- Kiritimati by Sara Boyd
... colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The island's chief agricultural product is copra. The airstrip there is used an emergency runway for trans-Pacific commercial flights. The atoll was explored by Capt. James Cook in 1777, annexed by Great Britain in 1888, and included in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony in 1919. British nuclear tests were conducted ...
- Gilbert Islands by WordNet
nounA group of islands in Micronesia to the southwest of Hawaii; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it became part of the Republic of Kiribati in 1979. .
- Kiribati by Madeline Cohen
... (1892–1916) with the Ellice Islands as a British protectorate that became (1916) the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. They gained self-rule in 1971, and, after the Ellice Islands gained (1978) independence as Tuvalu, the remaining islands were granted independence (1979) as Kiribati. U.S. Claims to several islands, including Kanton (formerly ...
- Kiribati by Mckenna Ferguson
... capital of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. Area (land): 313 sq mi (811 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 95,300. Capitals: Bairiki (executive), Ambo (legislative), and Betio (judicial), on Tarawa Atoll. The indigenous people are mostly Micronesians. Languages: English (official), Gilbertese. Religions: Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic; also Protestant ...
- Tuvalu by Great Soviet Encyclopedia
... until 1975, Ellice Islands), a state consisting of a group of atolls in the western Pacific Ocean, in Polynesia. Area, 24 sq km. Population, about 10,000 (1979). Tuvalu consists of nine low-lying coral atolls that extend for more than 600 km. The islands, which have coconut-palm and banana plantations, export copra. The capital is the city of ...