Editing Kiribati (section)

===Colonial era===
{{Main|British Western Pacific Territories|Gilbert and Ellice Islands}}

Chance visits by European ships occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries,<ref>{{cite journal|last1= Maude|first1= H. E.|last2= Heyen|first2= G. H.|year= 1959|title= Spanish Discoveries in the Central Pacific: A Study in Identification|journal= The Journal of the Polynesian Society|volume= 68|issue= 4|pages= 285–326|url= http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_68_1959/Volume_68,_No._4/Spanish_discoveries_in_the_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_285-326/p1|access-date= 27 February 2015|archive-date= 8 December 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211208024508/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_68_1959/Volume_68,_No._4/Spanish_discoveries_in_the_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_285-326/p1|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Maude|first=H. E.|year=1961|title=Post-Spanish Discoveries in the Central Pacific|journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society|volume=70|issue=1|url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_70_1961/Volume_70,_No._1/Post-Spanish_discoveries_in_the_central_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_67-111/p1|pages=67–111|access-date=27 February 2015|archive-date=27 December 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211227235057/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_70_1961/Volume_70,_No._1/Post-Spanish_discoveries_in_the_central_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_67-111/p1|url-status=dead}}</ref> while those ships attempted circumnavigations of the world, or sought sailing routes from the south to north Pacific Ocean, a passing trade, whaling the On-The-Line grounds,<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Lever R.J.A.W. |date=April 1964 |journal=South Pacific Bulletin |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=33–36 |url=https://spccfpstore1.blob.core.windows.net/digitallibrary-docs/files/1a/1ac948972f523b26359f2d23693d2a69.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=e%2BiGKv891HWj4Rk6E2BEhTX4gfkUKDsOwIKeCJA%2FFXQ%3D&se=2021-01-25T00%3A32%3A52Z&sp=r&rscc=public%2C%20max-age%3D864000%2C%20max-stale%3D86400&rsct=application%2Fpdf&rscd=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22SPB14_2_Lever.pdf%22 |title=Whales and Whaling in the Western Pacific |access-date=30 March 2022 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923054026/https://spccfpstore1.blob.core.windows.net/digitallibrary-docs/files/1a/1ac948972f523b26359f2d23693d2a69.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=e%2BiGKv891HWj4Rk6E2BEhTX4gfkUKDsOwIKeCJA%2FFXQ%3D&se=2021-01-25T00%3A32%3A52Z&sp=r&rscc=public%2C%20max-age%3D864000%2C%20max-stale%3D86400&rsct=application%2Fpdf&rscd=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22SPB14_2_Lever.pdf%22 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Best |first= P. B. |year=1983|title=Sperm whale stock assessments and the relevance of historical whaling records|journal=Report of the International Whaling Commission |volume=Special Issue 5|pages= 41–55}}</ref> and labour ships associated with the coercive labour recruitment practices, known as [[blackbirding]]. This recruitment of [[Kanaka (Pacific Island worker)|Kanaka]] workers in large numbers during the 19th century, had social, economic, political, religious and cultural consequences. More than 9,000 workers were sent abroad from 1845 to 1895, most of them not returning.<ref name=cind/><ref>{{cite report |last1=Geddes |first1=W. H. |last2=Chambers |first2=A. |last3=Sewell |first3=B. |last4=Lawrence |first4=R. |last5=Watters |first5=R. |title=Islands on the line: team report |year=1982 |series=Atoll economy : social change in Kiribati and Tuvalu, no. 1 |publisher=Australian National University |location=Canberra }}</ref>

