Kiribati

Where the name comes from

Kiribati is the Gilbertese way of saying “Gilberts”; the islands were named after British captain Thomas Gilbert, who sailed through them in 1788.

First people

Micronesian communities settled the islands thousands of years ago.¹

Known for

Kiribati spans all four hemispheres and is among the first places to see each new day; its low atolls are threatened by rising seas.²

Outside contact

Britain made the islands a protectorate in 1892 and grouped them with the Ellice Islands in a colony in 1916; Japan occupied some of them in 1941–1943.^3,4

The modern country

The Ellice Islands split away in 1975 to become Tuvalu, and the Gilbert Islands became independent Kiribati in 1979.³