Far East Kingdoms

Modern Kiribati (Micronesia) (Oceania)
AD 1979 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1979-2025)

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Considered in some quarters to be a watery continent in its own right, Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Its territory is somewhat debatable, but generally consists of the waters of the Pacific Ocean dotted with some two thousand islands, some of which are independent states and others either parts of countries or colonies.

Kiribati (pronounced kiri-bass) is a collection of islands which stretches over a vast part of the South Pacific at the south-eastern end of Micronesia. This region of Oceania itself stretches from the Bonin Islands near Japan in the north and Palau to the far south, eastwards through the Northern Mariana Islands, the 'Federated States of Micronesia' (or simply 'Micronesia' for short), the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and, finally, Kiribati.

More locally, Kiribati lies to the south of the Marshall Islands, to the west of Nauru, to the north and north-west of Tuvalu, and to the north of the Samoas and the Society Islands. The country consists of thirty-three islands within the Gilbert Islands, which house the capital of Tarawa, the Phoenix Islands, and the Line Islands.

Thirty-two of Kiribati's islands are coral atolls and only one, Banaba, is a raised limestone island. Twenty-one of the islands are inhabited, mostly in the Gilberts. The islands stretch three thousand nine hundred kilometres from east to west and two thousand one hundred kilometres north to south. The country straddles all four hemispheres. Its people are Micronesian.

The original inhabitants arrived in the Gilbert Islands and Banaba around 3000-2000 BC from South-East Asia, having passed first through modern Micronesia. The original inhabitants referred to the Gilberts as Tungaru. Samoans settled there in the fourteenth century AD, towards the end of the Neolithic Oceania period. The Phoenix and Line islands remained uninhabited. It is from these Samoan immigrants that the Gilbert Islanders devised their system of rule by elders.

Spanish explorers spotted the Gilbert Islands in the sixteenth century, but did not settle there. European whalers and coconut traders took an interest in the islands in the nineteenth century, and natives were employed on plantations in other parts of the region. Great Britain established a protectorate over the Gilbert Islands in 1892 and, in 1900, annexed Banaba due to its rich phosphate deposits. The Gilberts and the Ellice islands were united into a single colony in 1916.

Please note that the History Files does not regularly monitor changes in modern heads of state or their representatives. Get in touch here if this section requires updating.

(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I, Abraham Fornander (Mutual Publishing Company, 1996, and originally published as An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, Vol II), from Tiny Republic Embraces Taiwan, and China Feels Betrayed (Washington Post, 27 November 2003), and from External Links: Kiribati (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Kiribati (Flags of the World), and Kiribati (Rulers.org), and Kiribati (World Statesmen), and BBC Country Profiles, and Kiribati Tourism, and A History of US Recognition (Office of the Historian).)

1979 - 1982

First president of an independent Kiribati.

1979 - 1980

With the Gilbert Islands, previously a British colony, having gained independence on 12 July 1979 under the name of Kiribati, the United States recognises the new nation state. The two nations sign a treaty of friendship on 20 September 1979. William Bodde Junior is appointed 'Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary' to Kiribati on 26 September 1980. Bodde is stationed at Suva in Fiji as no diplomatic facilities exist on Kiribati.

By the end of the twenty-first century melting polar ice and the thermal expansion of warmer seawater is expected to raise global ocean levels by around one metre, an upsurge which would, according to some predictions, displace many from Kiribati and millions of others around the world

1983 - 1991

President for the second time.

1991 - 1994

President.

1994 - 2003

President. Forced to resign after no-confidence vote.

2003 - 2016

President.

2003

China, which has invested heavily in Kiribati since the 1990s, begins to withdraw its financial support when Kiribati formally recognises Taiwan in exchange for the latter's economic aid (the situation reverses in 2020).

2014

The Kiribati government buys land on Vanua Levu in Fiji as the beginning of part of a long-term strategy for dealing with the threat of rising sea levels in the low-lying country as a result of global warming. The island nation is one of the world's most vulnerable when it comes to rising sea levels. But residents may have to leave well before the ocean claims their homes, and the government's strategy is to seek a new homeland for its people.

China and Kiribati in 2020 signed a memorandum of understanding in connection with China's heavily-financed initiative to garner international dominance under the title of the 'Belt and Road' initiative

In the meantime, the new land is a source of increased food supply for the population. Prior to this new hope for resettlement Kiribati had asked Australia and New Zealand to accept Kiribati refugees, in 2008.

2016 - On

President.

2021 - 2023

Kiribati opens its marine preserve, the largest in the world, to commercial fishing in 2021. In the following year the country withdraws from the 'Pacific Islands Forum' as part of a dispute over the forum's leadership - but a year later it rejoins. The forum is an organisation of eighteen countries and territories which together attempt to foster economic cooperation, development, and security.