Arrayed across the Polynesian heart of the world’s largest ocean, the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga have been at the hub of Pacific history for many centuries. Exploration, conquest and trade connected the diffuse island groups well before the arrival of European explorers and missionaries, and the nations’ experiences with the impact of colonialism and Christianity have been both shared and unique.
The Cook Islands remains closely aligned to former colonial guardians New Zealand, Samoa is divided between independence and the US, and Tonga is the Pacific’s last remaining monarchy.
Since independence, geographical isolation and limited population bases have meant that economic and stability goals have been hard to reach, but tourism is increasingly seen as a positive force for future growth.
Emigration and improved transport links have made islands like Rarotonga more modern and cosmopolitan, but the region’s outlying islands all still proudly and robustly showcase traditional Polynesian values.
Polynesia (‘Many Islands’) is scattered across a vast triangle of the Pacific Ocean with its three points at Hawai’i, Easter Island (off the west coast of South America) and New Zealand.
Although the Norwegian explorer and archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl theorised in the 1940s that the earliest Polynesians migrated from Peru via Easter Island on balsa-wood rafts, it is now commonly accepted that humans first entered the Pacific from the west via the East Indies and the Malay Peninsula. This idea is reinforced by linguistic and DNA studies, archaeological evidence and oral histories.
About 50,000 years ago the first people arrived in New Guinea from southeast Asia via Indonesia. These people, now known as Papuans, share ancestry with Australia’s Aborigines. Moving slowly east, the Papuans’ progress halted in the northern Solomon Islands about 25,000 years ago, due to the lack of boats able to cross the increasingly wide stretches of ocean. Subsequent people, collectively known as Austronesians, moved into the area from the west, mingling with the Papuans and eventually becoming the highly diverse group of people known as Melanesians. New Guinea and the Solomons were the only inhabited islands in the Pacific for many thousands of years.
The wider seas from the Solomons to Vanuatu were crossed in about 1500 BC. An Austronesian people now known as the Lapita finally developed the technology and skills to cross the open seas to New Caledonia. Heading east, they quickly expanded through Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, where they developed the culture we now know as Polynesian. The Lapitas’ Polynesian descendants waited on Samoa and Tonga for 1000 years or so, until more-advanced ocean vessels and skills were developed. Some time around 200 BC they crossed the longer ocean stretches to the east to the Society and Marquesas island groups (in modern French Polynesia). From there, voyaging canoes travelled southwest to Rarotonga and the southern Cook Islands, southeast to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in AD 300, north to Hawai’i around AD 400 and southwest past Rarotonga to Aotearoa (New Zealand) in AD 900.
The term ‘canoe’ (vaka or va’a) can be misleading. Across the South Pacific, the same word describes small dugouts used for river navigation, giant war vessels accommodating hundreds of men and 25m-long ocean-voyaging craft. These ocean-voyaging craft – either double canoes or single canoes with outriggers – carried one or more masts and sails of woven pandanus. Captain James Cook and contemporary observers estimated that Pacific canoes were capable of speeds greater than their own ships, probably 150km to 250km per day, so that trips of 5000km could be comfortably achieved with available provisions.
Initial exploratory journeys often followed the migratory flights of birds. Once a new land had been discovered, the method of rediscovery was remembered and communicated mostly by which stars to follow. Fine-tuning of these directions was possible by observing the direction from which certain winds blew, the currents, wave fronts reflecting from islands and the flight of land birds.
The ancient race of people known as the Lapita is thought to be responsible for the wide distribution of Polynesian culture and Austronesian languages in the Pacific. It was in Tonga and Samoa that the Lapita developed into the people we now call Polynesians.
From 1500 BC to 500 BC, the Lapita held sway over a vast area of the Pacific, where their influence can be traced through the far-flung dispersal of their unique pottery. Lapita pottery has been found in Papua New Guinea (PNG), New Caledonia, parts of Micronesia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and Wallis and Futuna.
The Lapita were skilled sailors and navigators, able to cross hundreds of kilometres of open sea, and trade and settlement were important to them. They were also agriculturists and practised husbandry of dogs, pigs and fowl. Regarded as the first cultural complex in the Pacific, they were an organised people who traded obsidian (volcanic glass used in tool production) from New Britain (an island off PNG) with people up to 2500km away in Tonga and Samoa.
Like Pacific islanders, European explorers came in search of resources (gold and spices initially), and they were driven by curiosity or national pride. Europeans were also inspired by one overpowering myth: the search for the great southern continent, Terra Australis.
