Nauru

Nauru, officially the Republic of Naoero, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of Kiribati) about 300 kilometres (190 mi) to the east.

With an area of only 21 square kilometres (8.1 mi; 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 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's end. Nauru gained its independence from Australia in 1968. At various points since 2001, it has accepted aid from the Australian Government 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. Nauru's economy gradually recovered in the 2010s.