Posted
on July 12, 2014
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| Sao Tome |
Some
other islands in the world have been formed slowly by creatures
called corals.
 |
| People of Kiribati |
Today is the national day of two different island nations:
- Sao Tome and Principe won its independence from Portugal on this date in 1975.
- And Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom on this date in 1979.
Close
to shore...
I
was surprised to learn that the islands of Sao Tome and Principe,
which lie quite close to Africa, were never settled by people until
Portuguese explorers discovered them in the 1400s. I imagine that a
variety of African peoples knew about the islands but found no reason
to leave their homes to live there; the Portuguese, on the other
hand, saw the islands as a good base from which to trade with a
variety of African empires and groups.
Sao
Tome and Principe were both formed from extinct volcanoes; the
volcanic soils of the islands had a lot of minerals, and so they were
good for agriculture. First sugar and later cotton and cocoa were
grown there, and the islands remained important for trading ships as
well.
When
the inhabitants of other, larger nations in Africa began to push for
independence, so too did the people of Sao Tome and Principe.
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| Pico Cao Grande is a volcanic plug that was created when magma cooled while still inside the volcano. The rest of the volcano has eroded away, leaving this hard plug that roughly shows the shape of the original magma chamber. |
...Or
far from anything...
Kiribati
is quite different than Sao Tome and Principe. First, there is only
one true island, which is a “raised-coral island.” An atoll (a
ring shaped reef) is formed by coral, and then tectonic forces (the
forces that cause the continents to slowly move about the surface of
the Earth, and that cause earthquakes and volcanoes) raise up the
atoll so that true soil can develop. The rest of Kiribati is
made
up of far-flung coral atolls.
Because
these small islands are so far from any continent and even from one
another, I thought that they might not have been discovered by
ancient peoples. Boy, was I wrong! Micronesians settled the area
between 3,000 BCE and 1,000 CE. Once settled, the islanders continued
to trade and intermarry and learn from one another... and
occasionally they were conquered by people from larger islands such
as Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji.
Eventually, of course, the islanders gained self-rule from Great Britain.
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| During World War II, three of the atolls of Kiribati were taken over by the Imperial Japanese. In November of 1943, Allied forces started a campaign to take over the Japanese-held atolls. It was some of the bloodiest battles of the war. |
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| Today you can still see tanks and guns left behind. |
Apparently
Kiribati is trying to buy land in mountainous Fiji before global
climate change causes the entire nation to disappear beneath the
waves! Because the atolls were made by sea creatures, the land is
very low—just a bit above sea level. And as sea levels rise...well,
the 100 thousand people of the nation are planning ahead and will
migrate if necessary.
Also
on this date:
Plan ahead:
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out my Pinterest boards for:
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