Solomon Islands (archipelago)
Encyclopedia
The Solomon Islands are an archipelago in the South-Western Pacific Ocean
, northeast of Australia
, in the region known as Melanesia
. The archipelago is currently divided between two countries; Papua New Guinea
, in which they make up the autonomous province of Bougainville; and the Solomon Islands
, which bears the same name.
-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BC from New Ireland
. It was the furthest humans went in the Pacific
until Austronesia
n speakers arrived c. 4000 BC also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe
. It is between 1200 and 800 BC that the ancestors of the Polynesia
ns, the Lapita
people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago
with their characteristic ceramic
s. Most of the languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the pre-Austronesian settlers survive (see East Papuan languages
).
The first Europe
an to visit the islands was the Spanish
navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
, coming from Peru
in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands were notorious for headhunting
and cannibalism
before the arrival of the Europeans.
Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first, because "blackbirding
" (the often brutal recruitment of laborers for the sugar plantations in Queensland
and Fiji
) led to a series of reprisals and massacres. In 1885, the Germans declared a protectorate over the Northern Solomon Islands, while the evils of the labor trade prompted the United Kingdom
to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in June 1893, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. In the year 1900, under the Treaty of Berlin (1899), the Germans transferred a number of their Solomon islands to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. The remaining German Solomon Islands at the extreme northwest of the archipelago fell to Australia early on in the first world war, and after the war the League of Nations
formally mandated those islands to Australia along with the rest of German New Guinea
. German New Guinea then became Australian New Guinea. Australian New Guinea was administered separately from the neighbouring Territory of Papua until the year 1949 when the two territories were formally united into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea
. The Territory of Papua and New Guinea
became independent from Australia in the year 1975 as the modern state of Papua New Guinea
. The German Solomon Islands that were retained by Germany after the Treaty of Berlin (1899), nowadays belong to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is a part of Papua New Guinea
.
is the largest island in the archipelago.
of the surrounding ocean. . Daytime temperatures are normally 25 to 32 degrees Celsius and 13 to 15 °C at night. From April to October (the Dry Season), the Southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h) or more. November to March is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon, and is typically warmer and wetter. Cyclones arise in the Coral Sea and the area of the Solomon Islands, but they usually veer toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia or down the coast of Australia.
and Micronesia
n communities exist. There has also been a large influx of chinese immigrants.
(predominantly of the Southeast Solomonic group
) and Polynesian languages
are native to the area. Immigrant populations speak Micronesian languages
. English
is an official language in both areas of the archipelago.
, with most of them being Anglican.
and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea
. Both countries are constitutional monarchies due to their being Commonwealth Realms. Bougainville is considering independence from Papua New Guinea.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, northeast of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in the region known as Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
. The archipelago is currently divided between two countries; Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, in which they make up the autonomous province of Bougainville; and the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, which bears the same name.
History
It is believed that PapuanEast Papuan languages
*Baining family*North Bougainville family — Bougainville*South Bougainville family — Bougainville*Central Solomon family...
-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BC from New Ireland
New Ireland (island)
New Ireland is a large island in Papua New Guinea, approximately 7,404 km² in area. It is the largest island of the New Ireland Province, lying northeast of the island of New Britain. Both islands are part of the Bismarck Archipelago, named after Otto von Bismarck, and they are separated by...
. It was the furthest humans went in the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
until Austronesia
Austronesia
Austronesia, in historical terms, refers to the homeland of the peoples who speak Austronesian languages, including Malay, Filipino, Indonesian, Maori, Malagasy, native Hawaiian, the Fijian language and around a thousand other languages...
n speakers arrived c. 4000 BC also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe
Outrigger canoe
The outrigger canoe is a type of canoe featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull...
. It is between 1200 and 800 BC that the ancestors of the Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
ns, the Lapita
Lapita
Lapita is a term applied to an ancient Pacific Ocean archaeological culture which is believed by many archaeologists to be the common ancestor of several cultures in Polynesia, Micronesia, and some coastal areas of Melanesia...
people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea.-History:...
with their characteristic ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s. Most of the languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the pre-Austronesian settlers survive (see East Papuan languages
East Papuan languages
*Baining family*North Bougainville family — Bougainville*South Bougainville family — Bougainville*Central Solomon family...
