Line Islands

Copra and pet fish are the islands' main export products (along with seaweed).

File:Map of Kiribati CIA WFB.png

Archaeologists have identified the remains of coral Marae platforms and/or village complexes on several of the islands,{{cite book |author=Patricia A. Nagel |title=Results of the First Joint US-USSR Central Pacific Expedition (BERPAC): Autum[n] 1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zWwVAQAAIAAJ |year=1992 |publisher=U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zWwVAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA6&dq=marae+%22line+islands%22 6] |access-date=26 February 2021 |archive-date=2 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902033415/https://books.google.com/books?id=zWwVAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }} including the Kiritimati and Tabuaeran atolls, Teraina Island, Malden, Millennium Atoll and Flint Island. These remains are dateable as far back as the 14th century, and show that the inhabitants of the Line Islands were likely permanent or at least semi-permanent.{{cite journal |url=http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/basch/uhnpscesu/pdfs/sam/DiPiazza2001AS.pdf |title=Voyaging and basalt exchange in the Phoenix and Line archipelagoes: the viewpoint from three mystery islands |last1=di Piazza |first1=Anne |last2=Pearthree |first2=Erik |journal=Oceania Archaeology |volume=36 |year=2001 |issue=3 |pages=146–152 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2001.tb00488.x |access-date=5 November 2022}}

Most 18th-century visitors to these isles overlooked these telltale signs of former Polynesian settlement. This included Captain Cook, who landed on Christmas Island (now called Kiritimati) in 1777, as well as Captain Fanning, who visited Teraina (Washington Island) and Tabuaeran (Fanning Atoll) in 1798.

In the 19th century, whaling ships were regular visitors to the islands. They came in search of water, wood and provisions. The first whaler recorded to have visited one of them was the Coquette, which docked at Kiritimati (then called Christmas Island) in 1822.Robert Langdon (ed.) Where the whalers went: an index to the Pacific ports and islands by American whalers (and some other ships) in the 19th century, Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, 1984, p. 149 {{ISBN|0-86784-471-X}}.

In 1888, the United Kingdom was planning to lay the Pacific cable, and annexed the islands with a view to using Tabuaeran (then Fanning Island) as one of the relay stations for the cable. The cable was laid and was operational between 1902 and 1963 (except for a short period in 1914).

In 1916, the British annexed Fanning and Washington islands, making them part of the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.Order in Council Annexing the Ocean, Fanning, and Washington islands to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 1916. In 1919, they annexed Christmas Island to the same colony.Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895, Annexing Christmas Island to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, 1919. The Line Islands occasionally featured briefly in the biennial reports furnished by the Colony's resident commissioner to the Colonial Office and Parliament in London (see, for example, the reports submitted in 1966 and 1967Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. (1969). Report for the Years 1966 and 1967. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.).

The United States contested the British annexations, based on the U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856, which allowed for very wide-ranging territorial claims. It relinquished these claims only in 1979, when it entered into the Treaty of Tarawa, which recognised Kiribati's sovereignty over the majority of the Line Islands chain.

Geographically, the Line Islands is divided into three subgroups: the Northern, Central, and Southern Line Islands (however, the Central Line Islands are sometimes grouped with the Southern Line Islands). The table below lists the islands from north to south.

Note:

^*The lagoon areas marked with an asterisk are included in the land areas of the previous column because, unlike typical lagoons in atolls, they are inland waters completely sealed off from the sea.

{{Further|Time in Kiribati}}

File:DateLine-with-Caroline-Island.PNG

On 23 December 1994, the Republic of Kiribati announced a change of time zone for the Line Islands, to take effect from 31 December 1994. This adjustment effectively moved the International Date Line more than {{cvt|1000|km|mi}} to the east within Kiribati, which placed all of Kiribati on the Asian or western side of the date line, despite the fact that Millennium Island's longitude of 150 degrees west corresponds to UTC−10:00 rather than to its official time zone of UTC+14:00. Millennium Island is now at the same time as the Hawaiian Islands (Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone), but one day ahead.{{cite magazine |first=Aimee |last=Harris |url=http://www.trussel.com/kir/dateline.htm |title=Date Line Politics |magazine=Honolulu Magazine |page=20 |date=August 1999 |access-date=10 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628045504/http://trussel.com/kir/dateline.htm |archive-date = 28 June 2006 |url-status=dead}} This move made Millennium Island (then Caroline Island) the easternmost land in the earliest time zone (by some definitions, the easternmost point on Earth), and one of the first points of land which saw sunrise on 1 January 2000 – at 5:43 am, as measured by local time.

