As the third smallest country in the world – with Vatican City and Monaco being the only others that are technically lesser in size – Nauru Island once had big money. The coral island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, part of Micronesia, was once rich with phosphate deposits, which in turn, made the country very, very rich. But matter is neither created or destroyed, and thus, the precious natural resources eventually dried up. For a deep dive into the remote island of Nauru, and its history going from one of the richest countries in the world to a landmass mined into oblivion, see below. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cOKcbtfbx2w According to the Encyclopedia Britannica : “The government of independent Nauru gained control of phosphate operations in 1970, and in the 1980s Nauru was for a time one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of gross domestic product per capita.…