The Gilbert Islands (;Reilly Ridgell. Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this name applied only to the southern islands of the archipelago, the northern half being designated as the Scarborough Islands. Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster, 1997. p. 594) are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii. They constitute the main part of the country of Kiribati (the name of which is a rendering of "Gilberts" in the phonology of the indigenous Gilbertese). The Gilbert Islands comprise the eastern-most part of Micronesia.
Geography
The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands lie in an approximate north-to-south line. The northernmost island in the group, Makin, it is approximately from southernmost, Arorae, as the crow flies. Geographically, the equator is the dividing line between the northern and southern Gilbert Islands. However, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) considers the entire Gilbert islands group to be in the South Pacific Ocean.
Another way to group the Gilbert Islands is according to their former administrative districts, which were known as the Northern, Central, and Southern Gilberts. (Tarawa was once a separate district as well).
At one time, a subset of the northern Gilbert islands was known as Scarborough Islands and a subset of the southern Gilberts as the Kingsmill Group; in some 19th century texts, this last name of Kingsmills was applied to the entire Gilberts group.
Geologically, the Gilberts and the Ratak chain of the Marshall Islands to their north together form a continuous chain of seamounts.
Islands of the Gilberts In official north–south order (grouped by former administrative district), the islands and atolls are:
Atoll / Island Mainvillage Land area Lagoon area Pop.c. 2005 Min.numberof islets Villages Locationkm2sq mikm2sq mi Former district of the Northern Gilberts MakinMakin 2,385 62 ButaritariTemanokunuea 3,280 1111 MarakeiRawannawi 2,741 18 AbaiangTuarabu 5,502 4-2018 TarawaBetio 45,989 9+30 Former district of the Central Gilberts MaianaTebwangetua 1,908 912 AbemamaKariatebike 3,404 812 KuriaTabontebike — — 1,082 26 AranukaTakaeang 1,158 43 Nonouti 1)Teuabu 3,179 129 Former district of the Southern Gilberts Tabiteuea 1)Buariki 4,898 2+18 Beru 1)Taubukinberu 2,169 19 Nikunau 1)Rungata — — 1,912 16 Onotoa 1)Buariki 1,644 307 TamanaBakaka — — 875 13 AroraeRoreti — — 1,256 12 Gilbert Islands South Tarawa 83,382 117+1563°23'N to 2°38S172°50' to 176°49'E 1) part of Kingsmill Group proper Source for land areas: Kiribati 2005 Census Report
Northern Gilberts The Northern Gilberts (meang or mweang) geographically and traditionally encompass Butaritari, Makin, Marakei, Abaiang (literally northland) and Tarawa. They have unique tonal accents with differences particularly noted amongst Butaritari and Makin inhabitants. Traditionally, Butaritari and Makin were ruled by a chief who lived on Butaritari (called Makin or Great Makin). This chief had all the powers and authority to make and impose decisions on the Islanders, a system very different from the Southern Gilbert Islands where power was wielded collectively by the unimwane or old men of the island.
The northern Gilberts have a greater mean rainfall in comparison to the southern and central Gilberts allowing cultivation of a wider crop range. Butaritari and Makin supply most of the bananas sold in Kiribati. The cultivation of taro or babai (Cyrtosperma merkusii) has been historically easier in the northern Gilberts due to a higher water table and regular rainfall.
Central Gilberts The Central Gilberts or nuka have traditionally included Maiana, Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka. However, the latter three are considered the main islands that have unique historical and cultural characteristics which distinguish the Central Gilberts from the north and south.
Tembinok', the last king of Abemama, Kuria and Aranuka, died in the early part of the 20th century.
Southern Gilberts The Southern Gilberts include the atolls of Nonouti, South and North Tabiteuea, Beru, Nikunau, Onotoa, Tamana and the most southerly island of Arorae.
History
Prehistory The islands had been inhabited by Oceanians for several millennia (at least 2,000 years, probably 3,000).
Contact with Europeans
In 1606, Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted Butaritari and Makin, which he named the Buen Viaje Islands.Kelly, Celsus, O.F.M. La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. The Journal of Fray Martín de Munilla O.F.M. and other documents relating to the Voyage of Pedro Fernández de Quirós to the South Sea (1605–1606) and the Franciscan Missionary Plan (1617–1627) Cambridge, 1966, pp. 39, 62.
