Everything about The History Of Vanuatu totally explained
The
history of Vanuatu begins obscurely. The commonly held theory of
Vanuatu's
prehistory from archaeological evidence supports that peoples speaking
Austronesian languages first came to the islands some 4,000 to 6,000 years ago.
Pottery fragments have been found dating back to 1300 B.C. What little is known of the pre-European contact history of Vanuatu has been gleaned from oral histories and legends. One important early king was
Roy Mata, who united several tribes, and was buried in a large mound with several retainers.
Europeans
The first island in the Vanuatu group discovered by Spaniards was
Espiritu Santo when, in 1606, the
Portuguese explorer,
Pedro Fernández de Quirós, spied what he thought was a southern
continent. Europeans didn't return until 1768, when
Louis Antoine de Bougainville rediscovered the islands. In 1774,
Captain Cook named the islands the
New Hebrides, a name that lasted until independence. In 1825, trader
Peter Dillon's discovery of
sandalwood on the
island of
Erromango began a rush that ended in
1830 after a clash between immigrant
Polynesian workers and indigenous
Melanesians. During the 1860s, planters in
Australia,
Fiji,
New Caledonia, and the
Samoan Islands, in need of labourers, encouraged a long-term indentured labour trade called "
blackbirding." At the height of the blackbirding, more than one-half the adult male population of several of the Islands worked abroad.
It was at this time that missionaries, both
Roman Catholic and
Protestant, arrived on the islands. Settlers also came, looking for land on which to establish
cotton plantations. When international cotton prices collapsed, they switched to
coffee,
cocoa,
bananas, and, most successfully,
coconuts. Initially, British subjects from
Australia made up the majority, but the establishment of the
Caledonian Company of the New Hebrides in 1882 soon tipped the balance in favour of French subjects. By the turn of the century, the
French outnumbered the
British two to one.
Franceville
The municipality of Franceville (present-day
Port Vila) on
Efate was established during this period. In 1878
Britain and
France declared all of the New Hebrides to be
neutral territory, but the lack of a functional government led to rising discontent among British and French colonists. The French were especially inconvenienced because French law recognized marriages only when contracted under a civil authority (the nearest being in
New Caledonia), whereas British law recognized marriages conducted by local clergy. On
August 9,
1889, Franceville declared itself independent under the leadership of
mayor/
president Ferdinand Chevillard and with its own red, white and blue flag with five stars. This community became the first
self-governing nation to practice
universal suffrage without distinction of sex or race. Although the district's population at the time consisted of about 500 natives and fewer than 50 whites, only the latter were permitted to hold office. One of its elected presidents was a
U.S. citizen by birth,
R. D. Polk.
Condominium
The jumbling of French and British interests in the islands brought petitions for one or another of the two powers to annex the territory. The Convention of
16 October 1887 established a joint naval commission for the sole purpose of protecting French and British citizens, but claimed no jurisdiction over internal native affairs.
In 1906, however,
France and the
United Kingdom agreed to administer the islands jointly. Called the British-French
Condominium, it was a unique form of government, with separate governmental systems that came together only in a joint court. The condominium's authority was extended in the Anglo-French Protocol of 1914, although this wasn't formally ratified until 1922. Melanesians were barred from acquiring the
citizenship of either power and were officially stateless; to travel abroad they needed an
identity document signed by
both the British and French resident commissioners.
Many called the condominium the "Pandemonium" because of the duplication of laws, police forces, prisons, currencies, education and health systems.
Overseas visitors could choose between British law, that was considered stricter but with more humane prisons, or French law and French prisons, which were somewhat uncomfortable but with better food.
In their book,
Vanuatu by Jocelyn Harewood and Michelle Bennett, is this memorable passage referring to the 1920s:
"Drunken plantation owners used to gamble... using the `years of labour' of their Melanesian workers as currency. Islanders used to be lined up against the wall, at the mercy of their employers' dice. Long after America's Wild West was tamed, Vila was the scene of the occasional gunfight and public guillotining."
Independence
Challenges to this form of government began in the early 1940s. The arrival of Americans with their informal demeanour and relative wealth during
World War II was instrumental in the rise of nationalism in the islands. The belief in a
mythical
messianic figure named
John Frum was the basis for an indigenous
cargo cult (a movement attempting to obtain industrial goods through
magic) promising Melanesian deliverance. Today, John Frum is both a religion and a political party with two members in Parliament.
Perhaps the final political impetus towards independence was the central issue of land ownership which arose during the 1960s. The ancient customs of the
Ni-Vanuatu meant that land was held in trust for future generations by the current custodians;
Europeans viewed it more as a commodity and owned about 30% of the land area. This European-held land had been mostly cleared for
coconut production, but when they began clearing more land for coconut production, protests began in both Santo and Malekula led by Jimmy Stevens and his
kastom movement called "Nagriamel".
In the 1960s France opposed Britain's desire to de-colonize the
New Hebrides south of the
Solomon Islands fearing that the independence sentiment would be contagious in their
mineral-rich colonial possessions in
French New Caledonia.
The first political party was established in the early 1970s and originally was called the
New Hebrides National Party. One of the founders was
Walter Lini, an
Anglican Priest, who later became
Prime Minister. Renamed the
Vanua'aku Party in 1974, the party pushed for independence. A Representative Assembly was created in 1975 but dissolved in 1977 after demands for the elimination of government-appointees and immediate independence. In 1979 foreign owners were dispossessed and received compensation from their own governments and a date set for full independence.
France was unhappy. A couple of significant rebellions occurred on Tanna and Espiritu Santo and paperwork revealed the direct culpability of France in its desire to see Espiritu Santo become a separate French colony.
On
31 July 1980, the
Republic of Vanuatu was created.
"Whereupon French officials - not British - tore out telephones, air-conditioners and all equipment and furnishings from administrative offices so as to burden the new public service and its budget. Vanuatu was alone in Pacific Islands (sic
} in attaining independence at the perceived cost of defeating a more powerful, and openly antagonistic, adversary. Had it not been for Britain, independence would still have been a dream today in Vanuatu." .
Since independence, only
kastom owners and the government can own land; foreigners and other islanders who are not
kastom owners can lease land only for the productive life of a coconut palm - 75 years.
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