Draft:Kingdom of Nauru

The Kingdom of Nauru was an Austronesian monarchy located in modern-day Nauru from 1888 to 1921.

Unification and German colonisation
Before the kingdom, the island had been divided into 12 cheftainships in isolation.

During a wedding in 1878, several drunkards killed a local chief, and the wedding then escalated into violence, as did the rest of the island, which led to the outbreak of the Nauruan Civil War. An escaped convict, Aweida, took advantage of the conflict and tried to become king, which changed the course of the war.

In 1881, the British Royal Navy scouted the island. William Harris, who had lived with the Nauruans for years, informed the captain of the conflict, which he told his crew "All hands constantly drunk: no fruit or vegetables to be obtained, nothing but pigs and coconuts." For the most of the war, both sides remained in a stalemate, with each controlling the north or south of the island. The war largely affected German merchants, who brought their concerns to the German Government, who sent the military to intervene on the side of King Aweida, who, with their help, achieved victory on April 16, 1888. Nauru was then annexed into the German Empire, becoming part of German New Guinea. The Colonial Government then confiscated the population’s alcohol and firearms, installed King Aweida on the throne, and then placed the 12 local chiefs under house arrest.

Death of King Aweida and dissoloution
In 1901, Phosphate was discovered on the island. Later, in 1906, The Pacific Phosphate Company recivied rights to mining on the island, which damged it’s ecosytem. In 1914, during WW1, Australian Troops siezed the island. Later, it became a League of Nations mandate under Britan, Australia, and New Zealand, who purchased all phosphate mining rights.