Since the time of Ptolemy (around AD 100), scientists predicted the presence of a huge land mass in the southern hemisphere to counter the earth’s northern continents. Otherwise, it was believed, the globe would be top-heavy and fall over. Belief in this southern continent was unsubstantiated, and to confirm its existence, explorers were dispatched to chart its coasts and parley with its people. In the absence of hard facts, Terra Australis was believed to be peopled by strange heathens and magical creatures, and rumoured to be rich in gold.
Dutch explorers Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten’s 1616 search for Terra Australis introduced Europe to the Tongan islands and Futuna. Another Dutchman, Jacob Roggeveen, spotted Bora Bora in the Society Islands in 1722, and Tutuila and Upolu in Samoa. Abel Tasman became the most famous Dutch explorer after charting Tasmania and the east coast of New Zealand in 1642, then landing on the islands of Tonga and Fiji.
The most famous French explorer, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, came upon Tahiti and claimed it for France in 1768. He went on to the Samoan islands, then continued to Vanuatu and discovered Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Bougainville’s impact was greater than dots on a map, however: his accounts of the South Pacific sparked massive European interest and created the myth of a southern paradise.
In 1767 Samuel Wallis – still searching for Terra Australis – landed on Tahiti, but the greatest of the English explorers was James Cook. His three journeys into the region – the first, in 1768, most famously ‘discovered’ Australia and New Zealand – saw detailed mapping and exploration that would later allow others to follow. His third and final journey was the first European visit to Hawai’i, where Cook was killed in a skirmish. His legacy can be seen throughout the Pacific, with his detailed maps used up until the 1990s, and several places – most notably the Cook Islands – bearing his name.
Following the most famous of maritime mutinies, Fletcher Christian captained the Bounty to discover Rarotonga in the southern Cook Islands in 1789.
Traditionally the ariki (high chief) in the Cook Islands was the first-born son in the royal line and held the highest rank in the tribe. The ariki was believed to be a direct descendant of the gods, and during ritual ceremonies was seen as an intermediary between heavenly and earthly realms. The ariki commanded huge power, sitting in judgement over family disputes, declaring war and peace with other tribes, and ensuring the continuing welfare of his people.
These days, with a modern democratic system in place in the Cook Islands, the ariki is more a figurehead than an actual ruler, but they still command considerable moral authority. The House of Ariki, which consists of all the 24 ariki in the Cook Islands, serves to advise the elected government on issues of custom and tribal tradition, but it has little say in the actual day-to-day running of the country. The title has also lost its sexist overtones: today the ariki is just as likely to be a woman as a man.
The investiture of a new ariki is still an important ceremony in the Cook Islands. The new ariki, mataiapo (sub-chiefs) and all the other attendants are clad in the traditional ceremonial dress, and the ancient symbols of office (including a spear, woven shoes, a feather headdress, a woven fan and a huge mother-of-pearl necklace) are presented. The ceremonies are also packed with strange quirks: on Rarotonga, the investiture of the ariki is for some reason not considered complete until he or she has bitten the ear of a cooked pig…but no one can quite remember why.
After a few largely unsuccessful Spanish Catholic forays into Micronesia during the 17th century, the first major attempt to bring Christianity to the Pacific was by English Protestants. The newly formed London Missionary Society (LMS) outfitted missionary outposts on Tahiti and Tonga, and in the Marquesas in 1797. These first missions failed – within two years the Tongan and Marquesan missions were abandoned. The Tahitian mission survived, but its success was limited. For a decade there were only a handful of islanders who were tempted to join the new religion.
Other Protestants soon joined the battle. The new players in the South Pacific were the Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS), fresh from moderate success in New Zealand, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), following their Christianising of Hawai’i. The WMS and ABCFM both floundered in the Marquesas, but they fared better in Tonga.
Despite the slow start, missionary success grew. By the 1820s missionary influence was enormous. A Protestant work ethic was instilled and tattooing was discouraged. Promiscuity was guarded against by nightly ‘moral police’ and practices such as cannibalism and human sacrifice were forbidden. From Tahiti, Tonga and Hawai’i, Christianity spread throughout the Pacific.
The missionaries’ success was due to three major factors. First, politics played a part, particularly the conversion of influential Tongan chief Taufa’ahau. After conversion, he went on to seize control of Ha’apai from its rightful heir, Laufilitonga. Baptised in 1831, Taufa’ahau took on the first name Siaosi, or George, after the king of England, and adopted the surname Tupou.
