus fruit.[22][23] The name "Nauru" may derive from the Nauruan word Anáoero, which means 'I go to the beach.'[24]
In 1798, the British sea captain John Fearn, on his trading ship Hunter (300 tons), became the first Westerner to report sighting Nauru, calling it "Pleasant Island", because of its attractive appearance.[25][26] From at least 1826, Nauruans had regular contact with Europeans on whaling and trading ships who called for provisions and fresh drinking water.[27] The last whaler to call during the age of sail visited in 1904.[28]
Around this time, deserters from European ships began to live on the island. The islanders traded food for alcoholic palm wine and firearms.[29] The firearms were used during the 10-year Nauruan Civil War that began in 1878.[30]
After an agreement with Great Britain, Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888 and incorporated into Germany's Marshall Islands Protectorate for administrative purposes.[31][32] The arrival of the Germans ended the civil war, and kings were established as rulers of the island. The most widely known of these was King Auweyida. Christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1888.[33][34] The German settlers called the island "Nawodo" or "Onawero".[35] The Germans ruled Nauru for almost three decades. Robert Rasch, a German trader who married a Nauruan woman, was the first administrator, appointed in 1890.[33]
Phosphate was discovered on Nauru in 1900 by the prospector Albert Fuller Ellis.[32][26] The Pacific Phosphate Company began to exploit the reserves in 1906 by agreement with Germany, exporting its first shipment in 1907.[25][36] In 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Nauru was captured by Australian troops. In 1919 it was agreed by the Allied and Associated Powers that His Britannic Majesty should be the administering authority under a League of Nations mandate. The Nauru Island Agreement forged in 1919 between the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand provided for the administration of the island and extraction of the phosphate deposits by an intergovernmental British Phosphate Commission (BPC).[31][37] The terms of the League of Nations mandate were drawn up in 1920.[31][38]
The island experienced an influenza epidemic in 1920, with a mortality rate of 18 per cent among native Nauruans.[39]
In 1923, the League of Nations gave Australia a trustee mandate over Nauru, with the United Kingdom and New Zealand as co-trustees.[40] On 6 and 7 December 1940, the German auxiliary cruisers Komet and Orion sank five supply ships in the vicinity of Nauru. Komet then shelled Nauru's phosphate mining areas, oil storage depots, and the shiploading cantilever.[41][42][43]
