Far East Kingdoms

Modern Nauru (Micronesia) (Oceania)
AD 1968 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1968-2025)

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Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Its territory is somewhat debatable, but Micronesia, of which Nauru is a part, consists of islands in the South Pacific which begin in the west with Palau and include, moving progressively eastwards, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, Micronesia, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, and the Gilbert Islands (which belong to Kiribati). Far to the north is Wake Island, also part of Micronesia.

A tiny Micronesian raised coral island, Nauru is also known as the Pleasant Island. It lies to the south of the Equator and, at just twenty-one square kilometres, this oval-shaped island is home to the smallest republic in the world. It has a population of around thirteen thousand.

While it lies within Micronesia, its people are a mixture of Micronesians, Melanesians, and Polynesians, but are most closely related to Polynesians. Over half of the population is native Nauruan while the rest are other Pacific Islanders, along with a small number of Chinese and Europeans. The island's only income comes from phosphate mining, while people grow fruit for private consumption and farm fish.

Seafaring Polynesians and Micronesians first inhabited Nauru three thousand years ago, during the Neolithic Oceania period. The people ultimately divided into twelve tribes which lived peacefully together. Nauruans called their island Naoero, which would eventually become 'Nauru' with Europeans who struggled to pronounce it in its native form.

The first Europeans approached the island in 1798 and, eventually, the introduction of firearms and alcohol in the nineteenth century broke the peace of the Nauruans in a ten-year civil war which reduced the population from fourteen hundred in 1843 to nine hundred in 1888.

Imperial Germany became the first European power to control Nauru after reaching an agreement with contemporary Great Britain in 1888. Nauru became part of 'German New Guinea' in 1906. At the outbreak of the First World War, Australia occupied Nauru permanently. Following the war's conclusion, in 1920, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate which was nominally administered jointly by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom but actually under Australian administration.

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 Island fights tarnished image (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 19-20 November 2011), from Obituary of Bernard Dowiyogo (Washington Post, 11 March 2003), from Times Atlas of World History, Geoffrey Barraclough (Ed, Maplewood, New Jersey, 1979), and from External Links: China formally restores diplomatic relations with Nauru (AP News), and Nauru (Flags of the World), and Nauru (Rulers.org), and Nauru (McGill University), and Nauru (Nationsonline.org), and BBC Country Profiles, and The Republic of Nauru (Northwestern University), and Russ Kun elected unopposed (Islands Business), and Deportation to Nauru (The Guardian).)

1968 - 1976

President. Unseated by parliamentary coup.

1968

Head chief Hammer de Roburt becomes the first head of state of an independent Nauru. Nauru becomes a special member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

1976

Bernard Dowiyogo engineers a coup through parliament which ousts Hammer de Roburt. Dowiyogo becomes president and serves frequently in that office until he dies in 2003.

Nauru today is an island republic, a raised fossilised coral atoll, lying four thousand kilometres to the north-east of Sydney, with a total land area of twenty-one square kilometres and a population of thirteen thousand

1976 - 1978

President. Overthrew his predecessor.

1978

President.

1978

Hammer de Roburt, the ousted first president of Nauru, is now re-elected president just two years later. After this term of office he serves off and on until 1989, generally presiding over a relatively stable government.

1978 - 1986

President for the second time.

1986

President (Sep-Oct only).

1986

President (Oct-Dec only). Ousted in a coup.

1986

President for two weeks only.

1986 - 1989

President for a third time.

1989 - 2010

A twenty-year period of relatively stable government in Nauru ends in 1989, and the next twenty years see a stormy period in which nineteen presidents serve short terms, some for only a few weeks. The turmoil is a result of a collapsed economy.

As part of the royal tour of Australia and the South Pacific in October 1982, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Nauru, meeting the president, Hammer DeRoburt

1989

President (Aug-Dec only).

1989 - 1995

President for the second time.

1990s

With the depletion of phosphate reserves, Nauru briefly resorts to serving as a base for money laundering and a tax haven for unscrupulous foreign individuals and organisations, including Russian oligarchs.

1993 - 1994

The International Court of Justice in the Hague approves a settlement in a court case which has been filed by Nauru for damages caused by phosphate mining. Australia agrees to pay seventy-two million US dollars to Nauru.

The United Kingdom and New Zealand each pledge to contribute eight million US dollars. The Nauru government announces plans to rehabilitate the island at the 1994 Small Island States 'Conference on Sustainable Development'.

'The Dominion of New Zealand', Simpson & Williams Ltd, Christchurch, release on 4 November 1927 as a colourful booklet, having been created for the 'Department of Tourist and Health Resorts' to advertise New Zealand for holidays (External Link: Creative Commons Licence 2.0 Deed)

1995 - 1996

President for the second time.

1996

President (11-26 Nov only).

1996

President (26 Nov-19 Dec only).

1996 - 1997

President.

1997 - 1998

President.

1998 - 1999

President for a third time.

1999 - 2000

President.

2000 - 2001

President for a fourth time.

2000 - 2006

Nauru becomes a full member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 2000. Australia offers Nauru aid in the following year and, in return, Nauru agrees to operate an offshore detention centre for persons who are seeking asylum in Australia. By 2006, only one detainee remains.

The island of Nauru celebrates its modern independence day on 31 January but, although the island does not have a substantial fishing industry of its own, fees from fishing licenses to distant water fishing nations are an important source of revenue

2001 - 2003

President for the second time.

2003

President (9-17 Jan only).

2003

President for only two days.

2003

President (Jan-Mar only). Died in office.

2003

Acting president for 10 days, then president.

2003

President (May-Aug only).

2003 - 2004

President for a fourth time.

2004 - 2007

President for the second time.

2007 - 2011

President.

2011

President. Removed from office 5 days later.

2011

After Frederick Pitcher becomes president on 10 November, parliament removes him from office after a vote of no confidence only five days later. Sprent Dabwido replaces Pitcher as president.

Queen Elizabeth is pictured here at the Commonwealth summit of 2011 with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh on the left, and on the right Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

2011 - 2013

President.

2013 - 2019

President.

2019 - 2022

President.

2022

As the island's members of parliament can be elected multiple times to the presidency, there have been forty-one changes to date of presidents since 1968. Having been elected unopposed, President Kun is the sixteenth member to be elected to the position.

2022 - 2023

President. Ousted through a no-confidence vote.

2023 - On

President. Immediately sided with China.

2023

Immediately after David Adeang is elected president, Nauru terminates its diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and instead opens ties with Beijing. Since 1980, Nauru has switched relations back and forth several times between Taiwan and China. Its recognition of China alarms both the United States and Australia, which fear the growing influence of China in the Pacific.

An increasingly self-confident China under its increasingly controlling leader, Xi Jinping, sought in the early twenty-first century to impose its own authority on the South China Sea and beyond

2025

It has emerged that Nauru has struck a secret deal with Australia to accept some of its undesirable asylum seekers. Known as the NZYQ cohort, these people have existing criminal records but cannot be returned to their home countries, and have little prospect of being accepted anywhere else. The entire affair is highly contentious in Australia.