The passing trade gave rise to European, Indian, Chinese, Samoan, and other residents from the 1830s; they included [[beachcombing|beachcombers]], castaways,<ref name="maude">H. E. Maude, ''Beachcombers and castaways'', The Journal of the Polynesian Society 73: 3 (1964) 254–293</ref><ref name="ICC">{{cite book |last1= Campbell|first1= Ian C.|title=Gone Native in Polynesia: Captivity Narratives and Experiences from the South Pacific|year=2014|publisher= Praeger |isbn = 978-0313307874 }}</ref><ref name="BC">{{cite book |last1= Milcairns|first1= Susanne Williams |title=Native Strangers: Beachcombers, Renegades and Castaways in the South Seas |year=2006|publisher= Penguin Books |location= Auckland}}</ref><ref name="RC">{{cite book |last1= Ralston|first1= Caroline|title=Native Strangers: Grass Huts and Warehouses: Pacific Beach Communities of the Nineteenth Century |year=2014|publisher= University of Queensland Press|isbn = 9781921902321 }}</ref> traders, and missionaries. Dr [[Hiram Bingham II]] of the [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]] (ABCFM) arrived on [[Abaiang]] in 1857. The Roman Catholic faith was introduced on [[Nonouti]] around 1880 by 2 Gilbert islanders, Betero and Tiroi, who had become Christians in Tahiti. Father Joseph Leray, Father Edward Bontemps and Brother Conrad Weber, Roman Catholic [[Missionaries of the Sacred Heart]] arrived on Nonouti in 1888.<ref name="MKT">{{cite web |last= |work=Mauri – Kiribati, Tawara and Gilberts |title=Tourism Authority of Kiribati |date=2019 |url=https://visitkiribati.travel/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/4Tarawa-Guide-2019-final.pdf|access-date=30 March 2024}}</ref> The Protestant missionaries of the [[London Missionary Society]] (LMS) were also active in the southern Gilberts. On 15 October 1870, Rev. Samuel James Whitmee of the LMS arrived at [[Arorae]], and later that month he visited [[Tamana, Kiribati|Tamana]], [[Onotoa]] and [[Beru (atoll)|Beru]].<ref name="SJM">{{cite book |last=Whitmee |first=Samuel James |title=A missionary cruise in the South Pacific being the report of a voyage amongst the Tokelau, Ellice and Gilbert islands, in the missionary barque "John Williams" during 1870 |year=1871 |publisher=J. Cook & Co. |location=Sydney}}</ref> In August 1872, [[George Pratt (missionary)|George Pratt]] of the LMS visited the islands.<ref name="LMS">{{cite book |last=Lovett |first=Richard |title=The history of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895 |volume=1 |year=1899 |publisher=H. Frowde |location=London}}</ref>
[[File:Declaration of a protectorate on Abemama by Captain Davis, 27th May 1892.JPG|thumb| Declaration of a protectorate on [[Abemama]] by Captain [[Edward H.M. Davis|EHM Davis]], 27 May 1892]]

In 1886, an [[Anglo-German Declarations about the Western Pacific Ocean|Anglo-German agreement]] partitioned the "unclaimed" central Pacific, leaving [[Nauru]] in the German sphere of influence, while [[Banaba]] (known to Europeans as Ocean Island) and the future GEIC wound up in the [[British Empire|British sphere of influence]]. In 1892, local Gilbertese authorities (an ''uea'', a chief from the Northern Gilbert Group, and ''atun te boti'' or head of clan<ref name="maude2">{{cite journal | last = Maude | first = H. E. | year = 1963|title = The Evolution of the Gilbertese ''Boti''|url = http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=3260 | journal = The Journal of the Polynesian Society|volume = 72|issue = Supplement Memoir No. 35 |pages = 1–68|access-date = 23 March 2019|archive-date = 27 January 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190127175542/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=3260 | url-status = dead }}</ref>) on each of the Gilbert Islands agreed to Captain [[Edward H.M. Davis|Edward Davis]] commanding [[HMS Royalist (1883)|HMS ''Royalist'']] of the [[Royal Navy]] declaring them part of a [[British protectorate]], along with the nearby [[Ellice Islands]]. They were administered by a [[Governor of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands|resident commissioner]] based first on [[Butaritari|Makin Islands]] (1893–95), then in [[Betio]], [[Tarawa]] (1896–1908) and Banaba (1908–1942), protectorate who was under the [[High Commissioner for the Western Pacific|Western Pacific High Commission]] (WPHC) based in Fiji.<ref name=BBCtimeline>{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/2944816.stm |title = BBC Timeline: Kiribati |access-date = 29 July 2008 |publisher = BBC News|date = 15 May 2008 }}</ref> Banaba was added to the protectorate in 1900, because of the [[Phosphorite|phosphate rock]] of its soil (discovered in 1900). [[Phosphate mining in Banaba and Nauru|This discovery and the mining]] provided a significant amount of revenue, in the form of taxes and duties, to the WPHC.<ref>{{cite web |title=Phosphate mining and the relocation of the Banabans to northern Fiji in 1945: Lessons for climate change-forced displacement |url=https://journals.openedition.org/jso/7100 |author=Julia B. Edwars |date=2014 |language=en,fr |access-date=10 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=With phosphate mining, the threat of displacement returns to Kiribati |url=https://www.mining-technology.com/features/with-phosphate-mining-the-threat-of-displacement-returns-to-kiribati/ |website=mining-technology.com |author=Ashima Sharma |date=November 22, 2023 |language=en |access-date=10 May 2025}}</ref>

