New Britain

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

It is believed that Papuan-speaking settlers began to arrive around 30,000 BCE from New Ireland. It was the furthest humans went in the Pacific until Austronesian speakers arrived c. 4000 BCE, also bringing cultural elements such as the outrigger canoe. Between 1200 and 800 BCE, the ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, arrived from the Bismarck Archipelago with their characteristic ceramics. The first European to visit the islands was the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, coming from the Viceroyalty of Peru to the Spanish East Indies in 1568. The people of Solomon Islands had engaged in headhunting and cannibalism before the arrival of the Europeans. Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-19th century. In 1885 the Germans declared a protectorate over the northern islands, to form the German Solomon Islands Protectorate. The United Kingdom declared a protectorate over the southern islands in June 1893, the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. In 1900, under the Treaty of Berlin, the Germans transferred a number of their Solomon Islands to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate. The remaining German Solomon Islands were retained by Germany until they fell to Australia early on in World War I. After the war the League of Nations formally mandated those islands to Australia along with the rest of German New Guinea, becoming Australian New Guinea. During World War II, the Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea were within the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (1942–1946). After the war the Australian Territory of 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 Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea was established in the northern Solomon Islands in 2000. Following the independence of neighbouring Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975, the British Solomon Islands gained self-government in 1976. Independence for the Solomon Islands nation was granted on 7 July 1978.

Reader's Guide

The Solomon Islands archipelago consists of over 1,000 islands, ranging from low-lying coral atolls to mountainous volcanic islands, including many volcanoes with varying degrees of activity. Bougainville Island is the largest in the archipelago, with an area of 9,300 square kilometres (3,600 sq mi). Mount Balbi on Bougainville is the highest peak in the archipelago at 2,715 metres (8,907 ft). The archipelago was formed by the convergence of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The Indo-Australian Plate and the smaller Solomon Sea Plate are subducting beneath the Pacific Plate along the New Britain–San Cristobal oceanic trench, which runs south of and parallel to the archipelago in the Solomon Sea. The surface geology of the islands is mostly igneous rocks, outcrops of metamorphic rocks, alluvial lowlands, and uplifted coral islands. Active and dormant volcanoes are found in an arc extending from Bougainville in the north through the New Georgia Islands and Savo Island to Gallego volcano on the northwest end of Guadalcanal. The climate is tropical; daytime temperatures are normally 25 to 32 °C (77 to 90 °F) and 13 to 15 °C (55 to 59 °F) at night. From April to October (the dry season), the southeast trade winds blow, gusting at times up to 30 knots (55 km/h; 35 mph) or more. November to March is the wet season, caused by the northwest monsoon, and is typically warmer and wetter. The natural vegetation consists of lowland and tropical forests. The major plant communities include coastal strand, mangrove forests, freshwater swamp forests, lowland rain forests, and montane rain forest. The islands are home to 47 native mammal species, including bats, murid rodents, and possums, gliders, and cuscuses. 26 species are endemic or near-endemic – 17 species of bats, and nine species of murid rodent. 199 bird species are native to the Solomon archipelago, of which 69 species are endemic. The freshwater fishes have not been well studied, but there are likely four endemic species of freshwater fish in the islands - two species of genus Sicyopterus, one of Lentipes, and one of Stenogobius. The Otomebora mullet (Planiliza melinopterus) is endangered. The archipelago has a rich and diverse marine life, including coral reefs and seagrass meadows. It is part of the Coral Triangle, the region of the western Pacific with world's greatest diversity of corals and coral reef species. The Solomons have 494 species of coral, and 1019 species of reef fish. Dugongs are found in the seagrass meadows and near-shore waters.

Did You Know?

• The largest island in the archipelago is Bougainville, with an area of 9,300 square kilometres (3,600 sq mi).
• Mount Balbi on Bougainville is the highest peak in the archipelago at 2,715 metres (8,907 ft).
• The largest recorded earthquake from the Solomon Islands was a Mw 8.1 that occurred on April 1, 2007.
• The Solomons have 494 species of coral and 1019 species of reef fish.
• In a 2019 referendum, over 98% of Bougainville voters supported independence.