The demographic decline of Nauru in the nineteenth century

The Nauruan population suffered a significant decline during the nineteenth century due to repeated contacts with the Western world. Europeans who landed starting in 1830 introduced money and weapons which led to a destructive civil war between 1878 and 1888. Furthermore, the population lacked immune defenses against influenza, dysentery and tuberculosis, causing the number of inhabitants to drop from 1,400 in 1843 to 900 in 1888.