Under his influence, all of Ha’apai in Tonga converted to Christianity. When George’s cousin, King ‘Ulukalala III of Vava’u, followed suit, so did the people of Vava’u. On Tongatapu, Wesleyan missionaries were gaining momentum, and secured the conversion of George’s great-uncle Tu’i Kanokupolu. Upon his death, George Tupou assumed his title and became the sole king of a now united Tonga.
The second factor was the perceived link between European wealth and Christianity also played a part in the spread of the religion. Missionaries ‘civilised’ as well as Christianised, and islanders obtained European tools and skills such as literacy.
The third and final catalyst for the expansion of Christianity throughout the Pacific was that the message of afterlife salvation fell on attentive ears: European arrival coincided with massive depopulation through the spread of disease.
Missionaries also shielded islanders from the excesses of some traders, and it was missionary pressure that finally put an end to the 'blackbirding' slave trade that forced Pacific islanders to work in the mines of South America.
Putting Pacific languages into written form, initially in translations of the Bible, was another major contribution. While many missionaries deliberately destroyed ‘heathen’ Pacific artefacts and beliefs, others diligently recorded myths and oral traditions that would otherwise have been lost. A substantial portion of our knowledge of Pacific history and traditional culture comes from the work of missionary-historians.
Once European traders were established in the Pacific, many began agitating for their home countries to intervene and protect their interests. Missionaries also lobbied for colonial takeover, hoping that European law would protect islanders from the lawless traders. European powers began following a policy of 'flag following trade' by declaring protectorates and then by annexing Pacific states.
Colonialism brought peace between warring European powers but an increase in tensions with islanders. The arrival of settlers brought many diseases that had been unknown in the Pacific or had been experienced only in limited contact with explorers or traders, and these diseases took a horrific toll. Cholera, measles, smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, scarlet fever, chickenpox, whooping cough, dysentery, venereal diseases and even the common cold all had devastating effects. Most Polynesian populations were halved, while some islands of nearby Vanuatu dropped to just 5% of their original populations.
The late 19th century saw a headlong rush of colonial expansion over much of the South Pacific. Following several requests for British protection from Makea Takau, the ruling ariki of Avarua, Rarotonga was officially made a British overseas protectorate in 1888, mainly in order to avoid a French invasion. The first British Resident (the representative of the British government in a British protectorate) arrived in 1891, but the relationship soon went sour. As a tiny country of little strategic or economic importance, the Cook Islands held little interest for the British, and, following a request from New Zealand prime minister Richard Seddon, the Cook Islands was annexed to New Zealand in 1901.
Following a civil war between two rival Samoan ruling families, the British, North Americans and Germans then set about squabbling over Samoan territory, and by the late 1880s Apia's harbour was crowded with naval hardware from all three countries. Most of it subsequently sank – not because of enemy firepower but because of a cyclone that struck the harbour in March 1889. After several attempted compromises, the Tripartite Treaty was signed in 1899, giving control of Western Samoa to the Germans and Eastern Samoa to the Americans.
Tonga was largely spared this superpower squabbling and colonial annexation, and following the 1831 baptism of the ruling Tu’i Tonga, Tonga was united under King George Tupou I. A constitution, a flag and a national anthem were introduced in 1875. The constitution included a bill of rights, a format for legislative and judicial procedures, laws for succession to the throne and a section on land tenure. It is also responsible for Tonga’s heavily Christian laws today.
The second king, George Tupou II, who took over in 1893, lacked the charisma, character and fearlessness of his predecessor. He signed a Treaty of Friendship with Britain in 1900, placing Tonga under British protection and giving Britain control over Tonga’s foreign affairs. However, Tonga is still the Pacific’s only kingdom.
Following the annexation to New Zealand in 1901, the next six decades were largely quiet years for the Cook Islands. In the 1960s, as colonies became increasingly unfashionable, New Zealand jumped at the chance to offload its expensive overseas dependency and in 1965 the Cook Islands became internally self-governing.
In 1914, at the outbreak of WWI, Britain persuaded New Zealand to seize German Samoa. Preoccupation with affairs on the home front prevented Germany from resisting. Under the New Zealand administration, Samoa suffered a devastating (and preventable) outbreak of influenza in 1919; more than 7000 people (one-fifth of the population) died, further fuelling anger with the foreign rulers. Increasing calls for independence by the Mau movement culminated in the authorities opening fire on a demonstration at the courthouse in Apia in 1929, killing 11.
