The Nauruan Civil War was fought from 1878 to 1888, between forces loyal to incumbent King Aweida of Nauru and those seeking to depose him in favour of a rival claimant. The war was preceded by the introduction of firearms to the island and its inhabitants, Nauruans, as a whole. For the majority of the war, the loyalists and the rebels found themselves in a stalemate, with one side controlling the northern and the other the southern part of the island. In 1888, the German Empire intervened by restoring Aweida to the throne and confiscating combatants' firearms; by the time they had finished, the German soldiers had confiscated 791 rifles from both belligerents, nearly one gun per every remaining living inhabitant of the island. By historical estimates, Nauru had a population of approximately 1,400 during the height of the war, while by the end of it there were some 900 native inhabitants left (i.e. over one third of island's population perished as a consequence of the conflict). Having effectively been put under German control with the civil war's ceasefire, Nauru was shortly thereafter annexed into the German colonial empire, as part of German New Guinea. Background When the British captain John Fearn came to Nauru in 1798, the island had been avoided by sailors, due to its notoriety as a station for pirates. Nevertheless, in the 19th century, the immigration of Europeans, often lawbreakers, steadily increased. Traditional life had been disrupted by the introduction of firearms and spirits, an unknown form of alcoholic drink in ancient Nauru, although the Nauruans consumed palm wine for several thousand years. Course of the war Outbreak The conflict began during a marriage festival; while discussing a point of etiquette, which turned into a heated argument, one of the guests fired a pistol and shot a young chief. The need to avenge the young chief's death was perceived as clear in a Nauruan cultural context. Former feuds had their origins in similar incidents, but this time every family in every tribe's clan had guns, exacerbating a potential conflict. Moreover, the Nauruans were goaded by the beachcombers, released convicts and dismissed whalers from Europe. Several deadly shootings led to most Nauruans participating in the war. The conflict saw the island divided into a north and south. War reports A squadron of the British Royal Navy anchored off the coast of Nauru on September 21, 1881, and