Captain
Charles Bishop happened upon Abemama in 1799 and referred to it on his map as Roger Simpson Island, after one of his friends. In the mid to late 19th Century,
Abemama was ruled by a single paramount chief. This contrasts with the Northern
Gilbert Islands where groups of families or
kainga would have their own separate leaders, and the Southern Gilberts (from
Nonouti southwards) where the old men or
unimwane collectively would meet in the
maneaba to govern. Some European sources describe the chiefly family of Abemama as "the Gilbert Islands ruling family" but local sources recognise that the
unimwane wield much of the power even on Abemama, and governing the whole of the Gilbert Islands as a single unit is a logistical challenge even in modern times. Abemama is known as the island where the declaration of a
British Protectorate was first proclaimed by Captain
Edward Davis of on 27 May 1892.
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and her son
Lloyd Osbourne spent 2 months on Abemama in 1889. Near Tabontebike is the tomb of tyrant-chief
Tem Binoka, who was immortalized by Stevenson in his account of the 1889 voyage of the
Equator published as
In the South Seas Robert Louis Stevenson, Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne returned to Abemama in July 1890 during their cruise on the trading steamer the
Janet Nicoll.
World War II Japan occupied the Gilberts on 9 December 1941. On 21 November 1943, the American submarine landed a
company of 78
U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Reconnaissance Scouts with Australian Army Lt George Hand formerly of the Ocean Island Defence Force acting as an interpreter to seize the island. They defeated the Japanese garrison with fire support from
Nautilus. On the morning of 25 November, a native reported to the Marines that the remaining Japanese committed suicide. The US Navy built
Naval Base Abemama on the island and departed in the fall of 1944. == Tourism ==