Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Smallest Country in the World

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

How small can a country be and still be a country? In theory, there is no lower limit on the number of people to be a sovereign state. However, in reality, there are costs associated with being an independent country. The fewer the number of people, the higher the cost for everyone in the country. There is one country that has managed to remain an independent republic for over 50 years with a population of only about 10,000 people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How small can a country be, yet still be a country? In theory, there is no lower limit on the number of people to be a sovereign state. However, in reality, there are costs associated with being an independent country. The fewer the number of people, the higher the cost for everyone else in the nation. There is one country that has managed to remain an independent republic for over 50 years, with a population of only about 10,000 people. Learn more about Nauru, the smallest country in the world, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by the Travel Photography Academy. In 2007, I sold my home. home to travel around the world. I bought an expensive camera that I didn't know how to use

and took a bunch of terrible photos. Several years, 100 countries, and tens of thousands of photos later, I'd improved my photography to the point where I was winning national awards, being named Travel Photographer of the year three times in North America. I created the Travel Photography Academy, so you don't have to spend the many years that I did to improve your photography. Even though we can't easily travel right now, you can still work on improving your photography at home and in your own community. Just go to travel photography academy.com or click on the link in the show notes to start improving your photography today.

I'll start by addressing the question that many of you are probably asking. Isn't Vatican City the smallest country in the world? Well, the answer is sort of. While it's recognized as a country, it isn't a country in the sense that every other country in the world is a country. There's no native population in the Vatican. No one is born there. No one owns property there.

It's basically a legal creation for political purposes. It has a fascinating story, and I'll be doing an episode on it in the future. But I'm going to put it aside for the moment. So if we look at countries with an actual self-sustaining population, the smallest country in the world would be Nauru. The best current estimate of the population in Nauru is 10,670 people. The entire country has the same population as a small town, and barely so as many people defamation.

find the cutoff limit for a town as 10,000 people. Nauru is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and Australia, lying just south of the equator. Unlike most countries in the Pacific, Nauru is not an archipelago of islands. It is one single island that sits by itself in the ocean. Its land area is about 21 square kilometers or 8.1 square miles. So why is such a small island an independent country? Why isn't it part of some larger nation with other islands in the region?

The story of Nauru is a fascinating one, and its history is unlike any other country in the world. It's been estimated that humans have been on Nauru for at least 3,000 years. Early inhabitants of the island survived in a diet of fish, coconut, and pandanus fruit. They also developed a system of aquaculture, where they raised fish in their lagoon. Water has always been a challenge, as the only source of freshwater was rainwater. Eventually, 12 tribes developed on the island. They would frequently fight with each other, and there was never a use. unified government for the entire island. Today, the 12 tribes are recognized by the 12-pointed star

on the Nauruan flag. Given how remote Nauru is, it was one of the last places on Earth to have contact with European explorers. That happened in 1798 when a British trading ship called the hunter saw the island. It was dubbed Pleasant Island by the sailors. Nauru wasn't a regular stop for sailors and the island didn't have a lot of regular contact with Europeans. By 1828, regular contact had been developed and the island began trading for firearms and alcohol. The firearms were used in a devastating civil war that lasted from 1878 to 1888. The war reduced the population of the island from 1400 to about 900. It was in 1886 that the Germans formerly took over the island with an agreement with the British. In 1888, they landed, marched around the island, rounded up all the

chiefs, and ended the civil war. The German occupation lasted until World War I when it was taken over by Australia who ceded control to the British in 1920. It was in 1900 during the German occupation that the thing which changed the course of Nauru's fate was discovered. Phosphate. Nauru is a phosphate island. Basically, for thousands of years, birds landed on Nauru in the course of their migrations. As such, the island has thousands and thousands of years of bird poop that's accumulated.

All of that guano was incredibly rich in phosphate, which was used as a fertilizer. World War II was extremely hard on Nauru. It was one of the only places in the world attacked by both the Germans and the Japanese. In 1940, it was bombarded by a German cruiser. In August 1942, it was occupied by the Japanese. The Nauruans were used in forced labor and were subject to frequent punishments and executions. Of the 1800 people on the island at the start of the Japanese invasion, 1,200 were sent to the island of Chuk as laborers, and only 737 ever returned.

Of the 600 who remained on the island, only 400 survived. After the war, Nauru found itself like many British colonies, looking for independence. By the time they achieved self-governance in 1966, much of the phosphate on the island had already been mined. Guano is a very limited resource. Birds only poop so much. In 1967, Nauru purchased the assets of the British phosphate mining on the island, and in 1968, they became independent. Nauru was just about to enter its golden era.