The move was the fulfilment of a campaign promise by Kiribati President Teburoro Tito. Previously, the country straddled the Date Line, thus being constantly in two different days. Kiribati officials later capitalised on the nation's new status as owners of the first land to see sunrise in 2000.{{cite news |first=Nicholas D. |last=Kristof |url=http://www.trussel.com/kir/kirnews1.htm |title=Tiny Island's Date-Line Jog in Race for Millennium |newspaper=The New York Times |date=23 March 1997 |access-date=10 June 2006 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713051745/http://www.trussel.com/kir/kirnews1.htm |url-status=live}} Other Pacific nations, including Tonga and New Zealand's Chatham Islands, protested the move, objecting that it interfered with their own claims to be the first land to see dawn in the year 2000.{{cite news |first=Quentin |last=Letts |url=http://www.trussel.com/kir/kirnews2.htm |title=Pacific braces for millennium storm over matter of degrees |newspaper=The Times |date=25 January 1996 |access-date=10 June 2006 |archive-date=28 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628045554/http://trussel.com/kir/kirnews2.htm |url-status=live}}

In 1999, to further capitalise upon the massive public interest in celebrations marking the arrival of the year 2000, Caroline Island was officially renamed Millennium Island. Although the island is uninhabited, a special celebration was held there to mark the occasion. It featured performances by native Kiribati entertainers and was attended by Kiribati's President Tito.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=2000 greeted with song, dance |date=1 January 2000 |newspaper=The Japan Times |url=http://www.trussel.com/kir/millen.htm |access-date=27 January 2017 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713052518/http://www.trussel.com/kir/millen.htm |url-status=live}} Over 70 Kiribati singers and dancers travelled to Millennium Island from the capital, South Tarawa,{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.climateark.org/articles/1999/milislgr.htm |title=Millennium Island greets Y2K warmly |publisher=ClimateArk.org |date=30 December 1999 |access-date=11 June 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050213142246/http://climateark.org/articles/1999/milislgr.htm |archive-date=13 February 2005}} accompanied by approximately 25 journalists. The celebration, which was broadcast worldwide by satellite, had an estimated audience size of as many as one billion viewers.

{{Portal|Islands}}

• List of islands in the Pacific Ocean
• Polynesian Triangle

{{reflist|30em| refs=

{{cite web |title=Australia-Oceania :: United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/united-states-pacific-island-wildlife-refuges/ |work=CIA – The World Factbook |publisher=US CIA |access-date=16 September 2012 |archive-date=8 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408014336/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/united-states-pacific-island-wildlife-refuges/ |url-status=live}}

{{cite web |title=CIA – The World Factbook – Kiribati |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/photo_gallery/kr/photo_gallery_B1_kr_1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327082220/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/photo_gallery/kr/photo_gallery_B1_kr_1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 March 2010 |work=The World Factbook |publisher=US CIA |access-date=16 September 2012}}

{{cite web |title=Kiribati 2005 Census of Population and Housing: Provisional Tables |url=http://www.spc.int/prism/Country/KI/Stats/Census2005/Gen-pdf/Gen1.pdf |publisher=Kiribati National Statistics Office |access-date=16 September 2012 |archive-date=9 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809171835/http://www.spc.int/prism/Country/KI/Stats/Census2005/Gen-pdf/Gen1.pdf |url-status=live}}

}}

• {{commons category-inline|Line Islands|Line Islands}}
• [https://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/pristine-seas/expeditions/southern-line-islands/ National Geographic – Southern Line Islands Expedition, 2009]

{{Kiribati geography}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean

Category:Atolls of the Pacific Ocean

Category:Disputed islands

Category:Geography of Micronesia

Category:Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act

Category:Islands of Oceania

Category:Archipelagoes of the United States

Category:Eastern Indo-Pacific

Category:Marine ecoregions