Solomon << SOL uh muhn >> Islands is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. Its largest islands are Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Malaita, New Georgia, San Cristobal, and Santa Isabel. Its many other islands include Bellona, Rennell, and the Santa Cruz Islands.
The country’s largest islands are part of an island chain that is also called the Solomon Islands. But not all the islands in the chain belong to the country. Bougainville, Buka, and a few smaller islands in the northern part of the chain are part of Papua New Guinea.
The Solomon Islands lies about 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers) northeast of Australia. The country spreads over about 230,000 square miles (600,000 square kilometers) of ocean. About 722,000 people live in the Solomon Islands.
The United Kingdom ruled the Solomons from 1893 to 1978. Honiara, on Guadalcanal, is the capital and largest community of the Solomons. It has a population of approximately 30,000. The Solomon Islands dollar is the country’s basic unit of currency. “God Save Our Solomon Islands” is the national anthem.
Government.
The Solomon Islands is a parliamentary democracy and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. A governor general represents the British monarch in the Solomon Islands. A 50-member Parliament makes the country’s law. The people elect the members of Parliament to four-year terms. A prime minister heads the government. Parliament elects the prime minister from among its own members. A Cabinet helps the prime minister run the government. The governor general appoints Cabinet members based on the recommendation of the prime minister. The Solomon Islands is divided into nine provinces, each of which is governed by an elected assembly.
People.
Most Solomon Islanders are Melanesians, and about 75 percent of them live in rural villages. Many of the people build houses on stilts to keep the dwellings cool. The main foods of the people include chicken, fish, pork, coconuts, sweet potatoes, and taro, a tropical plant with one or more edible rootlike stems (see Taro).
Although English is the official language of the Solomon Islands, more than 100 languages are spoken among the Melanesians. The islanders also speak Solomons Pidgin, a form of Pidgin English, which helps them cross language barriers (see Pidgin English). About 80 percent of the people are Protestants. The other islanders are Roman Catholics or follow local traditional beliefs. Students may attend college locally, at the Solomon Islands National University. Some islanders go to universities in Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
Land and climate.
The country’s main islands were formed by volcanoes. They are rugged, mountainous, and covered with tropical plants. The islands range from 90 to 120 miles (140 to 190 kilometers) long and from 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) wide. Each island has a central spine of mountains. Some of the mountains are more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) high. The land drops sharply to the sea on one side of the island and gently to a narrow coastal strip on the other. Some of the outlying islands are atolls (ring-shaped coral reefs).
Rainfall in the Solomon Islands varies from 60 to 200 inches (150 to 500 centimeters) annually. Temperatures range from 70 to 90 °F (21 to 32 °C).
Loading the player...Solomon Islands national anthem
Economy.
The economy of the Solomon Islands is primarily based on agriculture, fishing, and forestry. Manufacturing plays only a small role in the country’s economy. The country’s leading crops include cacao, copra (dried coconut meat), palm oil and palm kernels, taro, and yams (see Copra). Farmers also raise cattle and pigs. Tuna is the leading fishing catch. The main exports include cacao, copra, fish, palm oil, and timber. The country imports food, machinery, motor vehicles, and petroleum products. Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore are among the leading trade partners.
History.
Scholars believe the Solomon Islands were first settled about 6,000 years ago by people from New Guinea. In 1568, Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana became the first European to reach the islands. Few other Europeans went there for the next 200 years. From 1870 to 1911, Europeans recruited nearly 30,000 islanders to work on plantations in Fiji and in Queensland, Australia. Some were recruited by force and treated harshly (see Blackbirders). As a result, the United Kingdom took control of most of the Solomons in 1893. By 1899, the United Kingdom had made all the Solomons part of a protectorate.
Guadalcanal and other islands in the Solomons were the scene of fierce fighting between Allied and Japanese forces in 1942 and 1943, during World War II (see World War II (The South Pacific)). The Solomon Islands gained independence from the United Kingdom on July 7, 1978.
During and after World War II, many people from Malaita Island moved to Guadalcanal Island. Through the years, resentment between the Malaitans and native Guadalcanal islanders grew. In early 2000, fighting broke out between opposing militias of the two groups. In June, members of the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF), one of the militias, seized Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu and forced him to resign. The MEF, which soon released Ulufa’alu, viewed him as too sympathetic to the Guadalcanal islanders. Parliament then elected Manasseh Sogavare, the leader of the opposition, as prime minister. The militias signed a peace agreement in October 2000. In 2001, the people elected a new Parliament, which chose a new prime minister.
In 2003, violence between the Guadalcanal islanders and Malaitans increased. As a result, Parliament requested peacekeeping help from Australia. In July 2003, Australia led a multinational peacekeeping force to the islands to restore order. The force included more than 2,000 police, soldiers, and administrators from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and other Pacific countries. In August, Harold Keke, head of the Isatubu Freedom Movement, the militia of native Guadalcanal islanders, surrendered to the peacekeeping forces. By July 2004, order had been restored to the Solomons and many foreign peacekeepers had returned home. The peacekeeping force, called the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), gradually shifted its focus to assisting with training programs for the Solomon Island police and with a variety of development projects.
In 2009, the United Nations established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to conduct hearings about the violence that took place between Malaitans and native Guadalcanal islanders in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The commission submitted its report in February 2012, but the government delayed releasing the document to the public. The government claimed the delay was due to the length of the document and the sensitivity of the information it contained. In April 2013, the editor of the final report leaked (unofficially released) the document to media outlets. In 2017, the last RAMSI personnel withdrew.
