Nauru island Map

Nauru island Map

Nauru island Map

Although other island states may be smaller in area and/or less populous, they are all dependent territories of other countries, so Nauru keeps the title of the world's smallest independent republic.

First inhabited by Micronesians and Polynesians, Nauru was annexed by Germany in 1888. In 1900, Nauru's phosphate deposits, which occupied about 90% of the island at the time, were discovered and began to be mined under a German-British consortium. During World War I, the island was occupied by Australian forces. After the war, the island became a League of Nations joint mandate (later a United Nations trusteeship after the Japanese occupation for three years during World War II) under Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Nauru achieved independence in 1968. In the years following independence, phosphate exports briefly gave Nauruans the highest per capita income in the world. The primary phosphate reserves were soon exhausted, crashing the local economy in the process, but in 2006–07 mining of a deeper layer of "secondary phosphate" began. As of 2016, most of Nauru's revenue came from the export of phosphate. The industry is controlled by the Nauru Phosphate Corporation (NPC). It is anticipated that the phosphate reserves will be completely exhausted before 2050. The sale of fishing licences is the other major revenue raiser. Countries such as Australia and Taiwan provide substantial development cooperation funding. Despite this, the unemployment rate currently stands at 90%, which is the highest in the world. That is not the only problem on the island, as over 95% of the population is obese and over 40% suffer from diabetes.

In 2001 the Norwegian container ship Tampa rescued several hundred asylum seekers from a sinking Indonesian vessel and attempted to deliver them to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, which is an Australian Federal Territory. In what was labelled The Pacific Solution, the Australian Government established a controversial Off Shore Processing Centre (OPC) on Nauru where these people were housed, pending assessment of their claims to be refugees. The OPC was closed in early 2008, and re-opened in 2012. The OPC still remains very controversial owing to its extremely negative human rights record. As of 2016, there are approximately 470 people - chiefly of Middle Eastern origin - held in the OPC.

Nauru is a tiny island country in Micronesia, northeast of Australia. It features a coral reef and white-sand beaches fringed with palms, including Anibare Bay on the east coast. Inland, tropical vegetation surrounds Buada Lagoon. The rocky outcrop of Command Ridge, the island's highest point, has a rusty Japanese outpost from WWII. The underground freshwater lake of Moqua Well lies amid the limestone Moqua Caves.

Population: 13,049 (2016) World Bank

President: Baron Waqa

Continent: Oceania

Currency: Australian dollar

Official languages: English, Nauruan

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