Everything about Tuvalu totally explained
Tuvalu (IPA: [t:u:'valu]), formerly known as the
Ellice Islands, is a
Polynesian
island nation located in the
Pacific Ocean midway between
Hawaii and
Australia. Its nearest neighbours are
Kiribati,
Samoa and
Fiji. Comprising four reef islands and five true
atolls with a gross land area of just 26
square kilometers (10
sq mi) it's the third-least populated independent country in the world, with only
Vatican City and
Nauru having fewer inhabitants. It is also the second-smallest member by population of the
United Nations. In terms of physical land size, Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the
Vatican City—0.44 km²;
Monaco—1.95 km² and
Nauru—21 km².
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesian people. The islands came under
Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century. The Ellice Islands were administered by Britain as part of a protectorate from 1892 to 1916 and as part of the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916 to 1974. In 1974 the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status as Tuvalu, separating from the Gilbert Islands which became
Kiribati upon independence. Tuvalu became fully independent within
The Commonwealth in 1978.
History
Tuvaluans are a Polynesian people who settled the islands around 3000 years ago coming from Tonga and Samoa. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the nearer islands. Eight of the 9 islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in
Tuvaluan. Possible evidence of fire in the
Caves of Nanumanga may indicate human occupation thousands of years before that.
Tuvalu was first sighted by
Europeans in 1568 with the arrival of
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira from
Spain who also encountered the island of
Niue but was unable to land.
No other Europeans turned up again until the late
1700s when other European explorers reached the area. By the early
1800s whalers were roving the Pacific though visiting Tuvalu only infrequently, because of the difficulties of landing ships on the atolls, and no settlements were established by them.
Peruvian slave raiders ("
blackbirders") combed the Pacific between 1862 and 1864 and Tuvalu was one of the hardest-hit Pacific island groups with over 400 people taken from
Funafuti and
Nukulaelae, none of whom returned.
In
1865 the
London Missionary Society, Protestant congregationalists, began their process of evangelisation of Tuvalu and the people's conversion to
Christianity was complete by the
1920s. Also in the late 1800s, European traders began to live on the islands hoping to profit from local resources.
In
1892 the islands became part of the
British protectorate known as the Ellice Islands. The protectorate was incorporated into the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1916. In 1943, during
World War II, Tuvalu was selected as an operations base for Allied forces battling the Japanese in the Pacific. Thousands of marines were stationed there until December 1945.
In
1974 ethnic differences within the colony caused the
Polynesians of the Ellice Islands to vote for separation from the
Micronesians of the Gilbert Islands (to become
Kiribati). The following year the Ellice Islands became the separate British colony of Tuvalu. Independence was granted in 1978.
Tuvalu Independence Day is celebrated on
1 October. In 1979 Tuvalu signed a treaty of friendship with the
United States that recognized Tuvalu's rightful possession of four small islands formerly claimed by the United States.
As low-lying islands, lacking a surrounding shallow shelf, the island communities of Tuvalu are especially susceptible to changes in sea level and storm patterns that hit the island undissipated. It is estimated that a sea level rise of 20–40 centimetres (8–16
inches) in the next 100 years could make Tuvalu uninhabitable. The
South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (
SOPAC) suggests that while Tuvalu is vulnerable to climate change there are additional environmental problems such as population growth and poor coastal management that are affecting sustainable development on the island.
SOPAC ranks the country as extremely vulnerable using the
Environmental Vulnerability Index. While some commentators have called for the relocation of the population of Tuvalu to Australia, New Zealand, or Kioa (Fiji), the former Prime Minister
Maatia Toafa said his government didn't regard rising sea levels as such a threat that the entire population would need to be evacuated. In spite of persistent Internet rumours that New Zealand has agreed to accept an annual quota of 75 evacuees, the annual residence quota of 75 Tuvaluans under the Pacific Access Category (and 50 places for people from Kiribati) replaced the previous Work Schemes from the two countries and are not related to environmental concerns.
Politics
Tuvalu is a
constitutional monarchy and
Commonwealth Realm, with
Queen Elizabeth II recognised as the official Queen of Tuvalu. She is represented in Tuvalu by a
Governor General, who is appointed upon the advice of the Prime Minister. The local
unicameral parliament, or
Fale I Fono, has 15 members and is elected every four years. Its members elect a
Prime Minister who is the
head of government. The Cabinet is appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Some elders also exercise informal authority on a local level. There are no formal political parties and election campaigns are largely on the basis of personal/family ties and reputation.
The highest court in Tuvalu is the High Court; there are eight Island Courts with limited jurisdiction. Rulings from the High Court can be appealed to the Court of Appeal in Fiji.
Tuvalu has no regular military forces, and spends no money on the military. Its police force includes a Maritime Surveillance Unit for search and rescue missions and surveillance operations. The police have a
Pacific-class patrol boat (
Te Mataili) provided by
Australia under the
Pacific Patrol Boat Program for use in maritime surveillance and
fishery patrol.
The government of Tuvalu is represented in the
United Kingdom by an honorary consul, based at
Tuvalu House,
London.
Districts
Tuvalu's small population is distributed across 9 islands, 5 of which are
atolls. The smallest island, Niulakita, was uninhabited until it was resettled by people from Niutao in 1949.
