The Nauruan Tribal War was a conflict between the twelve indigenous tribes of Nauru occurring from 1878 to 1888. At the end of the war about 500 people have been dead, which was around a third of the population; the population number fell from 1400 (1843) to 900 (1888).

Origins

Since the British captain John Fearn discovered Nauru in 1798, it had been avoided as well as possible by many ships due to its admittingness as a station for pirats . Nevertheless the immigration of European emigrants (often lawbreakers) in 19th century increased continually. Traditional life has been disrupted by the introduction of arms and alcohol, a unknown drink in ancient Nauru, although the Nauruans consumed toddy for several thousand years.

Outbreak

The conflict had begun during a marriage festival; while discussing over a point of etiquette, which turned into a heated conversation, one of the guests fired a pistol and unfortunatley shot a young chief. The avenge of the young chief's death was clearly. Former feuds had their origins in similar unfortunate incidents, but this time every family in every tribe's clan had guns; additionally the Nauruans had been forced by the intrigal beachcombers, released convicts and dismissed whalers from Europe. Several deadly shootings let most of the Nauruans be participated in the war. A kind of guerrilla war broke out; drunk people shot coincidentally others or broke in the enemy's house to shoot a candle, a match, or everything moving. Women and children had been slaughtered. The island's king Aweida had been dismissed by an escaped convict.

War reports

See German version

German annexation and end of the war

With the banning of alcohol and firearms by Germany and Nauru's annexation to German New Guinea on October 3, 1888, the bloodiest and greatest tribal war in Nauruan history ended abruptly. Aweida became the island's king again. Later Nauru has been involved in the World War II, when Japan invaded.

More details on German version

Aftermath

See German version

See also: History of Nauru, World War I, King Auweyida