Nauru

Nauru was first settled by Micronesians at least 3,000 years ago, and there is evidence of possible Polynesian influence. Comparatively little is known of Nauruan prehistory, although the island is believed to have had a long period of isolation, which accounts for the distinct language that developed among the inhabitants. There were traditionally twelve clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the twelve-pointed star on the country's flag. 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 Buada Lagoon, providing a reliable food source. The other locally grown components of their diet included coconuts and pandanus fruit. The name "Nauru" may derive from the Nauruan word '''', which means 'I go to the beach.' 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. From at least 1826, Nauruans had regular contact with Europeans on whaling and trading ships who called for provisions and fresh drinking water. The last whaler to call during the Age of Sail visited in 1904. Around this time, deserters from European ships began to live on the island. The islanders traded food for alcoholic palm wine and firearms. The firearms were used during the 10-year Nauruan Civil War that began in 1878. After an agreement with Great Britain, Germany annexed Nauru in 1888 and incorporated it into the Marshall Islands Protectorate for administrative purposes. The arrival of the Germans ended the civil war, and kings were established as rulers of the island. King Auweyida was the most widely known. Christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands arrived in 1888. The German settlers called the island "Nawodo" or "Onawero". The Germans ruled Nauru for almost three decades. Robert Rasch, a German trader who married a 15-year-old Nauruan girl, was the first administrator, appointed in 1890. In 1900, phosphate was discovered on Nauru by the prospector Albert Fuller Ellis. 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 George V of the United Kingdom should be the administering authority under a League of Nations mandate. The Nauru Island Agreement forged in 1919 among 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). The terms of the League of Nations mandate were drawn up in 1920. In 1923, the League of Nations gave Australia a trustee mandate over Nauru, with the United Kingdom and New Zealand as co-trustees. 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. bombing the Japanese airstrip on Nauru (1943). The Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as labourers in the Chuuk Islands, which were also occupied by Japan. Nauru was finally taken back from the Japanese on 13 September 1945, when commander Hisayaki Soeda surrendered the island to the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy. The surrender was accepted by Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, who represented Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee, the commander of the First Australian Army, aboard the warship HMAS Diamantina. Arrangements were made to repatriate from Chuuk the 745 Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity there. They were returned to Nauru by the BPC ship Trienza in January 1946. In 1947, a trusteeship was established by the United Nations, with Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom as trustees. The governments of the Soviet Union and China made official complaints against Australia at the United Nations over this incident. In 1964, it was proposed to relocate the population of Nauru to Curtis Island off the coast of Queensland, Australia. By that time, Nauru had been extensively mined for phosphate by companies from Australia, Britain, and New Zealand, damaging the landscape so much that it was thought the island would be uninhabitable by the 1990s. Rehabilitating the island was seen as financially impossible. In 1962, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies said that the three countries involved in the mining had an obligation to provide a solution for the Nauruan people, and proposed finding a new island for them. In 1963, the Australian Government proposed to acquire all the land on Curtis Island (which was considerably larger than Nauru) and then offer the Nauruans freehold title over the island and that the Nauruans would become Australian citizens. The cost of resettling the Nauruans on Curtis Island was estimated to be (A$ in ), which included housing and infrastructure and the establishment of pastoral, agricultural, and fishing industries. However, the Nauruan people did not wish to become Australian citizens and wanted to be given sovereignty over Curtis Island to establish themselves as an independent state; Australia would not agree. The Nauruans chose instead to become a sovereign state operating its own mines on the island of Nauru. In January 1966, Nauru became self-governing, and following a two-year constitutional convention, it became independent on 31 January 1968 under founding president Hammer DeRoburt. In 1967, the new government of Nauru purchased the assets of the British Phosphate Commissioners, and in June 1970, control passed to the locally owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation (NPC). In 1989, Nauru took legal action against Australia in the International Court of Justice over Australia's administration of the island, particularly Australia's failure to remedy the environmental damage caused by phosphate mining. Certain Phosphate Lands: Nauru v. Australia led to an out-of-court settlement to rehabilitate the mined-out areas of Nauru. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a state of emergency was declared in Nauru on 17 March 2020. == Geography ==

