Kiribati
History
Early history
The area now called Kiribati has been inhabited by Micronesians speaking the same Oceanic language since sometime between 3000 BC[7] and AD 1300. The area was not isolated; invaders from Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji later introduced Polynesian and Melanesian cultural aspects, respectively. Intermarriage tended to blur cultural differences and resulted in a significant degree of cultural homogenisation.[8]
Colonial era
The islands were first sighted by British and American ships in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The main island chain was named the Gilbert Islands in 1820 by a Russian admiral, Adam von Krusenstern, and French captain Louis Duperrey, after a British captain named Thomas Gilbert, who crossed the archipelago in 1788 when sailing from Australia to China.[9]
From the early 19th century, Western whalers, merchant vessels and slave traders visited the islands, introducing diseases and firearms.[10] The first British settlers arrived in 1837. In 1892 the Gilbert Islands consented to become a British protectorate together with the nearby Ellice Islands. They were administered by the Western Pacific High Commission based in Fiji.[9] Together they became the crown colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in 1916. Christmas Island (or Kiritimati) became part of the colony in 1919 and the Phoenix Islands were added in 1937.
Tarawa Atoll and others of the Gilbert group were occupied by Japan during World War II. Tarawa was the site of one of the bloodiest battles in US Marine Corps history. Marines landed in November 1943; the Battle of Tarawa was fought at Kiribati’s former capital Betio on Tarawa Atoll.
Some of the islands of Kiribati, especially in the remote Line Islands, were formerly used by the United States and United Kingdom for nuclear weapons testing including hydrogen bombs in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Geography
Kiribati consists of about 32 atolls and one solitary island (Banaba), extending into both the eastern and western hemispheres. The groups of islands are:
- Banaba: an isolated island between Nauru and the Gilbert Islands
- Gilbert Islands: 16 atolls located some 1,500 kilometres (932Â mi) north of Fiji
- Phoenix Islands: 8 atolls and coral islands located some 1,800 kilometres (1,118Â mi) southeast of the Gilberts
- Line Islands: 8 atolls and one reef, located about 3,300 kilometres (2,051Â mi) east of the Gilberts
Banaba (or Ocean Island) is a raised-coral island which was once a rich source of phosphates, but it was mostly mined out before independence. The rest of the land in Kiribati consists of the sand and reef rock islets of atolls or coral islands which rise but a few metres (half a dozen feet or so) above sea level.
The soil is thin and calcareous, making agriculture very difficult.
Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Line Islands is the world’s largest atoll. Based on a 1995 realignment of the International Date Line, Kiribati is now the easternmost country in the world, and the Line Islands is the first area to enter into a new year, including year 2000. For that reason, the Caroline Island has been renamed Millennium Island.[24] The majority of Kiribati, including the capital, is not first, for example New Zealand (UTC+13 in January) has an earlier new year.
Economy
Kiribati is one of the world’s poorest countries. It has few natural resources. Commercially viable phosphate deposits on Banaba were exhausted at the time of independence. Copra and fish now represent the bulk of production and exports. Tourism provides more than one-fifth of GDP. Kiribati is considered one of the least developed countries in the world.
Foreign financial aid, largely from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, is a critical supplement, equal in recent years to 25% to 50% of GDP. Agriculture accounts for 12.4% of GDP and 71% of labour; industry 0.9% of GDP and 1.9% of labour; trade 18.5% of GDP and 4.1% of labour; commercial trade 5.7% of GDP and 1.4% of labour; and service industries 5.7% of GDP and 1.4% of labour. The main trading partners are Australia, USA, France, Japan, Hong Kong and Germany.
In 1956 Kiribati established a sovereign wealth fund to act as a store of wealth for the country’s earnings from phosphate mining. In 2008 the Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund was valued at US$ 400Â million.
June 07 2011 02:37 pm | Oceania