The British explorer Vice-Admiral John Byron passed through the islands in 1765 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of . He weighed anchor off Nikunau.Byron, J. & Clerke, C. (attributed to). (1767). A voyage round the world in His Majesty's Ship the ‘Dolphin’, commanded by the honourable commodore Byron. London: J. Newbery and F. Newbery.
In 1788 Captain Thomas Gilbert on and Captain John Marshall on crossed through Kuria, Aranuka, Tarawa, Abaiang, Butaritari, and Makin without attempting to land on the atolls.Henry Evans Maude, On Islands and Men. 1968.
In 1820, the islands were named the Gilbert Islands or îles Gilbert (in French) by Adam Johann von Krusenstern, a Baltic German Admiral of the Russian Czar after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who crossed the archipelago in 1788. French captain Louis Duperrey was the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago. He commanded La Coquille on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825).
US exploration Many whaling ships called at the islands in the 19th century. The first recorded visit was by the Ann and Hope, which called at Nikunau in December 1799. The main period of whaling occurred from 1825 until the 1860s, when whales were taken in large numbers On-the-Line (i.e., the equator).Robert Langdon (ed.) Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands visited by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century, (1984), Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, p. 64.
Two ships of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842), and , under the command of Captain William L. Hudson, visited many of the Gilbert Islands (then called the Kingsmill Islands or Kingsmill Group in English). While in the Gilberts, they devoted considerable time to mapping and charting reefs and anchorages.
Colonial rule
In 1886, an Anglo-German agreement partitioned the "unclaimed" central Pacific, leaving Nauru in the German sphere of influence, while Banaba (Ocean Island) and the future GEIC wound up in the British sphere of influence. A British protectorate was first proclaimed over the Gilberts by Captain Edward Davis of on 27 May 1892. British official Arthur Mahaffy visited the Islands in 1909. He noted that the "villages are kept in admirable order and the roads are scrupulously clean." A hospital was on each island, as well. The conduct of William Telfer Campbell, the second resident commissioner of the Gilberts, 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 Mahaffy. In 1913 an anonymous correspondent to The New Age journal described the mis-administration of Telfer Campbell and challenged the impartiality of Arthur Mahaffy as he was a former colonial official in the Gilberts.
In 1915, starting from 1916, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands were proclaimed a colony of the British Empire.
Population The natives of the Gilbert Islands are Austronesian peoples, similar in many respects to the natives of the Marshalls or the Carolines.
In Mahaffy's 1909 report to the British Government he described the missionaries or Protectorate staff then resident in the Gilbert Islands.
At the outbreak of World War II, about 78% of the native population were said to be Christians. This group was divided mainly into two denominations: Congregationalists (43%) and Roman Catholics (35%), Catholics becoming quickly the majority at the end of the Colony. The rest of the population were then largely semi-pagan agnostics; they did not adhere to the Christian faith, nor did they retain much of their beliefs in their own ancient gods.
Native diet during this time consisted mainly of fish, coconuts, pandanus fruit, babai (swamp taro), chicken, and some pork. Housing for Europeans employed in the island was simple: constructed of European and native materials and generally of the bungalow type. Mahaffy described the native clothing as being of "shocking shape" and "atrocious color", and that the style was changing into "kilt(s) of leaves or fine woven mats".
Economy In the early to mid 20th century the principal source of income for Gilbert islanders was from working on the production of phosphate from the deposits on Banaba (Ocean Island), an island to the west of the Gilbert Islands. In addition, coconut palms were cultivated on some of the islands. All labor was supervised by the British and every effort was made to see that the wages and living conditions were fair and adequate. (Source?) Sanitary inspections by the British did much to improve the general living conditions on most of the islands.
Arthur Mahaffy noted in 1909 that "extreme poverty is virtually unknown", and that most people on the island owned their own land. Residents paid taxes, with the majority of taxes going back into the community, and a small portion going to the Protectorate.
Administration Judged to be about 84% literate, the Gilbertese responded readily to the colony's educational efforts. All education in the islands came under the supervision of the Colonial Education Department whose aims were to educate native boys for employment in government and commercial work, and to standardize the level of education throughout the colony. The bulk of the education was provided by the missions, which maintained all the village schools and trained the native school teachers.
With the availability of European-style medical care life improved. The Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme sought to provide an outlet through the development of three uninhabited atolls in the Phoenix Islands and was the last attempt at human colonization within the British Empire.
Religion Hiram Bingham II (1831–1908) was the first to translate the Bible into Gilbertese, and also wrote hymns for the Gilbertese language. Joanna Gordon-Clark writes of their religious belief: