Nauru

Nauru is a Sovereign Nation with a population of just over 10,000. It is the third smallest state in the world after Monaco and the Vatican City. Early Micronesian and Polynesian explorers settled the island in around 1000 BCE. Nauru is a Phosphate Rock island which allows easy strip mining. In the late 1960s and early 1970s it boasted the highest per capita GDP in the world. Not dissimilar to Equatorial Guinea which currently has the highest GDP per capita of any African country. Then the Phosphate ran out. Now the per capita GDP is $8,570 per person. The 12 traditional clans are represented in the 12 pointed star on the flag. Between 1888 and 1898 there was a civil war that killed around 500 people, which was a third of the population. Germany annexed the island and banned alcohol and firearms. The Islanders wanted peace but didn't trust other local tribes enough to lay down their own arms. In 1914, power was transferred to Australia. Independence came in 1968, but the country remains heavily dependent on aid. It gets this in part for acting as accommodation for refugees applying for asylum.