While WWI had little impact on the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga (other than the transition of German Samoa to New Zealand's administration), WWII was a different story. Much of the conflict between Japanese and Allied forces happened through Micronesia, but many islands in Polynesia became key strategic posts. Soldiers from Samoa and Tonga – and many more from Fiji, the Solomons, French Polynesia and New Caledonia – also served in the Allied forces.
The war with Japan was fought through the Micronesian territories Japan had won from Germany in WWI, in Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands. Initially Japan expanded south from its Micronesian territories almost unhindered and captured the Solomon Islands in 1942. It began building an airfield on Guadalcanal (which today is Henderson Airport) that would supply further advances south. Allied forces staged a huge offensive that saw more than 60 ships sunk in the surrounding waters that became known as Iron Bottom Sound. From 1944, US and Australian forces pushed the defending Japanese back, island by island. US bombers based in the Marianas punished Japanese cities for 10 months until 6 August 1945, when Enola Gay took off from Tinian (in the Northern Marianas) to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Days later, another was dropped on Nagasaki and the Pacific war was over.
WWII had a lasting effect on the region. Most obviously, Japan’s Micronesian colonies were taken over by the US, becoming the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. However, the war also left a legacy of more widespread and subtle effects. There was a huge improvement in roads and other infrastructure on many islands. There was also an input of money, food and other supplies. Some say that the many thousands of American GIs stationed in Tonga in WWII expanded the local gene pool, thereby bolstering immunity and providing a platform for sustained population growth.
WWII also hastened the end of traditional colonialism in the South Pacific, the relative equality between white and black US soldiers prompting islanders to question why they were still subservient to the British and the French. Many independence leaders were influenced by wartime experiences.
Following a change of government (and policy) in New Zealand, Western Samoa’s independence was acknowledged as inevitable and on 1 January 1962 independence was finally achieved. Following Samoa, most Pacific island states gained independence (or partial independence) from their former colonial rulers.
Some Pacific territories remain fully or partially under the auspices of the US (American Samoa), France (New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, French Polynesia), Chile (Easter Island) and New Zealand (Cook Islands), and some of these are gradually returning power to islanders.
Tonga, which was never officially colonised, remains the last monarchy in the Pacific, though the royal family has begun relinquishing power in favour of democracy. It continued as a British Protectorate until 1970, when King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV re-established full sovereignty for the country, and subsequently joined the Commonwealth of Nations and the UN.
The first leader of the newly independent Cook Islands was Albert Henry, leader of the Cook Islands Party (CIP), and a prime mover in the push for self-rule. Henry did much to unify the country in the initial years of independence, but he fell spectacularly from grace during the 1978 elections, in which he became embroiled in a massive scandal involving overseas voters. The election was handed to the opposition party, the Cook Islands Democratic Party, and Henry was stripped of his knighthood. Power seesawed over the ensuing years between the two rival parties, and the Cook Islands political landscape of the period is littered with spats, scandals and larger-than-life personalities.
In the mid-1990s, foreign debt spiralled out of control and, with bankruptcy looming, the government was forced to take radical action. A 1996 economic-stabilisation program resulted in the sacking of about 2000 government employees – 50% of the public service – a huge proportion of the working population in a country of just 20,000 inhabitants. Masses of redundant workers left the country for New Zealand or Australia and never returned, and the Cooks were only saved from the brink thanks to an emergency aid package implemented by the NZ government.
In Samoa, the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP) has mainly been in power since independence. Economic development remains excruciatingly slow or nonexistent, and far below population growth, but unlike neighbours Tonga and Fiji, the country has been politically stable. Fish and tropical produce such as cocoa, coffee, bananas, coconuts and taro were expected to become big export earners, but due to mismanagement, crop diseases and destructive cyclones, this has not happened. Nowadays container ships arrive piled with imports, but they leave almost empty. Increased tourism provides a ray of hope for a brighter economic future.
Tonga tends to lurch from one economic crisis to another; standards of living are generally dependent on investment from China, Japan and others, and remittances – money sent home from relatives living and working overseas. As in Samoa, tourism has been slow to take off here: when family ties between Tongans at home and abroad become weaker and the money dries up, the Tongan economy tends to suffer.
3100–3000 BC
Descendants of the Lapita people first arrive in Polynesia, travelling from East Asia, down the Malay Peninsula and through the islands of Melanesia.
1500 BC
The Samoan islands are inhabited by the first Polynesians, exploring this part of the South Pacific and discovering new island groups.
200 BC – AD 200
Polynesian pioneers reach the Society and Marquesas Islands (now French Polynesia), honing their ocean-going navigational skills for longer journeys.