Nauru is a , A fertile coastal strip wide lies inland from the beach. The only fertile areas on Nauru are on the narrow coastal belt, where coconut palms flourish. The land around Buada Lagoon supports bananas, pineapples, vegetables, pandanus trees, and indigenous hardwoods, such as the tamanu tree. The island has no rivers. Climate Nauru's climate is hot and very humid year-round because of its proximity to the equator and the ocean. Nauru is hit by monsoon rains between November and February. Annual rainfall is highly variable and is influenced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, with several significant recorded droughts. The temperature on Nauru ranges between during the day and is stable at about at night. Streams and rivers do not exist in Nauru. Water is gathered from roof catchment systems or brought to Nauru as ballast on ships returning for loads of phosphate. Ecology Fauna is sparse on the island because of a lack of vegetation and the consequences of phosphate mining. Many indigenous birds have disappeared or become rare owing to the destruction of their habitat. There are about 60 recorded vascular plant species native to the island, none of which are endemic. Coconut farming, mining, and introduced species have seriously disturbed the native vegetation. == Politics ==

The president of Nauru is David Adeang, who heads a 19-member unicameral parliament. The country is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Asian Development Bank. Nauru also participates in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games. Recently, Nauru became a member country of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The Republic of Nauru became the 189th member of the International Monetary Fund in April 2016. Nauru is a republic with a parliamentary system of government. The parliament elects the president from its members, and the president appoints a cabinet of five to six members. As a result of a referendum in 2021, naturalised citizens and their descendants are barred from becoming parliamentarians. Nauru lacks any formal structure for political parties, and candidates typically stand for office as independents; 15 of the 19 members of the current parliament are independents. The four parties that have currently been active in Nauruan politics are the Nauru Party, the Democratic Party, the Nauru First party, and the Centre Party. Alliances within the government are often formed, however, based on extended family ties rather than party affiliation. From 1992 to 1999, Nauru had a local government system known as the Nauru Island Council (NIC). This nine-member council was designed to provide municipal services. The NIC was dissolved in 1999 and all assets and liabilities became vested in the national government. Land tenure on Nauru is unusual: all Nauruans have certain rights to all land on the island, which is owned by individuals and family groups. Government and corporate entities do not own any land, and they must enter into a lease arrangement with landowners to use land. Non-Nauruans cannot own land on the island. though this happened only rarely and the Australian court's appellate jurisdiction ended entirely on 12 March 2018 after the Government of Nauru unilaterally ended the arrangement. Lower courts consist of the District Court and the Family Court, both of which are headed by a Resident Magistrate, who also is the Registrar of the Supreme Court. There are two other quasi-courts: the Public Service Appeal Board and the Police Appeal Board, both of which are presided over by the Chief Justice. Foreign relations Following independence in 1968, Nauru joined the Commonwealth of Nations as a Special Member; it became a full member in 1999. The country was admitted to the Asian Development Bank in 1991 and the United Nations in 1999. Nauru is a member of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, the Pacific Community, and the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission. In February 2021, Nauru announced it would be formally withdrawing from the Pacific Islands Forum in a joint statement with Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and the Federated States of Micronesia after a dispute regarding Henry Puna's election as the Forum's secretary-general. , although it does have a small police force under civilian control. Nauru has no armed forces, although a small police force operates under civilian control. The September 2005 memorandum of understanding between Australia and Nauru provides the latter with financial aid and technical assistance, including a Secretary of Finance to prepare the budget, and advisers on health and education. This aid is in return for Nauru's housing of asylum seekers while their applications for entry into Australia are processed. Nauru uses the Australian dollar as its official currency. (US$ in ). In response, the ROC severed diplomatic relations with Nauru two days later. Nauru later re-established links with the ROC on 14 May 2005, and diplomatic ties with the PRC were officially severed on 31 May 2005. On 15 Jan 2024, Nauru severed ties with the ROC and re-established diplomatic ties with the PRC. In 2008, Nauru recognised Kosovo as an independent country, and in 2009 Nauru became the fourth country, after Russia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two breakaway autonomous republics of Georgia. Russia was reported to be giving Nauru US$50 million in humanitarian aid as a result of this recognition The US Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program operates a climate-monitoring facility on the island. A significant portion of Nauru's income has been in the form of aid from Australia. In 2001, the MV Tampa, a Norwegian ship that had rescued 438 refugees from a stranded boat, was seeking to dock in Australia. In what became known as the Tampa affair, the ship was refused entry and boarded by Australian troops. The refugees were eventually taken to Nauru to be held in detention facilities which later became part of the Howard government's Pacific Solution. Nauru operated two detention centres known as State House and Topside for these refugees in exchange for Australian aid. By November 2005, only two refugees remained on Nauru from those first sent there in 2001. The Australian government sent further groups of asylum-seekers to Nauru in late 2006 and early 2007. The refugee centre was closed in 2008, Amnesty International has since described the conditions of the refugees of war living in Nauru as a "horror", with reports of children as young as eight attempting suicide and engaging in acts of self-harm. In 2018, the situation gained attention as a "mental health crisis", with an estimated thirty children suffering from traumatic withdrawal syndrome, also known as resignation syndrome. A few dozen refugees were being held there as of 2024. Administrative divisions Nauru is divided into fourteen administrative districts, which are grouped into eight electoral constituencies and are further divided into villages. == Economy ==

