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Each atoll is administered by an Atoll Chief (Atholhu Veriyaa). The president (Maumoon Abdul Gayoom) appoints atoll chiefs to each atoll, who administers it as may be decreed and directed by the president. The Ministry of Atoll Administration and its Northern and Southern Regional Offices, Atoll Offices and Island Offices are collectively responsible to the President for Atolls Administration. The administrative head of the island is the Island Chief (Katheeb), appointed by the Ministry of Atolls Administration. The Island Chief’s immediate superior is the Atoll Chief

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, first elected president in 1978 and has retained power since. He has ruled in an authoritarian manner. He survived a coup attempt that was foiled with help of Indian troops in 1988.

The government declared a state of national disaster and a special task force has been set up to provide aid and supplies. Rescue efforts were hampered by loss of communication capability with the over one thousand islands that compose the nation, as well as by the lack of disaster planning.

In the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch, who had replaced the Portuguese as the dominant power in Ceylon, established hegemony over Maldivian affairs without involving themselves directly in local matters, which were governed according to centuries-old Islamic customs.

In 1558 the Portuguese established themselves on Maldives, which they administered from Goa on India's west coast. Fifteen years later, a local guerrilla leader named Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-Azam organized a popular revolt and drove the Portuguese out of Maldives. This event is now commemorated as National Day, and a small museum and memorial center honor the hero on his home island of Utim on South Tiladummati Atoll.

The Maldivians assigned Muhammad Thakurufaanu as their Sultan. The chronicles report him to have ruled wisely, being just and considerate, protecting the poor, and even solicitous for the people’s interests. He was the first Maldivian king to form the Ashkaru (a unified military body). Muhammed Thakurufaanu died a natural death on th 26th of August 1585.

Since 2003 the country has experienced occasional antigovernment demonstrations that have called for political reforms.

When the tsunami hit, two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded during the early hours of the day. Outlying low-level atolls were badly affected and some low lying islands, including some of the major resorts, were completely submerged during the high tide.

The person responsible for the conversion to Islam was a Sunni Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat. His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Mosque, or miski, in the capital of Malé. Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives. Arab interest in Maldives also was reflected in the residence there in the 1340s of the well-known North African traveler Ibn Battutah.

Western interest in the archaeological remains of early cultures on Maldives began with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of the Ceylon Civil Service. Bell was shipwrecked on the islands in 1879, and he returned several times to investigate ancient Buddhist ruins. Historians have established that by the fourth century A.D.

Maldives remained a British crown protectorate until 1953 when the sultanate was suspended and the First Republic was declared under the short-lived presidency of Muhammad Amin Didi.

Over the centuries, the islands have been visited and their development influenced by sailors from countries on the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean littorals. Mopla pirates from the Malabar Coast-present-day Kerala state in India-harassed the islands. In the 16th century, the Portuguese subjugated and ruled the islands for 15 years (1558-1573) before being driven away by the warrior-patriot and later Sultan, Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al-Azam.

Maldives' nearest neighbors are Sri Lanka and India, both of which have had cultural and economic ties with Maldives for centuries. Although under nominal Portuguese, Dutch, and British influences after the sixteenth century, Maldivians were left to govern themselves under a long line of sultans and occasionally sultanas.