Category Civics

          North America has countries with all kinds of cultures, languages, economies and geography. But all these countries share a common history when it comes to its relation with Europe. All the countries of North America were controlled by European colonizers at one point or the other, mainly British and French. Independence was won after years of war and struggles. Some countries stiff have their European connections though.

          The United States is the most developed country in North America. The Central American and Caribbean countries are much poorer than the US or Canada. Many of these countries have had a period of dictatorship and military rule as well.

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          Kiribati got its name along with its independence. The birth of the new nation was celebrated with the new name which in fact is the local pronunciation of Gilbert Island, its old name. Kiribati is a group of 33 islands in the central Pacific. This archipelago was named after an English explorer Thomas Gilbert.

          Whalers were the first people to come to the island. Though Spanish explorers visited the island, the British colonized it. Japan occupied Kiribati during the Second World War. It became independent in 1979. But there were ethnic tensions between the inhabitants.

          Banaba, a Kiribatian island had phosphate deposits which were exploited by the British. The Banabans filed a case against the British government for compensation for the environmental devastation. In 1981, Britain offered ten million Australian dollars to close the case which they agreed to. A commercial satellite-launch platform was established in the 1990s which is the island’s major source of income.

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         Fiji is a collection of almost 800 islands in the Pacific Ocean, out of which only ten are inhabited. Fiji became a British colony in 1874. It had only its native population till the British established many sugar plantations in the nineteenth century. More people were needed to work in the plantations. To solve this crisis, workers were brought from India who later settled there.

          Fiji gained independence in 1974. The country was racially divided between the native Fijians and the Indians. They waged political wars. Fijians came up with a constitution in 1990 that assured political power to the natives. However, they still had clashes; they had civilian and military rule subsequently. Fiji now follows the constitution charted in 2013. Today, Fiji is a popular tourist destination.

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          Nauru had to pay a heavy price for the riches it mined. By the end of the twentieth century, phosphate mines started to run dry.

          The money from mining was invested in various businesses abroad. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a failure that left Nauru bankrupt. Its telecommunications network collapsed in 2003 and the country was cut off from the rest of the world for nearly two months!

          Moreover, more than 80 percent of the island became infertile due to extensive mining. In 1993, the Nauru Rehabilitation Corporation filed a case in the International Court of Justice to claim compensation from Australia for the exploitation of its phosphate resources. Both the countries later came to a friendly settlement. Today, the people of Nauru are tirelessly working to make its land once again suitable for agriculture.

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          Nauru is a tiny coral island in the Pacific Ocean. It is one of the smallest independent nations of the world. Not much was known about this island country until the whale hunters started halting at Nauru for collecting food and water. Nauru came under German control by 1888.

         The people of Nauru thrived on fishing and small scale farming. Little did they know that their life was going to change when they discovered phosphate deposits in its plateaus.

          There was a heavy demand for phosphate in England for making chemical fertilizers and the Pacific Phosphate Company owned by the British made an agreement with the German administration to mine the phosphate deposits in Nauru. This happened in 1906 and in the following year, they started mining.

         By 1920, the phosphate industry was taken over by the British Phosphate Commission, a joint Australian, British, and New Zealand enterprise. Nauru became an independent country in 1968 and took control over its phosphate business by 1970; the money from phosphate made Nauru one of the richest countries in the world.

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          By 1860, the Maoris were forced to give up their lands for establishing settlements. This was a result of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This led to a brutal war in the North Island. The war lasted for twenty years, thousands of Maoris were killed and much of their land was confiscated.

          Though the Maoris waged many wars against the British, they stayed loyal to the British crown. They even fought for the British in their war against South Africa. This happened in 1890, almost ten years after the conflict.

          New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907, but it maintained strong political and economic links with the United Kingdom.

          Today New Zealand attracts people all over the world with quality education and employment.

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