).
The first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an to visit the islands was the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira
Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira was a Spanish navigator. Born in Congosto, in León, he was the nephew of Lope García de Castro, viceroy of Peru...
, coming from Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands were notorious for headhunting
Headhunting
Headhunting is the practice of taking a person's head after killing them. Headhunting was practised in historic times in parts of China, India, Nigeria, Nuristan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Borneo, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Micronesia, Melanesia, New Zealand, and the Amazon Basin, as...
and cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
before the arrival of the Europeans.
Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. They made little progress at first, because "blackbirding
Blackbirding
Blackbirding is a term that refers to recruitment of people through trickery and kidnappings to work as labourers. From the 1860s blackbirding ships were engaged in seeking workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru...
" (the often brutal recruitment of laborers for the sugar plantations in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
) led to a series of reprisals and massacres. In 1885, the Germans declared a protectorate over the Northern Solomon Islands, while the evils of the labor trade prompted the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in June 1893, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. In the year 1900, under the Treaty of Berlin (1899), the Germans transferred a number of their Solomon islands to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. The remaining German Solomon Islands at the extreme northwest of the archipelago fell to Australia early on in the first world war, and after the war the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
formally mandated those islands to Australia along with the rest of German New Guinea
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
. German New Guinea then became Australian New Guinea. Australian New Guinea was administered separately from the neighbouring Territory of Papua until the year 1949 when the two territories were formally united into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea
Territory of Papua and New Guinea
The Territory of Papua and New Guinea was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Papua and New Guinea in 1949...
. The Territory of Papua and New Guinea
Territory of Papua and New Guinea
The Territory of Papua and New Guinea was established by an administrative union between the Australian-administered territories of Papua and New Guinea in 1949...
became independent from Australia in the year 1975 as the modern state of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. The German Solomon Islands that were retained by Germany after the Treaty of Berlin (1899), nowadays belong to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is a part of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
.
Geography
The Solomon islands consist of both volcanic islands of varying activity and coral atolls. BougainvilleBougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
is the largest island in the archipelago.
Climate
The climate of the islands is tropical, however temperatures do not greatly fluctuate due to the heat sinkHeat sink
A heat sink is a term for a component or assembly that transfers heat generated within a solid material to a fluid medium, such as air or a liquid. Examples of heat sinks are the heat exchangers used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems and the radiator in a car...
of the surrounding ocean. . Daytime temperatures are normally 25 to 32 degrees Celsius and 13 to 15 °C at night. From April to October (the Dry Season), the Southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h) or more. November to March is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon, and is typically warmer and wetter. Cyclones arise in the Coral Sea and the area of the Solomon Islands, but they usually veer toward Vanuatu and New Caledonia or down the coast of Australia.
Demographics
The population of the Solomons is mostly Melanesian, although minority PolynesianPolynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
and Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
n communities exist. There has also been a large influx of chinese immigrants.
Language
Many Melanesian languagesMelanesian languages
The Melanesian languages are the indigenous languages of Melanesia. They include about 400 Austronesian languages and numerous families of Papuan languages....
(predominantly of the Southeast Solomonic group
Southeast Solomonic languages
The family of Southeast Solomonic languages is a branch of the Oceanic languages. It consists of some 26 languages covering the South East Solomon Islands, from the tip of Santa Isabel to Makira...
) and Polynesian languages
Polynesian languages
The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Polynesians share many cultural traits...
are native to the area. Immigrant populations speak Micronesian languages
Micronesian languages
The family of Micronesian languages is a branch of the Oceanic languages. It consists of twenty languages, the nineteen Micronesian Proper languages and Nauruan...
. English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
is an official language in both areas of the archipelago.
Religion
The predominant religion on the islands is ChristianityChristianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, with most of them being Anglican.
Politics
The Solomon Islands are divided between the state of the Solomon IslandsSolomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. Both countries are constitutional monarchies due to their being Commonwealth Realms. Bougainville is considering independence from Papua New Guinea.