Posted
on July 12, 2014
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| Sao Tome |
Many
islands in the world have slowly risen up out of the ocean –
because they are the tips of giant underwater volcanoes. (A new
Hawaiian island is growing that way right now... Actually, Lo'ihi is
still a “seamount” rather than an island, because the top of the
mountain is still about three thousand feet below sea level. But
maybe someday...)
Some
other islands in the world have been formed slowly by creatures
called corals.
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| People of Kiribati |
It
takes time for islands to be discovered and settled by plant seeds,
by land creatures, and even by people. It takes time for explorers
from far away to discover islands and establish trade with the
inhabitants—or, far to often, to take over the land and rule over
its people. And of course it often takes a whole lot of time for the
islanders to get rid of colonial overlords as well!
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.
 |
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.
The
European navigators also discovered the islands more quickly than I
had suspected they would, in the early 1500s. The Spanish came first;
by the 1800s whalers, slave traders, and merchants arrived in large
numbers. In 1837 the first British settlers arrived, and it wasn't
long before some of the islands of Kiribati became a British
protectorate.
Eventually,
of course, the islanders gained self-rule from Great Britain.
 |
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.
|
 |
| 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:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
Located
in the Indian Ocean, this 115-island country is considered to be part
of Africa. It has the smallest population of any independent African
nation. But that seems about right, since it is also the smallest
country in Africa in total land area. Actually, it's only a little
bit larger in area than the U.S. Capital, Washington, D.C. – which
is a city, not a nation! Still, there are quite a few smaller nations
in the world.
A
coral island starts as a coral reef. But rocks and sand can be piled
on top of the reef during a storm, and then seeds can sprout in the
layers of accumulated material.
And a raised coral island is an atoll (a ring-shaped coral reef that
encircles a central lagoon) that was uplifted above sea level. What
causes the uplift? The same tectonic forces that create mountains and
cause earthquakes. Just like other coral islands, rocks and soil and
sand can be deposited on these uplifted reefs, and then plants
colonize and change the island.
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