Kiribati
Kiribati (pronounced "keer-ah-bhass") consists of 32 low-lying
atolls and one raised island scattered over an expanse of ocean
equivalent in size to the continental United States. The islands
straddle the Equator and lie roughly halfway between Hawaii and
Australia. The three main groupings are the Gilbert Islands, Phoenix
Islands, and Line Islands. In 1995 Kiribati unilaterally moved the
International Date Line to include its easternmost islands, making
it the same day throughout the country. Kiribati includes Kiritimati
(Christmas Island), the largest coral atoll in the world, and Banaba
(Ocean Island), one of the three great phosphate islands in the
Pacific. Except on Banaba, very little land is more than three
meters above sea level.
The original inhabitants of Kiribati are Gilbertese, a
Micronesian people. Approximately 90% of the population
of Kiribati lives on the atolls of the Gilbert Islands.
Although the Line Islands are about 2,000 miles east of
the Gilbert Islands, most inhabitants of the Line
Islands are also Gilbertese. Owing to severe
overcrowding in the capital on South Tarawa, in the
1990s a program of directed migration moved nearly 5,000
inhabitants to outlying atolls, mainly in the Line
Islands. The Phoenix Islands have never had any
significant permanent population. A British effort to
settle Gilbertese there in the 1930s lasted until the
1960s when it was determined the inhabitants could not
be self-sustaining. |
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The I-Kiribati people settled what would become known as the Gilbert
Islands between 1000 and 1300 AD. Subsequent invasions by Fijians
and Tongans introduced Melanesian and Polynesian elements to the
Micronesian culture, but extensive intermarriage has produced a
population reasonably homogeneous in appearance and traditions.
European contact began in the 16th century. Whalers, slave traders,
and merchant vessels arrived in great numbers in the 1800s,
fomenting local tribal conflicts and introducing often-fatal
European diseases. In an effort to restore a measure of order, the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands (the Ellice Islands are now the
independent country of Tuvalu) consented to becoming British
protectorates in 1892. Banaba (Ocean Island) was annexed in 1900
after the discovery of phosphate-rich guano deposits, and the entire
group was made a British colony in 1916. The Line and Phoenix
Islands were incorporated piecemeal over the next 20 years.
Japan seized some of the islands during World War II. In November
1943, U.S. forces assaulted heavily fortified Japanese positions on
Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts, resulting in some of the bloodiest
fighting of the Pacific campaign. The battle was a turning point for
the war in the Central Pacific.
Britain began expanding self-government in the islands during the
1960s. In 1975 the Ellice Islands separated from the colony and in
1978 declared their independence. The Gilberts obtained internal
self-government in 1977, and became an independent nation on July
12, 1979, under the name of Kiribati.
Post-independence politics were initially dominated by Ieremia
Tabai, Kiribati's first President, who served from 1979 to 1991,
stepping down due to Kiribati's three-term limit for presidents. The
tenure of Teburoro Tito, Kiribati's second-longest serving
President, was from 1994 to 2003. His third term lasted only a
matter of months before he lost a no confidence motion in
Parliament. (See the next section for an explanation of Kiribati's
unique presidential system.) In July 2003, Anote Tong defeated his
elder brother, Harry Tong, who was backed by former President Tito
and his allies. Tong was re-elected for a second term as president
in October 2007. |
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