Nauru: Phosphate and Political Progress is the story of David and Goliath in a modern political setting in the South Seas. Controlled, protected, or occupied successively by Germans, Australians, British, and Japanese and then again by Australians under U.N. Trusteeship, all (except Germany) for the purpose of exploiting the island{u2019}s one resource - phosphate - Nauru is one of the smallest and most isolated islands in the Pacific, with a mere 3000 inhabitants.