Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Nauruan Civil War" in English language version.
This pervasive influence ended, in 1878, with a full scale war which broke out between the people of the Northern and Southern districts.
He described how two factions battled ceaselessly for control — one group was headed by Aweida, the king of the island. The other was an opposing rebel clan led by a white chief who claimed the throne for himself. The British fleet noted the situation, took Harris aboard and sailed away.
The conflict, which was fuelled by equal parts locally-made palm wine and European armaments, broke out during a wedding feast on the three-kilometre-wide island in 1878. A disagreement between two guests over the finer points of dining etiquette grew hostile, at which point one of the debaters produced a pistol and began blazing away. A stray bullet struck the son of a clan chief killing him. The island's factions, who were already nursing old grudges, used the occasion to attack one another. The fighting escalated from there.