The history of human activity in Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean, began
roughly 3,000 years ago when 12 Micronesian and Polynesian clans settled the island.
Early history Nauru was first settled by Micronesian and
Polynesian people at least 3,000 years ago. Nauruans subsisted on coconut and pandanus
fruit, and engaged in aquaculture by catching juvenile ibija fish, acclimated them to freshwater
conditions, and raised them in Buada Lagoon, providing an additional reliable source of
food. Traditionally only men were permitted to fish on the reef, and did so from canoes
or by using trained man-of-war hawks.
There were traditionally 12 clans or tribes on Nauru, which are represented in the 12-pointed
star in the nation's flag. Nauruans traced their descent on the female side. The first
Europeans to encounter the island were on the British whaling ship Hunter, in 1798.
When the ship approached, "many canoes ventured out to meet the ship. The Hunter's crew did
not leave the ship nor did Nauruans board, but Captain John Fearn's positive impression
of the island and its people" led to its English name, Pleasant Island. This name was used
until Germany annexed the island 90 years later.
From around 1830, Nauruans had contact with Europeans from whaling ships and traders who
replenished their supplies at Nauru. The islanders traded food for alcoholic toddy and firearms.
The first Europeans to live on the island, starting perhaps in 1830, were Patrick Burke
and John Jones, Irish convicts who had escaped from Norfolk Island, according to Paradise
for Sale. Jones became "Nauru's first and last dictator," who killed or banished several
other beachcombers who arrived later, until the Nauruans banished Jones from the island
in 1841.
The introduction of firearms and alcohol destroyed the peaceful coexistence of the 12 tribes
living on the island. A 10-year internal war began in 1878 and resulted in a reduction
of the population from 1,400 to around 900 . Ultimately, alcohol was banned and some
arms were confiscated. German protectorate
In 1886, Germany was granted the island under the Anglo-German Declaration. The island was
annexed by Germany in 1888 and incorporated into Germany's New Guinea Protectorate. On
1 October 1888, the German gunboat SMS Eber landed 36 men on Nauru. Accompanied by William
Harris the German marines marched around the island and returned with the twelve chiefs,
the white settlers and a Gilbertese missionary. The chiefs were kept under house arrest until
the next morning, when the annexation ceremony began with the raising of the German flag.
The Germans told the chiefs that they had to surrender all weapons and ammunition within
24 hours or the chiefs would be taken prisoner. By the morning of 3 October, 765 guns and
1,000 rounds of ammunition had been turned over. The Germans called the island Nawodo
or Onawero. The arrival of the Germans ended the war, and social changes brought about
by the war established kings as rulers of the island, the most widely known being King
Auweyida. Christian missionaries from the Gilbert Islands also arrived in 1888. The
Germans ruled Nauru for almost three decades. Robert Rasch, a German trader who married
a native woman, was the first administrator, appointed in 1888.
At the time there were twelve tribes on Nauru: Deiboe, Eamwidamit, Eamwidara, Eamwit, Eamgum,
Eano, Emeo, Eoraru, Irutsi, Iruwa, Iwi and Ranibok. Today the twelve tribes are represented
by the twelve-pointed star in the flag of Nauru.
Phosphate was discovered on Nauru in 1900 by the prospector Albert Ellis. The Pacific
Phosphate Company started to exploit the reserves in 1906 by agreement with Germany. The company
exported its first shipment in 1907.
World War I to World War II In 1914, following the outbreak of World War
I, Nauru was captured by Australian troops, after which Britain held control until 1920.
Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom signed the Nauru Island Agreement in 1919,
creating a board known as the British Phosphate Commission . This took over the rights to
phosphate mining. According to the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics , "In common
with other natives, the islanders are very susceptible to tuberculosis and influenza,
and in 1921 an influenza epidemic caused the deaths of 230 islanders." In 1923, the League
of Nations gave Australia a trustee mandate over Nauru, with the United Kingdom and New
Zealand as co-trustees. In 1932, the first Angam Baby was born.
World War II During World War II, Nauru was subject to
significant damage from both Axis and Allied forces.
On 6 and 7 December 1940 the Nazi German auxiliary cruisers Orion and Komet sank four merchant
ships. On the next day, Komet shelled Nauru's phosphate mining areas, oil storage depots,
and the shiploading cantilever. The attacks seriously disrupted phosphate supplies to
Australia and New Zealand
Japanese troops occupied Nauru on 26 August 1942. The native Nauruans were badly treated
by the occupying forces. On one occasion thirty nine leprosy sufferers were reputedly loaded
onto boats which were towed out to sea and sunk. The Japanese troops built an airfield
on Nauru which was bombed for the first time on 25 March 1943, preventing food supplies
from being flown to Nauru. In 1943 the Japanese deported 1,200 Nauruans to work as labourers
in the Chuuk islands.