While much of the phosphate had already been mined, there was still a considerable amount left. In the 1970s, with all the phosphate money staying in the country, the per capita income in Nauru was close to the highest in the world. It had reached $50,000 per person. However, this was not going to last very long. Most of the money was put into a trust for the future of Nauru. However, the money was poorly managed throughout the 80s and 90s. They invested in an airline that covered much of the Pacific, but most of the flights were under 20% capacity.

They invested in overseas real estate, all of which ended up being sold. And most famously, they invested in Leonardo the Musical, which was a musical that was released on London's West End. It was a flop. With the very finite phosphate reserves having run down to just a dribble, and their trust fund having been squandered, it was hard times for Nauru. Their trust fund had lost almost 90% of its value in almost 10%. 10 years. It went from 1.3 billion Australian dollars in 1991 to 138 million Australian dollars in 2002. The low point was when the only airplane in the airline, which was owned by the country, and was the only connection to the rest of the world, was repossessed in 2005 for lack of

payment. Nauru's problems weren't just financial. The phosphate mining was surface strip mining. The inner 80% of the island was rendered into an uninhabitable moon's escape. The island had become dependent on importing everything from the outside world, including and especially food. Most islands in the Pacific suffer from high rates of obesity and diabetes. Nauru has the highest rate in the entire world. In terms of body mass index, 97% of men and 93% of women are overweight or obese. They also have the world's highest rate of type 2 diabetes. Outside of a very dwindling supply of phosphates, one of nine Nauru's biggest assets is the fact it's a sovereign country. Even though it only has 10,000 people,

it is still an independent country and as such, its recognition has some value. It's one of only a few countries that recognizes Taiwan instead of the People's Republic of China. In exchange, they get aid from Taiwan. In fact, when their plane got repossessed, it was Taiwan that got them a new one. Being a sovereign country means being a member of international organizations. It took 30 years for Nauru to join the United Nations. There have been several international bodies that have suspended the membership of Nauru because they couldn't pay their dues. And yes, international organizations have dues. One of the biggest moneymakers over the last 15 years has been hosting a detainment facility for refugees who tried to get into Australia. When the refugees show up in

Australia, they're shipped off to Nauru where they're out of sight and out of mind. Nauru makes money, and Australia gets to export a problem. You'd think that a tropical island would get tons of tourism, but the reality is it's one of the least visited countries in the world. It isn't easy to get to, there isn't much to do when you get there, and they have a visa policy that's the most restrictive in the Pacific. No matter what country you're from, it's probably easier to visit almost any other country in the region. The country is unique in that there is really no capital city. There really aren't any cities at all, in fact. If you look up the capital of Nauru, it will usually say Yarin, but in reality, that's just the name of one of the districts the island is

it into. It's not a capital city per se and not even a city per se. Nauru has a unique holiday called Ongrim Day. It celebrates the day that the population of the island passed 1,500 people back in 1932, which is believed to be the minimum size of the population necessary for survival on the island. The most popular sport in Nauru is Australian Rules Football, making it one of the only countries outside of Australia that actively plays the game. One sport where they really perform well internationally is weightlifting. They've had several weightlifters who have competed at the highest levels of competition internationally, which is remarkable for a country that is that small. So what is the future for Nauru? The Australian

detention facility it runs probably isn't going to be around forever. It's garnered a great deal of controversy in Australia regarding the conditions in the facility. When that's closed, a significant part of Nauru's GDP is going to disappear overnight. They're now scraping phosphate leftovers, and even that isn't going to last much longer. With 80% of the island inhospitable and devoid of vegetation, and over 90% of the population obese, no matter what happens in the future, Nauru is going to have a very tough road ahead. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James McAlla. The associate producer is Thor Thompson.

Today's five-star review comes from listener Learned Lesson over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, Awesome podcast. As a fellow Green Bay Packer shareholder, I found the episode to be very informative and extremely enjoyable, and I'm still chuckling over the post-credit item. I have also shared that episode with other NFL fans. Generally, I get both considerable information

and personal enjoyment out of your podcast. Discovering Everything Everywhere last year made 2020 a little less depressing. Thank you. Well, thank you, learned lesson. The season didn't end as we hope this year, but I'm quite confident the next year will be championship number 14 for the Green Bay Packers.