Before a resurgence in the 2010s, the Nauruan economy was strongest in the 1970s, with GDP peaking in 1981. This trend came from phosphate mining, which accounted for a majority of its economic output. Mining declined starting in the early 1980s. There are few other resources, and most necessities are imported. Small-scale mining is still conducted by RONPhos, formerly known as the Nauru Phosphate Corporation. Because of mismanagement, the trust's fixed and current assets were reduced considerably and may never fully recover. The failed investments included financing Leonardo the Musical in 1993. The Mercure Hotel in Sydney, Australia, and Nauru House in Melbourne, Australia, were sold in 2004 to finance debts and Air Nauru's only Boeing 737 was repossessed in December 2005. Normal air service resumed after the aircraft was replaced with a Boeing 737-300 airliner in June 2006. In 2005, the corporation sold its remaining real estate in Melbourne, the vacant Savoy Tavern site, for A$7.5 million (US$ in ). The value of the trust is estimated to have shrunk from A$1.3 billion in 1991 to A$138 million in 2002 (A$ to A$ in dollars). Nauru does not levy any personal taxes. The unemployment rate is estimated to be 23% and the government employs 95% of those who have jobs. The Asian Development Bank notes that, although the administration has a strong public mandate to implement economic reforms, in the absence of an alternative to phosphate mining, the medium-term outlook is for continued dependence on external assistance. Tourism is not a major contributor to the economy. pinnacles remain after phosphate mining at the site of one of Nauru's secondary mines In the 1990s, Nauru became a tax haven and offered passports to foreign nationals for a fee. The inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) identified Nauru as one of 15 "non-cooperative" countries in its fight against money laundering. During the 1990s, it was possible to establish a licensed bank in Nauru for only US$25,000 From 2001 to 2007, the Nauru detention centre provided a significant source of income for the country. Nauruan authorities reacted with concern to its closure by Australia. In February 2008, Foreign Affairs Minister Kieren Keke, stated that the closure would result in 100 Nauruans losing their jobs, and would affect 10% of the island's population directly or indirectly: "We have got a huge number of families that are suddenly going to be without any income. We are looking at ways we can try and provide some welfare assistance but our capacity to do that is very limited. Literally we have got a major unemployment crisis in front of us." The detention centre was re-opened in August 2012. The Nauru 2017–2018 budget, delivered by Minister of Finance David Adeang, forecast A$128.7 million in revenues and A$128.6 million in expenditures and projected modest economic growth for the country over the next two years. In 2018, the Nauru government partnered with the deep sea mining company DeepGreen, now Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian The Metals Company. They planned to harvest manganese nodules whose minerals and metals can be used in the development of sustainable energy technology. In March 2025, Nauru announced a "golden passport" initiative with the aim of raising money to relocate 90% of the island's population to a new community on higher ground. Citizenship will cost a minimum of $105,000 and does not require residency. == Demographics ==

Nauru had  residents as of July . The population was previously larger, but in 2006 the island saw 1,500 people leave during a repatriation of immigrant workers from Kiribati and Tuvalu. The repatriation was motivated by significant layoffs in phosphate mining. The official languages of Nauru are Nauruan and English. Nauruan Although the Constitution provides for freedom of religion, the government has restricted the religious practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses, most of whom are foreign workers employed by the government-owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation. The Catholics are pastorally served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru, with see at Tarawa in Kiribati. == Public services ==

