[9] Honorary nationality and citizenship can be bestowed upon any person at the discretion of the President of Nauru after consultation with and meeting any requirements of the Cabinet.

[16] On 22 March 2008, the Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru, David Adeang, called a Parliamentary session, allegedly without informing government ministers, who therefore did not attend.

Opposition MPs, Adeang included, constituted a majority of legislators present, and passed a ruling outlawing dual citizenship for Members of Parliament.

[17] President Marcus Stephen accused Adeang and the Opposition of passing the ruling "after dark on Easter Saturday", "under candlelight".

[18] In April, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nauru ruled that the amendment to the citizenship law was unconstitutional, thus confirming that persons with dual nationality remain entitled to sit in Parliament.

[19] The people who populated the island that would later become Nauru, were of Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian ancestry and remained isolated for several thousand years.

Property generally was inherited from the parents by their daughters, except boats and fishing supplies or weapons were passed from a father to a son.

[30] From the early part of the 19th century, there were conflicts among European powers, who were establishing spheres of influence in the Pacific in the race to secure resources to boost economic industry.

[31][32] In 1886, Germany and Britain signed the Anglo-German Declarations about the Western Pacific Ocean to establish terms of their interaction and delineate the territories with which each was aligned.

[43] When Germany was defeated in World War I, losing its Pacific colonies, a League of Nations mandate was established for Nauru.

Within the first year of the trusteeship laws were promulgated to provide for the transition from German protectorate to British mandated rule.

[57] hereditary chiefs, who were confirmed by election, had limited power to self-govern and to administer their districts and the Nauruan communities within them.

[59] Australian administrators prohibited Chinese workers from gaining permanent residency on the island, though their indentures could be extended.

[58] From the mid-1930s, geopolitical tension began escalating, but mining in Nauru continued until December 1940, when German troops raided and attempted to take the island.

[63] The US Army captured the Pacific Islands that had been part of the South Seas Mandate by 1944, but left Nauru in Japanese hands.

[69] In 1947, Australia submitted a draft of the Nauru Trusteeship Agreement, reiterating the previous arrangement of the tripartite administration in conjunction with the British Phosphate Commission.

[73] Discontent from islanders with the trustee administration in the 1950s and increased pressure from the Trusteeship Council to advance political agency and self-governance or independence grew as the 1960s approached.

[76][77] Nauruans rejected the idea as they believed they would be unable to retain their national identity if they were absorbed into an existing population elsewhere.

[7][84] The Community Ordinance was amended numerous times and in 1997 established a scheme for persons to obtain nationality through investment.

[8] In 2025, Nauru started to sell citizenships to fund the relocation of the population inland to escape rising sea levels.