Maldives

The lowest-lying country on earth, and the one with most obviously at stake in how much the sea rises. The Maldives are about twelve hundred coral islands in twenty-six atolls, of which around two hundred are inhabited, and the average elevation is roughly one and a half metres. Buddhist for over a thousand years, the islands converted to Islam in 1153 and were a sultanate thereafter, controlling a stretch of the Indian Ocean trade routes and exporting cowrie shells that served as currency from West Africa to China. Portugal held them briefly, the Dutch and then the British exercised protection, and full independence came in 1965. Tourism began in 1972 and now dominates the economy through resorts built one to an island, a model that keeps visitors physically separate from the population. Mohamed Nasheed, elected in 2008 after thirty years of authoritarian rule, held a cabinet meeting underwater in scuba gear to publicise sea-level rise, and was forced out in 2012. The 2004 tsunami washed over most of the country. Male is among the most densely populated cities in the world. A reclaimed artificial island has been built beside it as insurance. The country has about 520 thousand people and the smallest land area in Asia. Dhivehi is the national language and is written in Thaana, a script read right to left and derived partly from numerals. Its economy depends on tourism and tuna. Islam is the state religion and citizenship requires it. The country left and later rejoined the Commonwealth.

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