Nauru

Nauru or Naoero, officially the Republic of Naoero, is an island country in Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia region; its nearest neighbour, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) to the east, is Banaba, part of Kiribati. Yaren is its de facto capital. With an area of 21 square kilometres (8.1 mi2; 2,100 ha; 5,200 acres), Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world, as well as the smallest member state of the Commonwealth of Nations by both area and population. Its population of about 12,000 is the world's third-smallest (not including colonies or overseas territories). Nauru is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. First settled by Micronesians circa 1000 BCE, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. It was occupied by Australia during World War I and subsequently became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia with New Zealand and the United Kingdom as co-trustees. Nauru was occupied by Japan for three years during World War II and became a United Nations trust territory after the war. Nauru gained its independence from Australia in 1968. At various points since 2001, it has accepted aid from Australia in exchange for hosting the Nauru Regional Processing Centre, a controversial offshore Australian immigration detention facility. As a result of heavy dependence on Australia, some sources have identified Nauru as an Australian client state. Nauru is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, as a result of which most of its interior was profitably but destructively strip-mined for about a century starting in 1900. The island's viable phosphate reserves were exhausted in the 1990s and, in a classic example of the resource curse, mismanagement of the island's accumulated mining wealth resulted in serious financial troubles through the 2000s; the economy gradually recovered in the 2010s.

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