Nauru was finally set free from the Japanese on 13 September 1945, when Captain Solda,
the commander of all the Japanese troops on Nauru, surrendered the island to the Royal
Australian Navy and Army. This surrender was accepted by Brigadier J. R. Stevenson, who
represented Lieutenant General Vernon Sturdee, the commander of the First Australian Army,
on board the warship HMAS Diamantina Arrangements were made to repatriate from Chuuk the 737
Nauruans who survived Japanese captivity there. They were returned to Nauru by the BPC ship
Trienza in on 1 January 1946. In 1947, a trusteeship was established by the United Nations, and
Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom became the U.N. trustees of the island, with
administration passing mostly to Australia.
Independence Nauru became self-governing in January 1966.
On 31 January 1968, following a two-year constitutional convention, Nauru became the world's smallest
independent republic. It was led by founding president Hammer DeRoburt. In 1967, the people
of Nauru purchased the assets of the British Phosphate Commissioners, and in June 1970,
control passed to the locally owned Nauru Phosphate Corporation. Money gained from the
exploitation of phosphate was put into the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust and gave Nauruans
the second highest GDP Per Capita and one of the highest standards of living in the
Third World.
In 1989, Nauru took legal actions against Australia in the International Court of Justice
over Australia's actions during its administration of Nauru. In particular, Nauru made a legal
complaint against 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.
By the close of the twentieth century, the finite phosphate supplies were fast running
out. Nauru finally joined the UN in 1999.
Modern-day Nauru As its phosphate stores began to run out , the
island was reduced to an environmental wasteland. Nauru appealed to the International Court
of Justice to compensate for the damage from almost a century of phosphate strip-mining
by foreign companies. In 1993, Australia offered Nauru an out-of-court settlement of A$2.5
million annually for 20 years. New Zealand and the UK additionally agreed to pay a one-time
settlement of $12 million each. Declining phosphate prices, the high cost of maintaining
an international airline, and the government's financial mismanagement combined to make the
economy collapse in the late 1990s. By the new millennium, Nauru was virtually bankrupt.
In December 1999, four major United States banks banned dollar transactions with four
Pacific island states, including Nauru. The United States Department of State issued a
report identifying Nauru as a major money laundering centre, used by narcotics traffickers
and Russian organized crime figures.
President Bernard Dowiyogo took office in April 2000 for his fourth and, after a minimal
hiatus, fifth stints as Nauru's top executive. Dowiyogo first served as president from 1976
to 1978. He returned to that office in 1989, and was re-elected in 1992. A vote in parliament,
however, forced him to yield power to Kinza Clodumar in 1995. Dowiyogo regained the presidency
when the Clodumar government fell in mid-1998.
In 2001, Nauru was brought to world attention by the Tampa affair, a Norwegian cargo ship
at the centre of a diplomatic dispute between Australia, Norway and Indonesia. The ship
carried asylum seekers, hailing primarily from Afghanistan, who were rescued while attempting
to reach Australia. After much debate many of the immigrants were transported to Nauru,
an arrangement known in Australia as the "Pacific Solution". Shortly thereafter, the Nauruan
government closed its borders to most international visitors, preventing outside observers from
monitoring the refugees' condition.
In December 2003, several dozen of these refugees, in protest of the conditions of their detention
on Nauru, began a hunger strike. The hunger strike was concluded in early January 2004
when an Australian medical team agreed to visit the island. Since then, according to
recent reports, all but two of the refugees have been allowed into Australia.
During 2002 Nauru severed diplomatic recognition with Taiwan and signed an agreement to establish
diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. This move followed China's promise
to provide more than U.S. $130 million in aid. In 2004, Nauru broke off relations with
the PRC and re-established them with the ROC.
Nauru was also approached by the U.S. with a deal to modernize Nauru's infrastructure
in exchange for suppression of the island's lax banking laws that allow activities that
are illegal in other countries to flourish. Under this deal, allegedly, Nauru would also
establish an embassy in China and perform certain "safehouse" and courier services for
the U.S. government, in a scheme codenamed "Operation Weasel". Nauru agreed to the deal
and instituted banking reform, but the U.S. later denied knowledge of the deal. The matter
is being pursued in an Australian court, and initial judgments have been in favor of Nauru.
The government is desperately in need of money to pay off salary arrears of civil servants
and to continue funding the welfare state built up in the heyday of phosphate mining
. Nauru has yet to develop a plan to remove the innumerable coral pinnacles created by
mining and make those lands suitable for human habitation.
Following parliamentary elections in 2013, Baron Waqa was elected president. He held
the presidential title six years from 2013 to 2019. President Waqa was a strong supporter
of Australia keeping refugees in a refugee camp on Nauru soil. The incumbent president
lost his parliamentary seat in 2019 Nauruan parliamentary election, meaning he lost his
bid for re-election. In August 2019 the parliament elected former human rights lawyer Lionel
Aingimea as the new President of Nauru.