The conduct of [[William Telfer Campbell]], the second resident commissioner of the Gilberts and Ellice Islands of 1896 to 1908, was criticised as to his legislative, judicial and administrative management (including allegations of forced labour exacted from islanders) and became the subject of the 1909 report by [[Arthur William Mahaffy|Arthur Mahaffy]].<ref>{{cite report |last=Mahaffy |first=Arthur |title=Report by Mr. Arthur Mahaffy on a visit to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands |access-date=26 July 2020 |year=1909 |publisher=His Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London |chapter=CO 225/86/26804 |chapter-url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2367/}}</ref> In 1913, an anonymous correspondent to ''[[The New Age]]'' newspaper described the maladministration of W. Telfer Campbell and challenged the impartiality of Arthur Mahaffy, because he was a former colonial official in the Gilberts.<ref name="AN">{{cite journal |title=Modern buccaneers in the West Pacific |url=http://dl.lib.brown.edu/pdfs/1140814207532014.pdf |journal=The New Age |location=South Africa |date=5 June 1913 |pages=136–140}}</ref> The anonymous correspondent also criticised the operations of the [[Pacific Phosphate Company]] on Banaba.<ref name="AN"/>
[[File:Boeing 314 Clipper in cruise.jpg|thumb|[[Boeing 314 Clipper]] in cruise, 1940]]

The islands became the [[crown colony]] of the [[Gilbert and Ellice Islands]] in 1916.<ref name=brit/> The Northern Line Islands, including Christmas Island ([[Kiritimati]]),<ref>[[Fanning Island]] (Tabuaeran) and [[Teraina]] (Washington Island) were previously incorporated in 1888 into the BWPT.</ref> were added to the colony in 1919, and the [[Phoenix Islands]] were added in 1937 with the purpose of a [[Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme]]. On 12 July 1940, [[Pan Am]] Airways' ''[[Boeing 314 Clipper|American Clipper]]'' landed at [[Kanton Island|Canton Island]] for the first time during a flight from [[Honolulu]] to [[Auckland]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.panam.org/explorations/650-canton-critical-stopover|title=Canton: Critical Stopover|access-date=27 July 2020|archive-date=27 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327000204/https://www.panam.org/explorations/650-canton-critical-stopover|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sir [[Arthur Grimble]] was a cadet administrative officer based at Tarawa (1913–1919) and became Resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1926.{{sfn|Grimble|1952}}

[[File:Stamp Gilbert Ellice Islands 1939 3p.jpg|thumb|Stamp with portrait of [[George VI|King George VI]], 1939]]
In 1902, the [[Pacific Cable Station|Pacific Cable Board]] laid the first trans-Pacific telegraph cable from [[Bamfield]], British Columbia, to [[Fanning Island]] (Tabuaeran) in the Line Islands, and from Fiji to Fanning Island, thus completing the [[All Red Line]], a series of telegraph lines circumnavigating the globe completely within the British Empire. The location of Fanning Island, one of the closest formations to Hawaii, led to its annexation by the British Empire in 1888. Nearby candidates including [[Palmyra Island]] were not favoured due to the lack of adequate landing sites.<ref>{{cite web |title=Palmyra Atoll |url=https://www.smoketreemanor.com/palmyra-atoll/5/ |page=5 |website=smoketreemanor.com |language=en |access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref>