500
Settlers arrive on Rarotonga and begin the process of colonising the other islands, eventually travelling south to the islands of New Zealand.
950
Samoan warriors, led by Chief Savea, defeat Tongan invaders and the victorious chief is rewarded with the title of Malietoa.
1300s
Tangi’ia and Karika, two chiefs from Tahiti and Samoa, conquer Rarotonga and divide the island’s population into six different tribes.
1773
James Cook sights Manuae and the ‘Hervey Group’ in the Cook Islands, and Tonga for the first time. Six years later he’ll be killed in Hawai’i.
1789
Captain William Bligh and 18 crewmen are set adrift off the volcanic Tongan island of Tofua after the crew of HMS Bounty mutiny.
1823
Rev John Williams of the London Missionary Society (LMS) lands on Rarotonga and the conversion of Cook Islanders to Christianity begins.
1830
Rev Williams arrives on the Samoan island of Savai’i during a civil war.
1845
King George Tupou I begins his reign over a united Tonga, assuming his new first name as a tribute to British monarch King George IV.
1879
French explorer La Pérouse sets off to explore the South Pacific, visiting Tonga, Samoa and Australia before mysteriously disappearing. His wrecked ship is discovered in the Solomon Islands in 2005.
1888
The Cook Islands are established as a British protectorate to avoid French invasion. Within 13 years, the Brits will be ready to offload the Cooks to New Zealand.
1889
Robert Louis Stevenson abandons the chilly moors of Scotland for his own ‘Treasure Island’ and the warm delights of Samoa.
1894
‘Here he lies where he longs to be’ – Tusitala (Teller of Tales) Robert Louis Stevenson dies of a stroke and is buried at Vailima.
1899
The Tripartite Treaty gives Western Samoa to Germany and Eastern Samoa to America; Samoans hand in their guns, and full independence for Western Samoa won’t occur until 1962.
1900
Tonga becomes a protectorate of the British Empire, an understanding that will linger until 1970, when full sovereignty is declared and Tonga joins the UN.
1901
New Zealand annexes the Cook Islands and more than a century of close association begins for the two countries.
1905
Mt Matavuno on the Samoan island of Savai’i erupts – lava destroys a village but no one is killed.
1914
New Zealand troops occupy German-run Western Samoa without opposition at the beginning of WWI. In 1916 New Zealanders and Germans will face off in the Battle of the Somme.
1918
Spanish influenza, an H1N1 virus that caused one of the biggest pandemics in history, ravages Tonga and Samoa, wiping out approximately 20% of their populations.
1929
On 28 December, Black Saturday, armed New Zealand police in Apia gun down 11 Mau protesters seeking Samoan independence.
1962
Western Samoa celebrates becoming the first South Pacific island group to gain independence. By 1997 the country will have dropped the ‘Western’ tag.
1965
The Cooks become a ‘self-governing nation in free association with New Zealand’. Cook Islanders start eyeing up the bigger pay packets of Auckland and Wellington.
1991
Samoa beats Wales and Argentina at the Rugby World Cup, signalling the arrival of Pacific players onto the world stage.
1996
A Cook Islands ‘economic crisis’ sees 50% of public-service workers sacked and a New Zealand rescue package implemented.
2002
New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark formally apologises to Samoa for her country’s poor treatment of Samoan citizens during colonial times.
2005
A record five cyclones strike the Cook Islands, causing widespread damage; the Unit Titles Act is passed on Rarotonga but rejected by Aitutaki.
2006
Tongan capital Nuku’alofa is struck by pro-democracy riots after the death of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. Incoming King George Tupou V lessens his powers to progress Tongan democracy.
2007
Samoa’s King Malietoa Tanumafili II dies and the nation becomes a republic, electing Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese Efi as head of state for a five-year term.
2009
The southern and eastern coasts of Upolu in Samoa and the southern coast of Tutuila in American Samoa are struck by a tsunami, killing approximately 190 people.
2010
Tonga holds its first democratic elections and nobles from the monarchy that has ruled for generations win when fringe parties join their ranks; 2014 delivers much the same result.
2012
King George Tupou V of Tonga dies while visiting Hong Kong. His brother George Tupou VI steps into the role.
2015
The popular George Tupou VI is officially crowned King of Tonga in a lavish week-long coronation celebration.
2015
In a disappointing Rugby World Cup for the South Pacific nations, Samoa and Tonga win one match each but fail to advance to the second stage of matches.