Although little prehistory of the Solomon Islands is known, material excavated on Santa Ana, Guadalcanal, and Gawa indicates that a hunter-gatherer people lived on the larger islands as early as 1000 B.C. Some Solomon Islanders are descendants of neolithic, Austronesian-speaking peoples who migrated somewhat later to the Pacific Islands from Southeast Asia.

The European discoverer of the Solomons was the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana Y Neyra, who set out from Peru in 1567 to seek the legendary Isles of Solomon, believed to lie west of South America and said to have been visited by the Incas. After his first visit to the Solomons, Mendana used the name and the promise of gold to lure potential settlers to join him in a colonization effort in 1595. This first attempt was a disaster--some settlers were murdered by the islanders, and many others, including Mendana, died of disease. The remnants of the ill-fated colony set sail for the Philippines but were lost at sea.

Several more attempts to colonize the islands also failed. A Western navigator, British mariner Philip Carteret, entered Solomon waters in 1767. In the years that followed, visits by explorers were more frequent.

Missionaries began visiting the Solomons in the mid-1800s. They made little progress at first, however, because "blackbirding"--the often brutal recruitment of laborers for the sugar plantations in Queensland and Fiji--led to a series of reprisals and massacres. The evils of the labor trade prompted the United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in 1893. In 1898 and 1899, more outlying islands were added to the protectorate; in 1900 the remainder of the archipelago, an area previously under German jurisdiction, was transferred to British administration. Under the protectorate, missionaries settled in the Solomons, converting most of the population to Christianity.

In the early 20th century, several British and Australian firms began large-scale coconut planting in a move to develop the Solomons commercially. Economic growth before World War II was slow, however, and the islanders benefitted little. After the Japanese initiated the Pacific phase of the war in December 1941, most planters and traders were evacuated to Australia and most cultivation ceased.

The Japanese wasted little time in attacking and occupying the main islands of the Solomons. From May 1942, when the Battle of the Coral Sea was fought, until December 1943, the Solomons were almost constantly a scene of combat. Although U.S. forces landed on Guadalcanal virtually unopposed in August 1942, they were soon engaged in a bloody fight for control of the islands' airstrip, which the U.S. forces named Henderson Field. One of the most furious sea battles ever fought took place off Savo Island, near Guadalcanal, also in August 1942. Before the Japanese completely withdrew from Guadalcanal in February 1943, 1,500 Americans and 20,000 Japanese died. The Allied forces later drove the Japanese from other islands; and by December 1943, the Allies were in command of the entire Solomon chain.

Postwar Developments

The war and the forceful intrusion of the outside world changed and disrupted the Solomon Islanders' lives. Between 1946 and 1950, much official attention was devoted to a native movement known as the Marching Rule. Some thought the movement originated in the wartime closeness between the islanders and American soldiers, who seemed to the islanders to have limitless wealth. Others viewed it as a nationalist movement following naturally from the war's profoundly disturbing effects. The movement led to various efforts to defy governmental authority. Many people on Malaita and other islands were affected, and there was much disorder until some of the leaders were jailed in late 1948. Throughout the 1950s, other indigenous dissident groups appeared and disappeared without gaining strength.

Gradual changes in the system of governing the Solomons were made from the end of World War II until the early 1970s, after which changes came much more rapidly as the United Kingdom prepared to give the islanders their independence. When civil administration was resumed after the war, an advisory council of Solomon Islanders was reestablished. In 1960, the advisory council was superseded by a legislative council, and an executive council was created as the protectorate's policymaking body. The council was given progressively more authority.

In 1974, a new constitution was adopted establishing a parliamentary democracy and ministerial system of government. In mid-1975, the name Solomon Islands officially replaced that of British Solomon Islands Protectorate. On January 2, 1976, the Solomons became self-governing, and independence followed on July 7, 1978.

Current Political Conditions

In the first postindependence Parliament, none of the members had any party affiliation. Party organizations emerged in the August 1980 elections, in which the newly formed United Party of then-Prime Minister Sir Peter Kenilorea won 14 seats; the People's Alliance Party led by Solomon Mamaloni won 8; and the National Democratic Party, 2. The remaining members elected in 1980 were independents. Kenilorea served as prime minister until September 1981, when a realignment within the Parliament resulted in the election of Mamaloni to replace him. Mamaloni remained prime minister until the expiration of the parliamentary term.

In the November 1984 elections, the United Party won 13 seats; the People's Alliance Party, 12 seats; and the others were split among smaller parties and independents. Sir Peter was able to form a coalition and was again named prime minister. During 1986, shifting political allegiances and growing concern over the deteriorating economy and finances continually threatened the Kenilorea government. The prime minister's handling of a French offer of cyclone rehabilitation assistance for his native village resulted in his forced resignation and replacement in December by his former deputy, Ezekiel Alebua. Parliamentary elections are due in late 1988.

Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, June 1988.