history

The I-Kiribati, as the people of Kiribati call themselves, originally came from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga sometime in the 1300's, if not much earlier. The indigenous language is only spoken on one other island in the region, which is in Tuvalu. The people are all but exclusively Micronesian.

The islands were discovered by the Spanish in the early 1500's. Pedro Fernández Quirós discovered Butaritari in 1606. British explorers first reached the area in 1765, when Commodore John Byron located the island of Nikunau. In 1788, British Captains John Marshall, for whom the Marshall Islands were named, and Thomas Gilbert sailed through the islands after transporting prisoners to Australia. Russian hydrographer Adam Krusenstern named the Gilbert Islands after Captain Gilbert in the 1820's.

Since the 1820's, whaling ships plied the waters for sperm whales, and continued their activities into the 1870's. These activities made it practical to establish bases in the islands, and supply ships visited regularly. The first Europeans to settle on the islands arrived in 1837, and American missionary Rev. Hiram Bingham built the first American Protestant mission on Abaiang twenty years later. Reverend Bingham also created the thirteen-letter alphabet still in use on the islands today.

In 1838, the United States Exploring Expedition began the four-year project of mapping the precise locations of the islands and the favorable whaling areas. This was the first organized effort made by any party to pinpoint the sites of all of the islands in the area.

The British began making their presence known in force by creating the High Commission of the Western Pacific in 1877. Eleven years later, it annexed three islands in the Line Group, including the largest, Christmas Island. (The distinguished British Captain James Cook had named Christmas Island, now Kiritimati [pronounced like Christmas] Atoll, upon sighting and visiting it on December 25, 1777.) The native governments asked that the Gilbert Islands, combined with the neighboring Ellice Islands, be declared a British protectorate. In 1892, Capt. E.I.H. Davis did so, placing them under the High Commissioner. Eight years later, the British annexed Banaba, then called Ocean Island. Finally, in 1916, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate became a Crown Colony. It was coincident with this that the British Phosphate Commission, representing the interests of the British, Australian and New Zealand governments, began the mining of phosphate on Banaba.

The designation as a Crown Colony did not stop the British from enlarging it. Banaba, Tebuaeran (Fanning) and Teraina (Washington) Islands were added shortly after the protectorate was established. The British added Kiritimati Atoll in 1919 and the Phoenix Islands in 1937. The addition of the Phoenix Group caused a small rift between the United States and Britain because the U.S. had staked claims to some of the atolls in the Phoenix Group as well.

World War II did not bypass the colony. The Japanese occupied the major islands in 1942. After relocating the population of Banaba to the Caroline Islands, the Japanese continued the phosphate mining operations. The following year, United States Marines invaded and defeated the Japanese on the island of Tarawa in what has been called some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific.

Butaritari under attack, 1943

The Japanese held Banaba as long as 1945. In 1946, the Banabans were again relocated, from the Carolines to Rabi Island in Fiji, because mining had destroyed most inhabitable areas of the island. Most of those who were relocated to Rabi remain there today. With the local population completely out of the way, the British Phosphate Commission resumed phosphate mining in earnest. In fact, phosphate exports nearly quintupled between 1947 and 1969. Mining operations ceased when all profitable phosphate deposits were depleted in 1979.

In 1976, the Ellice Islands voted to secede from the Gilbert & Ellice Islands colony and became Tuvalu, which gained its sovereignty in 1978.

Kiribati took its first steps in the direction of independence in the early 1960's as it created committees to explore the idea. Kiribati gained home rule in 1977, and became the independent Republic of Kiribati on July 12, 1979.

The Banabans protested against their island being included as part of the new country, but the British prevailed. However, the Banabans were assured of an appointed seat in the Kiribati legislature, and received constitutional guarantees to the lands the British Phosphate Commission virtually took away and the right to return to their home island if they wish.

A brief history of Kiribati is depicted in Table 1 in the Appendix.

introduction | history | geography | land | population | economy
government and politics | people | outlook | conclusion | references | appendix

     [home][web design and development][writings][stores][about us][donations]

copyright © 1994-2006 bjturk.communications. all rights reserved.
privacy policy and legal notices   contact the webmaster   site map