Education Literacy on Nauru is 96%. Education is compulsory for children from six to sixteen years old, and two more non-compulsory years are offered (years 11 and 12). The island has three primary schools and two secondary schools. The secondary schools are Nauru Secondary School and Nauru College. There is a campus of the University of the South Pacific on Nauru. Before this campus was built in 1987, students would study either by distance or abroad. Since 2011, the University of New England, Australia has established a presence on the island with about 30 Nauruan teachers studying for an associate degree in education. These students will continue on to the degree to complete their studies. The previous community public library was destroyed in a fire. , a new one had not yet been built, and no bookmobile services were available as of that year. Sites with libraries include the University of the South Pacific campus, Nauru Secondary, Kayser College, and Aiwo Primary. The Nauru Community Library is in the new University of the South Pacific Nauru Campus building, which officially opened in May 2018. Health . Nauruans are among the most obese people in the world. In 2009, life expectancy, which averages in child mortality, in Nauru was 60.6 years for males and 68.0 years for females. By measure of mean body mass index (BMI), Nauruans are the most overweight people in the world; In 2012, the obesity rate was 71.7%. Nauru has the world's highest level of type 2 diabetes, with more than 40% of the population affected. Other significant dietary-related problems on Nauru include kidney disease and heart disease. ==Transport==

The island is solely served by Nauru International Airport. Passenger service is provided by Nauru Airlines. Flights operate four days a week to Brisbane, Australia, with limited service to other destinations including Nadi (Fiji) and Bonriki (Kiribati). The island has about of road, and it has about of railway that was built for mining use a century ago. ==Effects of mining==

Plants and farming Historically, Indigenous Nauruans kept household gardens that provided much of the food that they needed through subsistence farming, with the most common food plants including coconuts, breadfruit, bananas, pandanus, papaya, and guavas. Because of the large immigrant population that worked in the phosphate mines, many types of fruits and vegetables were grown that were staples in those countries as well. In 2011, just 13% of households maintained a garden or were involved in growing crops. Most of the soil that was on Nauru is now gone because of phosphate-mining activities, leaving people to import the soil that they need. Though residents are trying to salvage the soil that they can, some researchers speculate that there will be no regeneration of soils even after the mining ceases. Despite having all food imported, the Household and Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) conducted for the year of 2012–2013 found that Nauruans have a food poverty incidence rate of 0, based on the Food Poverty Line (FPL) which "includes a daily intake of 2,100 calories per adult per day". Much of the groundwater has been contaminated by mining runoff, toilets, and dumping of other commercial and household wastes, causing Nauruans to rely on imported water, the price of which can vary as it is closely tied to fuel prices for its delivery, and rainfall storage. Access to sanitation facilities is restricted with just 66% of residents having access to reliable toilets, and open defecation is still practiced by 3% of the population. Schools are frequently forced to close because they do not have reliable toilets or drinking water for students to use. There is a long-standing truancy problem, and accessibility of education for refugee and asylum-seeking children, as well as for disabled children, remain areas of concern for Nauru's education sector. == Culture ==

Angam Day, held on 26 October, celebrates the recovery of the Nauruan population after the two world wars and the 1920 influenza epidemic. Colonial and contemporary Western influence has largely displaced the indigenous culture. Few older customs have been preserved, but some forms of traditional music, arts and crafts, and fishing are still practised. Music Nauruan folk songs existed as of 1970; "Oh Bwio Eben Bwio" remains a noticeable folk song. Rhythmic singing and traditional reigen are performed particularly at celebrations. A historical form of a Nauruan dance called "fish dance" in English was recorded in a form of photographs. Known contemporary dances are the frigate bird dance and the dogoropa. The national anthem of Nauru is "Nauru Bwiema" ("Song of Nauru"). Media Nauru has no daily news publications, but it does have a fortnightly publication, Mwinen Ko. A state-owned television station, Nauru Television (NTV), broadcasts programs from New Zealand and Australia, and a state-owned non-commercial radio station, Radio Nauru, carries programs from Radio Australia and the BBC. Sport , played at Linkbelt Oval Australian rules football is the most popular sport in Nauru; it is considered the country's national team sport. There is an Australian rules football league with eight teams. Nauru has several national Australian rules teams that consistently rank among the top eight teams in the world. Other sports popular in Nauru include weightlifting (considered a national pastime), volleyball, netball, fishing and tennis. Nauru participates in the Commonwealth Games and has participated in the Summer Olympic Games in weightlifting and judo. Nauru's national basketball team competed at the 1969 Pacific Games, where it defeated Solomon Islands and Fiji. Rugby union in Nauru has a growing following. The Nauru national rugby sevens team made its international debut at the 2015 Pacific Games. Nauru competed in the 2015 Oceania Sevens Championship in New Zealand. Soccer in Nauru is a minor sport which has long been dormant in due to the popularity of Australian rules football; however, a Nauru national soccer team was in formation as of 2024. == See also ==