The Pacific Ocean covers approximately 70 million square miles (181 million square kilometers). Geographers use the designation “Oceania” in referring to the lands within this area. While Oceania includes some large states (countries) such as Australia, it also includes many smaller microstates which occupy islands and island chains. Many of these microstates of Oceania are already being impacted by global warming and its subsequent raising sea levels.
Nauru is the world’s smallest island country: it occupies an island with about 8 square miles of land and nearly 19 miles of coastline. It is located just 26 miles (42 kilometers) south of the equator. The island’s topography includes sandy beaches, a narrow low fertile ring, and a phosphate plateau in the island’s center. Coral reefs surround the island.
At the present time Nauru has a population of about 9,300. The country has no official capital and the highest place on the island is 200 feet above sea level.
By 30,000 years ago humans had begun to inhabit Oceania. Sometime before 3,000 years ago, Micronesian and Polynesian peoples began to settle on the island. By the time of the first European contact with the island, there were twelve clans or tribes on the island. Clan membership is traditionally traced through the mother—in anthropological terms, it is matrilineal—which means that a person belongs to his mother’s clan.
A Nauruan warrior is shown above.
Fishing was important to the first residents of Nauru and to make fishing more dependable they practiced aquaculture: they would catch juvenile ibija fish, acclimatize them to fresh water, and raise them in the Buada Lagoon. They thus had a convenient and reliable source of fish. They also raised coconuts and pandanus fruit.
In 1798, the British whaler John Fearn visited the island and, ignoring the local people, named it Pleasant Island. Beginning about 1830, whaling ships began to replenish their supplies, including fresh water, at the island.
In 1878, the tribes used firearms obtained from the Europeans in a ten-year tribal war which reduced their population from about 1,400 to 900.
Following the broad guidelines of the Christian Discovery Doctrine in which non-Christian nations were required to be ruled by Christian nations, Nauru was given to Germany in 1886. A decade later, the Europeans realized that the island was rich in phosphate and by 1906 the Pacific Phosphate Company was mining the island. The phosphate deposits on the island originated from the droppings of sea birds.
During World War I, Nauru was captured by Australia and following the war it was placed under a joint trustee with control by the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These three countries then formed the British Phosphate Commissioners to control the phosphate mining on the island.
During World War II, Nauru was occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese built an airfield on the island which was subsequently bombed by allied forces to prevent supplies from being flown to the island. The Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as laborers in the Chuuk Islands. At the end of the war, the Japanese troops on Nauru surrendered to Australia. The 737 Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity on the Chuuck Islands were repatriated and returned to their homes. After the war it became a United Nations Trust Territory under Australia. It became an independent state in 1968.
The bombing of Nauru is shown above.
With independence, control of the island’s phosphate reserves came under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation. When the island’s phosphate reserves ran out in the 1980s, the Nauru government turned to dealing with the environmental issues stemming from the mining operations. Nauru sued Australia in 1989 under the International Court of Justice in The Hague for the damages that had been done to the island by mining when the island was under Australia’s control. As a result, Australia paid several million dollars to be used in restoring the island’s natural environment.
The post-mining landscape is shown above.
In 2006 deeper phosphate reserves were found on the island and thus mining remains an important part of Nauru's economy. In addition to phosphate mining, the country’s economy is based on offshore banking and the production of coconut products.
At the present time, the unemployment rate on the island is about 90% and nearly all of those who are employed work for the government. Of the countries measured by the CIA World Factbook, only Zimbabwe has a higher unemployment rate. Current reports indicate that Nauru lacks money to perform many of the basic functions of government. The National Bank of Nauru is insolvent.
The Parliament building is shown above.
Nauruan is the national language and is the language which most people speak at home. English, however, is widely used in both business and government.
With regard to healthcare, Nauru spends 12.1% of its GDP on healthcare which means its ranks 10th in the world. The U.S. ranks second, spending 16.2%. Nauru has the world’s highest level of type 2 diabetes with more than 40% of the population affected. With regard to obesity, Nauru ranks first in the world with 90% of the adults having a higher body mass index (BMI) than the world average. Life expectancy is 65 years (about the same as in Pakistan).