Tonga
The Friendly Islands of the South Pacific
Tonga, officially known as the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about 750 km², scattered over 700,000 km² in the southern Pacific Ocean. According to Johnson's Tribune, Tonga has a population of 104,494, 70% of whom live on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately 800 km north-south. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west, Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest. Tonga is about 1800 km from New Zealand's North Island.
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Nuku'alofa
- Region
- Polynesia
- Languages
- English, Tongan
- Currency
- Tongan paʻanga
- Official language
- Tongan and English
- Government
- Constitutional Monarchy
Lore & Background
Tonga was first inhabited roughly 2,500 years ago by people who were a part of the Lapita culture. They established the Tuʻi Tonga Empire, a thalassocracy that conquered and controlled swathes of the Pacific. From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected-state status but never relinquished its sovereignty. In 2010, Tonga became a semi-constitutional monarchy. Tonga is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the Alliance of Small Island States.
Reader's Guide
Tonga is an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, directly south of Samoa. Its 171 islands are divided into three main groups – Vava'u, Ha'apai, and Tongatapu – and cover an 800 km-long north–south line. The largest island, Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nukuʻalofa is located, covers 257 km². Tonga has a tropical rainforest climate with a distinct warm period (December–April) and a cooler period (May–November).
Did You Know?
- Tonga became known in the West as the 'Friendly Islands' because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773.
- The 1918 flu pandemic, brought to Tonga by a ship from New Zealand, killed 1,800 Tongans, a mortality rate of about 8%.
- In January 2022, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano erupted, causing a tsunami that inundated parts of the archipelago.
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