atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

Apart from the provisioning of whaling vessels, mainly with fish, pigs and
coconuts, the first regular non-traditional economic activity was a sporadic copra trade
established in the 1880s. By the late 1880s Nauru produced about one million pounds of
copra annually, one of the main reasons that Germany, on the recommendation of
resident German traders, annexed the island in 1888. In the 1890s, due to drought and
infrequency of ships, the copra trade failed to reach its potential with Nauruans refusing
to make more copra than needed to pay their taxes (Viviani 1970; Carter 1984).
The strategic and economic importance of Nauru increased dramatically with the
discovery, in 1900, of high grade phosphate rock, containing up to 78 per cent tricalcic
phosphate. The mining of phosphate, without approval of the indigenous inhabitants,
began in 1907. Caroline Islanders and Chinese contract-laborers were recruited to mine
the deposits. Since then, I-Kiribati, Tuvaluan, Filipino and Solomon Islands contract
workers have been recruited to work in the phosphate industry. The deposits have been
mined continuously since 1907, except for disruptions during World War I and again
during World War 11. Copra production continued to fluctuate, with over 300 tons having
been exported the year before the phosphate trade began in 1906, 277 tons in 1916, and
falling to only 10 tons in 1918 due to a prolonged drought (Viviani, 1970: 22-38).
With the beginning of the phosphate trade, the whole pattern of Nauruan life
began to change. Although barter continued, money became the medium of exchange,
and trade stores with their array of goods, further encouraged the trend. As Viviani
(1970:38) argues:
Old crafts such as mat making began to be forgotten as woven
materials become available. Rites and customs were debased.
Faced on all sides by the white man's attempt to dominate their
environment and the disintegration of their culture, the Nauruans
sought a new orientation for their lives. They could no longer
follow the old ways completely and so settled for a combination
of the basic elements of the old culture, clinging strongly to
their family life, and some of the advantages of Western civili-
sation. They were able to achieve this because, although royal-
ties were low - only about 230 Pounds Sterling per annum at
this time for the whole population - this money, together with
land rents and some return from copra, freed them from the
necessity of working on the phosphate fields to pay their taxes.
The most disruptive period for Nauru was World War 11, during which the island
was cnntinuously bombed b y Japanese- and Americans planesJ3eginning in 1940,five
phosphate vessels were sunk off Nauru and the island shelled by German warships.
Nauru was again bombed by Japanese planes in 1941 and 1942 prior to Japanese
occupation of the island. After a Japanese military airstrip was completed in 1943, the
island was bombed almost continuously by Allied planes. By the end of 1943, due to the