Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Maldives is an archipelagic country in South Asia, in the Indian Ocean southwest of India and Sri Lanka, about 750 km from the Asian mainland. Its 26 atolls hold only 298 square kilometres of dry land spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres of sea, making it the smallest country in Asia.
The Maldives has an average ground-level elevation of around 1.5 metres above sea level and a highest natural point of only 2.4 metres. More than 80% of its land rises less than one metre above the sea, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned it could be uninhabitable by 2100.
The Maldives gained independence from the United Kingdom on the 26th of July 1965, with an agreement signed by Ibrahim Nasir and Sir Michael Walker in a ceremony at the British High Commissioner's Residence in Colombo. A republic was declared on the 11th of November 1968, ending an 853-year-old monarchy.
By tradition the last Buddhist king, Dhovemi, converted to Islam in 1153 and took the title Sultan Muhammad al-Adil, beginning six Islamic dynasties. Ibn Battuta credits a traveller named Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, while local chronicles hold the visitor was from the Persian town of Tabriz, known as Tabrizugefaanu.
Tourism is the dominant sector, accounting for 28% of GDP and more than 60% of foreign exchange receipts, with over 1.7 million visitors in 2019. Fishing is the second-largest sector and historically the main occupation, contributing over 15% of GDP and engaging about 30% of the workforce.
President Mohamed Nasheed announced plans in 2008 to look into buying land in India, Sri Lanka, and Australia using tourism funds, and hosted the world's first underwater cabinet meeting in 2009 to raise awareness. A 2020 University of Plymouth study found tides can raise island elevation naturally, though sea walls compromise that ability.