The United States eventually incorporated the Northern Line Islands into its territories, and did the same with the [[Phoenix Islands]], which lie between Gilberts and the Line Islands, including [[Howland Island|Howland]], [[Jarvis Island|Jarvis]], and [[Baker Island|Baker]] islands, thus causing a territorial dispute. That was eventually resolved and they finally became part of Kiribati under the [[Treaty of Tarawa]].<ref> That treaty was signed shortly after independence and ratified in 1983, with the United States relinquishing all claims to the sparsely-inhabited Phoenix Islands, and those of the Line Islands that are part of Kiribati territory.</ref>
[[File:Tarawa.jpg|thumb|right|American Marines assault a Japanese bunker during the [[Battle of Tarawa]], November 1943]]

After the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], during [[World War II]], [[Butaritari]] and Tarawa, and others of the Northern Gilbert group, were [[Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands|occupied by Japan]] from 1941 to 1943. [[Betio]] became an airfield and supply base. The expulsion of the Japanese forces in late 1943 involved one of the bloodiest battles in [[US Marine Corps]] history. Marines landed in November 1943 and the [[Battle of Tarawa]] ensued. As the headquarters of the colony, Banaba was bombed, evacuated and occupied by Japan in 1942 and not freed until 1945, after the massacre of all but one of the Gilbertese on the island by the Japanese forces. [[Funafuti]] then hosted the provisional headquarters of the colony from 1942 to 1946, when Tarawa returned to host the headquarters.<ref>{{cite web |title=HyperWar: Building the Navy's Bases in World War II: History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946 |url=https://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Building_Bases/bases-24.html |language=en |access-date=10 May 2025}}</ref>

At the end of 1945, most of the remaining inhabitants of Banaba, repatriated from [[Kosrae]], [[Nauru]] and Tarawa, were relocated to [[Rabi Island]], an island of Fiji that the British government had acquired in 1942 for this purpose.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://journals.openedition.org/jso/7100|doi = 10.4000/jso.7100|title = Phosphate mining and the relocation of the Banabans to northern Fiji in 1945: Lessons for climate change-forced displacement|year = 2014|last1 = Edwards|first1 = Julia B.|journal = Journal de la Société des Océanistes|issue = 138–139|pages = 121–136|doi-access = free}}</ref>

On 1 January 1953, the [[List of resident commissioners and governors of the Solomon Islands|British Western Pacific High Commissioner]] of the colony was transferred from Fiji to the new capital of [[Honiara]], to the [[British Solomon Islands]], with the Gilberts' Resident Commissioner still located in Tarawa.<ref name="Macdonald, B. K. 1982">{{cite book |last= Macdonald |first= Barrie Keith|author-link= |date= 2001 |title= Cinderellas of the Empire: Towards a History of Kiribati and Tuvalu|url= |location= Canberra|publisher=([[Australian National University]] Press, (first published 1982)|pages=|isbn=982-02-0335-X}}</ref>

Further military operations in the colony occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s when [[Kiritimati|Christmas Island]] was used by the United States and United Kingdom for [[nuclear weapons testing]] including [[thermonuclear weapon|hydrogen bombs]].<ref>[https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA136820.pdf] Operation Dominic I, United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Test Personnel Review, Defense Nuclear Agency for the Department of Defense, 1962</ref>

Institutions of internal self-rule were established on Tarawa from about 1967. The Ellice Islands requested their separation from the rest of the colony in 1974 and were granted their own internal self-rule institutions. The separation entered into force on 1 January 1976. In 1978, the Ellice Islands became the independent state of [[Tuvalu]].<ref name="auto1">Ridgell, Reilly (1995) ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia''. 3rd Edition. Honolulu: Bess Press. {{ISBN|1573060011}}. p. 95.</ref>