with rebel forces ended the
fighting in 1992.

Namibia:
South Africa occupied the German colony of Sud-West Afrika
during World War I and administered it as a mandate until after
World War II when it annexed the territory. In 1966 the Marxist
South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) guerrilla group
launched a war of independence for the area that was soon named
Namibia, but it was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to end
its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan for the entire
region. Independence came in 1990.

Nauru:
Nauru's phosphate deposits began to be mined early in the
20th century by a German-British consortium; the island was occupied
by Australian forces in World War I. Upon achieving independence in
1968, Nauru became the smallest independent republic in the world;
it joined the UN in 1999.

Navassa Island:
This uninhabited island was claimed by the US in
1857 for its guano, and mining took place between 1865 and 1898. The
lighthouse, built in 1917, was shut down in 1996 and administration
of Navassa Island transferred from the Coast Guard to the Department
of the Interior. A 1998 scientific expedition to the island
described it as a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity; the
following year it became a National Wildlife Refuge.

Nepal:
In 1951, the Nepalese monarch ended the century-old system of
rule by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system of
government. Reforms in 1990 established a multiparty democracy
within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. The refugee issue
of some 100,000 Bhutanese in Nepal remains unresolved; 90% of these
displaced persons are housed in seven United Nations Offices of the
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps.

Netherlands:
The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815. In
1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom. The Netherlands
remained neutral in World War I but suffered a brutal invasion and
occupation by Germany in World War II. A modern, industrialized
nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural
products. The country was a founding member of NATO and the EC, and
participated in the introduction of the euro in 1999.

Netherlands Antilles:
Once the center of the Caribbean slave trade,
the island of Curacao was hard hit by the abolition of slavery in
1863. Its prosperity (and that of neighboring Arub