History of Nauru - Draft Notes

Satellite image of the Topside detention camp in Nauru taken on July 24, 2013.

Notes taken from Peter Dauvergne's Environmentalism of the Rich

 

These are just some rough notes I've taken regarding the history of Nauru. I had no idea how many abuses that place has suffered. Using it a detention centre is just the latest chapter in a long history of abuses going back to the 1800s.

I've been pretty exhausted lately and I don't really have the energy - emotional or otherwise - to go back and transcribe this as I usually do. I'm not really feeling safe at home (I live in public housing) and I've been having trouble relaxing.

I can't really bring myself to go over these horrible facts again. You'll have to forgive any errors - spelling or otherwise - but here they are...my (very) rough notes on the history of Nauru...

-Snow Hunter under Captain John Fearn discovers Island, greeted by friendly Islanders. (Ironically) names it 'Pleasant Island' (1798)

-Nauru begins as relatively peaceful society. There are tribal disputes, but they are more or less kept in check
-Convict “beachcombers” escape to Nauru and settle the island (1842)
-Pigs and coconuts traded for guns and alcohol
-Nauru tribal leader killed in drunken fight (1870s)
-Bloody conflict ensues
-Germans want to use island to facilitate copra trade and annex island (1888) and threaten to imprison tribal leaders if they do not hand over guns and ammo
-Decade long civil war was over, but by then 500 people killed, nearly one third of local population

-Phosphate ore discovered (1899)

-Pacific Island Company changed to Pacific Phosphate company (1905)

-Phosphate mines with little regard for ecosystem (trashed)
-By this time Australia was in control of Nauru, having captured it in WW1

-Australia rules Nauru as offshore mining site
-Australia and New Zealand get phosphate for agriculture at drastically reduced price
-Phosphate mining comes to halt as Japan captures the island

-Japanese troops were merciless (1942)
Abuses include:

• beatings
• summary executions
• deportations
• mass drownings (such as people with leprosy)

-By 1945 at wars end fewer than 600 Nauruans left alive
-By 1968 one third of Nauru had been strip mined
-Exports exceeded $2 billion. Nauru becomes wealthy on paper, but corrupt government meant Nauru people far from wealthy
-Nauru seeks compensation for lost profits. Australia pays $50b million in 1994 plus $57 million over next 20 years. Britain fronts $12 million to ease Aussie burden. Compensation not a fraction of what was taken

-Anticipating end of mining Nauru turns to finance and becomes tax haven opening 400 foreign banks funneling money for tax evasion and also tens of billions of dollars worth of criminal profits

-By 2004 phosphate mines dry up.
-2001 Nauru opens up detention centres
-2007 detention centres close only to be reopened in 2012
-We all know the rest...

We owe that island a lot, the least of which is to stop using them for our own nefarious economic and political reasons.