Kiribati



Kiribati is another bunch of islands (atolls, to be specific) dispersed by many kilometers, whose main languages are English and Gilbertese, named for the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, the man who sighted the islands for the first time. Actually, the name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of Gilbert (like Fitzcarraldo was the pronunciation of Fitzgerald to the natives). Oddly, the name is pronounced Kiribas, as the 'ti' sound in Kiribati names equates to 's' for English-speakers.

The islands were occupied by the Japanese during World War II. One of the bloodiest battles on the Pacific theater, the Battle of Tarawa, took place in Kiribati. Some of the islands were used later as testing ground for nuclear weapons.

In 1978, the Ellice Islands split and became Tuvalu. Kiribati’s independence started on 1979.

The country has some problems with the excess of population: while it’s not THAT populous (100,800 as of 2010), the islands are too small, and considering that almost all the people live in the central islands, they’re starting to lack some space to breathe. They also moved the International Date Line to the east (it passed through the middle of the country before), causing some controversy, but also attracting tourism (the first country to enter the third millennium! Yay!)

According to global warming estimates, if the sea levels keep rising, the country will very likely disappear due to the very low altitude of all the islands. That’s why the government is trying to convince Australia and New Zealand to accept all the country’s inhabitants as refugees in the eventuality.

Kiribati in fiction :

 * The Il-2 Sturmovik expansion Pacific Fighters features the American and Japanese aerial operations during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943.