Kiribati Historical Background

1300: Samoans, Fijians and Tongans merged with the older population. 1777: Discovered by British Captain Cook. 1800s: Whalers arrived in northern islands 1837: British settlers arrived 1850s: Protestant missionaries arrived 1857: Hiram Bingam, a Protestant minister on Abiang, devised a written form of the language 1886: British, German, and Americans traded with the islands. Some islanders were kidnapped and taken to Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Central America as slaves. 1888: The islands were annexed by Great Britain with a view to laying the Pacific cable with Tabuaeran (then Fanning Island) as a relay station. That cable functioned between 1902 and 1963 except for a short period in 1914 when German naval forces landed at Fanning to cut the cable. 1892: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands became a British protectorate. Headquarters were in Tarawa. 1880s: The Phoenix Islands were annexed by Britain 1900: Banaba was annexed by Britain, and mining of phosphates began until the total island’s soil was removed. The total population of the islands dwindled to about 300. 1915: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands became a British Crown Colony. 1919: Kiritimati (Christmas) Atoll became a part of the colony. 1935: The USA took over Howland and Baker islands 1937: The Phoenix Islands became a part of the British colony. 1938: The United States claimed sovereignty over Kanton and Enderbury 1939: The USA and Britain agreed to exercise joint control over the two islands for 50 years. 1941: Tarawa and others were occupied by Japan. All but one man in Banaba were massacred. 1943: U.S. forces reclaimed the islands. Inhabitants of Banaba were moved to Rabi Island, Fiji because of land loss. 1975: The Ellice Islands separated and became Tuvalu. 1979: Kiribati became an independent Republic that remains part of the British Commonwealth.