Fishing and the growing of coconuts, taro, breadfruit, and sweet potatoes form the basis of the mainly subsistence economy. The mining of Banaba's once thick phosphate deposits ended in 1979. Copra, coconuts, seaweed, and fish are the chief exports; foodstuffs, machinery and equipment, manufactured goods, and fuel are imported. Australia, Japan, Fiji, and the Unites States are the main trading partners.
A member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the nation is a republic governed under the constitution of 1979. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, is elected by popular vote for a four-year term and is eligible for two more terms. The unicameral House of Parliament has 42 members, most elected by popular vote, who serve four-year terms. Administratively the country is divided into three units (the Gilbert, Line, and Phoenix islands), and subdivided into six districts. There are also 21 island councils, one for each of the inhabited islands.
HistoryThe islands were settled beginning more than two millenia ago by successive waves of migrants from Southeast Asia, Tonga, and Fiji. The first Europeans to sight the islands were the Spanish (1606). In the late 1800s many islanders were often taken against their will to work abroad. The islands were administered (1892–1916) with the Ellice Islands as a British protectorate that became (1916) the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. They gained self-rule in 1971, and, after the Ellice Islands gained (1978) independence as Tuvalu, the remaining islands were granted independence (1979) as Kiribati. U.S. claims to several islands, including Kanton (formerly Canton) and Enderbury, were abandoned in 1979. Overcrowding has been a problem, and in 1988 it was announced that 4,700 residents of the main island group would be resettled onto less populated islands. In 1994 Teburovo Tito was elected president. In 1995, Kiribati moved the international date line to the eastern border of the sprawling island nation so that it would no longer be divided by the date line. Tito was reelected in 1998 and 2003, but in Mar., 2003, he was removed from office by a no-confidence vote, and replaced by a Council of State. Anote Tong was elected to succeed Tito in July, 2003, and was reelected in Oct., 2007.
The Columbia Encyclopedia. Copyright © 2001-09 Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
- Tabuaeran
Tabuaeran, atoll (1990 pop. 1,309), c.15 sq mi (40 sq km), central Pacific, one of the Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati. Visited by the American explorer Edmund Fanning in 179...
- Teraina
Teraina, atoll (1990 pop. 936), 3 sq mi (7.8 sq km), central Pacific, one of the Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati. Visited by the American explorer Edmund Fanning in 1798, it ...
- Banaba
Banaba or Ocean Island, island (1990 pop. 284), 2.2 sq mi (5.7 sq km), central Pacific, in the Republic of Kiribati, in the Gilbert Islands. The island was first visited by the British in 1804...
- Bingham, Hiram, 1831–1908, American Congregationalist missio...
Bingham, Hiram, 1831–1908, American Congregationalist missionary, b. Honolulu; son of Hiram Bingham (1789–1869). In 1857 he founded a mission on Abaiang in the Gilbert Islands (now part of Kir...
- Butaritari
Butaritari, also known as Makin, triangular atoll (4.5 sq mi/11.7 sq km; 1990 pop. 3,786), central Pacific, in the Gilbert Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati. The town of Butaritari ...
- Kiritimati
Kiritimati, largest atoll in the Pacific (1990 pop. 2,537), 222 sq mi (575 sq km), in the Line Islands, one of the island groups that compose the Republic of Kiribati. It was previously called...
- Gilbert Islands
Gilbert Islands, group of 16 islands, central Pacific, one of the island groups that form the Republic of Kiribati. The group includes Tarawa, Butaritari, Makin, Little Makin, Marakei, Abaiang...
- Tarawa
Tarawa, atoll (1990 pop. 28,802), capital of Kiribati, central Pacific, previously capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The administrative center of the atol...
- Phoenix Islands
Phoenix Islands, group of eight islands, 11 sq mi (28 sq km), central Pacific, N of Samoa. The chain comprises a portion of Kiribati. The two most important are Kanton (or Abariringa) and Ende...
- Nauru
Nauru, officially Republic of Nauru, atoll and independent republic (2005 est. pop. 13,000), c.8 sq mi (20 sq km), central Pacific, just south of the equator and west of the Gilbert Islands of...
