Figure 1.--This photo dhows two Solomon Isklands boys in 1956. They lived on thr Santa Cruz Islands to the east oif the other Solomon Islands. |
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The Solomons located just east of New Guinea were virtually unknown before World War II. They are a twin chain of volcanic islands streaching 900 miles in a parallel arangement north and south. The water area between the two chains came to be called the Slot. The volcanic islands are mounatenous and heavily covered with tropical vegetation. There are also small coral atols. There are about 1,000 islands and atolls. The population is primarily Melanesian (93 percent. The remainder is Polynesian, Micronesian, and other. Most of the population is Christian, divided into many different demominations: Anglican (Archdiocese of Melanesia), Roman Catholic, South Sea Evangelical, United Church (Methodist), Seventh-day Adventist. The principsal language is English in part because a common langusge was needed. There are many vernacular languages, including Solomon Islands pidgin. The major islands include the British Protectorates of Guadacanal, Malaita, New Georgia, Santa Cruz Isles (group), Choiseul, Santa Isabel, San Cristobal, and Shortland. The Santa Cruz Islands are an outlier, well to the eadt of the rest of the Sollomons. Bougainville and Buka in the north were administered by Australia as a part of the New Guinea Mandate. The main exports were copra and timber. The Solomons had few resources. What they did have was a strategic location. As a result, some of the critical battles of the Pacific War were fought in the Sollomons.
The Solomons located just east of New Guinea were virtually unknown before World War II. They are a twin chain of volcanic islands streaching 900 miles in a parallel arangement north and south. The water area between the two chains came to be called the Slot. The volcanic islands are mounatenous and heavily covered with tropical vegetation. There are also small coral atols. There are about 1,000 islands and atolls. The major islands include the British Protectorates of Guadacanal, Malaita, New Georgia, Santa Cruz Isles (group), Choiseul, Santa Isabel, San Cristobal, and Shortland. The Santa Cruz Islands are an outlier, well to the eadt of the rest of the Sollomons. Bougainville and Buka in the north were administered by Australia as a part of the New Guinea Mandate.
Archeologists believe that people reached the Solomon Islands (about 2000 BC. Europeans first reached the Solomons in the 16th century. The Spainard Alvaro de Mendana first mentiined the islands (1568). There was initially little interest in colonizing the islands. Britain and Germany divided the islands between them (1886). The British placed the southernn solomons under a protectorate (1893). This wasc extended to the Eastern Solomons (1898). The Germans briefly occupied New Guinea and the northern Soloons during their colonial outreach and naval building effort. The Germans transferred the northern Solomons (except Bougainville and Buka) by treaty to Britain (1900). The British and Austraklians seized the German possessions during World war I (1914-18). The islands since World War I were thus admistered by the British and Austrlaians. As the early phase of the Pacific War played out, the Sollomons proved to have a strategic location. And it was in the Solomons that the rapidly mobilizing United States first confronted the expanding Japanese Empire on land, setting off a series of bitterly fought naval engagements.
The population is primarily Melanesian (93 percent. The remainder is Polynesian, Micronesian, and other.
Most of the population is Christian, divided into many different demominations: Anglican (Archdiocese of Melanesia), Roman Catholic, South Sea Evangelical, United Church (Methodist), Seventh-day Adventist.
The principsal language is English in part because a common lsngusge was needed. There are many vernacular languages, including Solomon Islands pidgin.
The main exports were copra and timber. The Solomons had few resources.
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