Local government districts consisting of more than one islet:
Foreign relations
Tuvalu maintains close relations with
Fiji,
New Zealand,
Australia and the
United Kingdom. It has diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan);
Taiwan maintains the only resident embassy in Tuvalu and has a large assistance program in the islands.
Tuvalu became a member of United Nations in 2000 and maintains a mission at the UN in New York. A major international priority for Tuvalu in the UN, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg and in other international fora is promoting concern about global warming and possible sea level rise. Tuvalu advocates ratification and implementation of the
Kyoto Protocol. It also is a member of the
Asian Development Bank.
Tuvalu is a party to a treaty of friendship with the
United States, signed soon after independence and ratified by the
U.S. Senate in 1983, under which the United States renounced prior territorial claims to four Tuvaluan islands under the
Guano Act.
Geography
Tuvalu consists of four reef islands and five true
atolls. Its small, scattered group of atolls has poor soil and a total land area of only about 26 square kilometres (less than 10 sq. mi.) making it the fourth smallest country in the world. The land is very low lying with narrow coral atolls. Funafuti is the largest atoll of the nine low reef islands and atolls that form the Tuvalu volcanic island chain. It comprises numerous islets around a central lagoon that's approximately 25.1 kilometres (15.6
mi) (N-S) by 18.4 kilometres (11.4 mi) (W-E), centred on 179°7’E and 8°30’S. An annular reef rim surrounds the lagoon, with several natural reef channels.
The highest elevation is five meters (16 ft) above sea level, which gives Tuvalu the second-lowest maximum elevation of any country (after the
Maldives). Because of this low elevation, the islands that make up this nation may be threatened by any future
sea level rise. Under such circumstances, the population may evacuate to
New Zealand,
Niue or the
Fijian island of
Kioa. Additionally, Tuvalu is affected by what is known as a King Tide, which can raise the sea level higher than a normal
high tide. In the future, this may threaten to submerge the nation entirely.
Tuvalu has very poor land and the soil is hardly usable for
agriculture. There is almost no reliable supply of
drinking water.
Tuvalu has westerly gales and heavy rain from November to March and tropical temperatures moderated by easterly winds from March to November.
Economy
Tuvalu has almost no natural resources, and its main form of income consists of foreign aid. Virtually the only jobs in the islands that pay a steady wage or salary are with the government. Subsistence farming and fishing remain the primary economic activities, particularly off the capital island of Funafuti. Government revenues largely come from the sale of stamps and coins, fishing licenses and worker remittances.
About 800 Tuvaluans previously worked in
Nauru in the
phosphate mining industry or aboard foreign ships as sailors. When phosphate mining ceased in Nauru, 378 Tuvaluans were stranded in the country until they were repatriated in 2006 by a joint program in which Australia, New Zealand, and the EU paid most of the cost of their return passage, and Taiwan paid the back wages they were owed. Substantial income is received annually from an international
trust fund established in 1987 by
Australia,
New Zealand, and the
United Kingdom and supported also by
Japan and
South Korea. This fund grew from an initial $17 million to over $35 million in 1999. The
US government is also a major revenue source for Tuvalu, with 1999 payments from a 1988 treaty on fisheries at about $9 million, a total which is expected to rise annually. In an effort to reduce its dependence on foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms, including
privatization of some government functions and personnel cuts of up to 7%.
In 1998, Tuvalu began deriving revenue from use of its area code for
"900" lines and from the sale of its "
.tv" Internet domain name. In
2000, Tuvalu negotiated a contract leasing its Internet
domain name "
.tv" for $50 million in royalties. However, the Canadian entrepreneur who negotiated the deal, Jason Chapnik, was unable to raise the $50 million in the contracted time period, and the contract eventually fell into other hands.
Due to the country's remoteness, tourism doesn't provide much income; a hundred tourists are estimated to visit Tuvalu annually. Almost all visitors are government officials, aid workers, non-governmental organization officials or consultants.
Tuvalu allegedly participated in Japan's vote-buying scheme at the
International Whaling Commission in 2006. Greenpeace maintains that vote-buying took place and Tuvalu was one of the countries to receive economic assistance from Japan in 2006.
Demographics
The island population has more than doubled since 1980 and was estimated to reach 11,810 in July 2006. The population of Tuvalu is primarily of
Polynesian ethnicity; about 4% of the population is
Micronesian. About 97% of the Tuvaluans are members of the
Church of Tuvalu, a
Protestant Christian church. The religion has been mixed with some elements of the indigenous religions. Other religions practised on the island include Seventh-Day Adventist (1.4%) and
Bahá'í (1%).
Traditional music prior to European contact included poems performed in a sort of monotonal recitation, though this tradition has since become extinct, as well as
work songs which the women performed to encourage the men while they worked.
The most famous form of Tuvaluan dance music,
fatele, is influenced by European
melody and
harmony and is competitive, with each island divided into two sides .
The two primary traditional dances of Tuvalu are the
fakanu and
fakaseasea. Of these, the
fakanu has since died out, though the
fakaseasea lives on, performed only by elders .
Transportation
Main article: Transportation in Tuvalu
Funafuti International Airport serves the country.
Miscellaneous topics
Communications in Tuvalu
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tuvalu'.
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