Solomon Islands

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Lore & Background

The islands have been settled since at least some time between 30,000 and 28,800 BC, with later waves of migrants, notably the Lapita people, mixing and producing the modern indigenous Solomon Islanders population. In 1568, the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit them. Though not named by Mendaña, it is believed that the islands were called 'the Solomons' by those who later received word of his voyage and mapped his discovery. Mendaña returned decades later, in 1595, and another Spanish expedition, led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, visited the Solomons in 1606. In June 1893, Captain Herbert Gibson of HMS Curacoa declared the southern Solomon Islands a British protectorate. During World War II, the Solomon Islands campaign (1942–1945) saw fierce fighting between the United States, British Imperial forces, and the Empire of Japan, including the Battle of Guadalcanal. The official name of the then-British administration was changed from the 'British Solomon Islands Protectorate' to 'Solomon Islands' in 1975, and self-government was achieved the following year. Independence was obtained, and the name changed to just 'Solomon Islands' (without the definite article), in 1978. At independence, Solomon Islands became a constitutional monarchy. The King of Solomon Islands is Charles III, who is represented in the country by a governor-general appointed on the advice of the prime minister.

In Their Own Story

Long before European ships arrived, the Solomons were already a bustling world. Settlers from the Bismarck Islands and New Guinea reached Buka Island by c. 30,000–28,000 BC, forming a landmass known as 'Greater Bougainville' when sea levels were lower. As the ice age ended around 4000–3500 BC, rising seas split this territory into today's islands. Later, between c. 1200–800 BC, Austronesian Lapita people 'leap-frogged' the main group to settle the Santa Cruz Islands first, eventually mixing with locals and introducing dominant Oceanic languages. By the 13th century, the Roviana cultural complex flourished off New Georgia's southern coast, builders raising megalithic shrines in a society known for headhunting. In the 19th century, the arrival of whalers brought new dangers; epidemics spread among islanders with no immunity, and 'blackbirding' gangs kidnapped laborers for Australia and Fiji from the 1840s onward. Christian missionaries faced resistance too: French Catholic Jean-Baptiste Epalle was killed by islanders in 1845 on Santa Isabel, though Anglicans eventually gained many converts from the 1850s.

Reader's Guide

The Solomons were first settled by people coming from the Bismarck Islands and New Guinea during the Pleistocene era c. 30,000–28,000 BC, based on archaeological evidence found at Kilu Cave on Buka Island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. At this point sea levels were lower and Buka and Bougainville were physically joined to the southern Solomons in one landmass ('Greater Bougainville'), though it is unclear precisely how far south these early settlers spread as no other archaeological sites from this period have been found. As sea levels rose as the Ice Age ended c. 4000–3500 BC, the Greater Bougainville landmass split into the numerous islands that exist today. Evidence of later human settlements dating to c. 4500–2500 BC have been found at Poha Cave and Vatuluma Posovi Cave on Guadalcanal. The ethnic identity of these early peoples is unclear, though it is thought that the speakers of the Central Solomon languages (a self-contained language family unrelated to other languages spoken in the Solomons) likely represent the descendants of these earlier settlers. From c. 1200–800 BC, Austronesian Lapita people began arriving from the Bismarcks with their characteristic ceramics. Evidence for their presence has been found across the Solomon archipelago, as well at the Santa Cruz Islands in the south-east, with different islands being settled at different times. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Lapita people 'leap-frogged' the already inhabited main Solomon Islands and settled first on the Santa Cruz group, with later back-migrations bringing their culture to the main group. These peoples mixed with the native Solomon Islanders and over time their languages became dominant, with most of the 60–70 languages spoken there belonging to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. Then, as now, communities tended to exist in small villages practising subsistence agriculture, though extensive inter-island trade networks existed. Numerous ancient burial sites and other evidence of permanent settlements have been found from the period AD 1000–1500 throughout the islands, one of the most prominent examples being the Roviana cultural complex centred on the islands off the southern coast of New Georgia, where a large number of megalithic shrines and other structures were constructed in the 13th century. The people of So

Did You Know?

• The country takes its name from the wider Solomon Islands archipelago, which includes the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (part of Papua New Guinea).
• The official name was changed from 'British Solomon Islands Protectorate' to 'Solomon Islands' in 1975, and independence was achieved in 1978.
• The islands were first settled between 30,000 and 28,800 BC, with later Lapita migrants arriving around 1200–800 BC.
• The Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to visit the islands in 1568.