The islands now known as Kiribati—including the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line groups—formed a crossroads of Pacific navigation, cultural exchange, and geopolitical contest.
This overview follows five key periods: early settlement, European contact, colonial administration, wartime occupation, and independence with modern climate and development challenges.
Early Settlement and Pre-Colonial Era
The islands of Kiribati, comprising the Gilbert, Phoenix, and Line groups, were first inhabited by Austronesian voyagers from Southeast Asia and Micronesia between 3000 BC and 1300 AD, navigating vast Pacific expanses in outrigger canoes guided by stars and currents. Later waves from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji introduced Polynesian and Melanesian influences, fostering a vibrant I-Kiribati culture of matrilineal clans, skilled fishing, and oral epics like the "Te Kangaroa" creation myth. Societies organized into tribes with uba (chieftains) ruled through consensus, but intertribal raids over scarce resources like coconuts and fish intensified with introduced iron tools and firearms in the 19th century.
European Contact and Exploitation
British Captain Thomas Gilbert sighted the Gilbert Islands in 1788 during a voyage from Australia, marking the first European record, though Spanish explorers had possibly visited earlier. The 19th century brought whalers, traders seeking tortoise shell and bêche-de-mer, and notorious "blackbirders" who kidnapped over 10,000 islanders for labor in Peru and Queensland plantations, decimating populations by up to 90% through disease and abduction. Missionaries, starting with Hiram Bingham II of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1857 on Abaiang, converted most Gilbertese to Protestantism by the 1880s, establishing schools and suppressing warfare via the "peace pact" of 1887.
British Colonial Rule
To end anarchy, Britain proclaimed the Gilbert and Ellice Islands a protectorate in 1892, incorporating them as a crown colony in 1916 alongside Ocean Island (Banaba) for its vast phosphate deposits discovered in 1900. Phosphate mining, operated by the British Phosphate Commissioners from 1907 to 1979, generated revenue but ravaged Banaba's landscape and displaced its people; many relocated to Rabi Island in Fiji. The colony expanded in 1919 with the British Solomon Islands Protectorate's northern outliers and the Phoenix and Line Islands, though claims overlapped with U.S. interests until a 1979 treaty.
World War II and Post-War Recovery
Japan invaded in December 1941, occupying Tarawa, Makin, and Banaba by 1942, turning them into fortified bases; the 1943 Battle of Tarawa became one of the Pacific War's bloodiest, with 1,700 U.S. Marines killed in 76 hours against 4,700 Japanese defenders. Makin Atoll saw a daring U.S. raid by Carlson's Raiders. Post-liberation, the colony rebuilt, but ethnic divides grew between Gilbertese and Ellice Islanders (Tuvaluans), leading to a 1974 referendum and separation in 1975, with Tuvalu gaining independence in 1978.
Independence and Modern Challenges
Kiribati achieved self-government in 1977 and full independence on July 12, 1979, as a republic within the Commonwealth, with 25-year-old Anote Tong's mentor Ieremia Tabai as its youngest head of state. Tabai navigated economic woes post-phosphate depletion, joining the UN in 1999 and shifting the international dateline eastward in 1995 to keep all islands on the same day. Under presidents like Anote Tong (2003-2016), who warned globally of sea-level rise threatening 97% of the nation's 811 sq km above water, Kiribati bought land in Fiji for relocation and pioneered the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the world's largest marine reserve. Today, with President Taneti Maamau since 2016, it grapples with overpopulation on Tarawa, king tides, and diplomatic pivots amid great-power rivalry.