Nauru

The Republic of Nauru in the Pacific experienced an economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s, but since then has been undergoing a long period of economic recession and now has extensive problems associated with unemployment and poverty. There are no official estimates of poverty available.

The island of Nauru has been inhabited for around 3,000 years. It was annexed by Germany in 1888 and became a part of the Marshall Islands protectorate, with the Germans ending a civil war that had caused much suffering on the island. In 1900, phosphate was discovered on the island and was exported for the first time in 1907. The British Phosphate Commission (BPC) was created to extract the phosphate resources. Captured by [Page 1120]Australians in 1914, Nauru was administered ...