Tuvalu: History

Pre-20th-Century History

While the cartographers would drop Tuvalu in Micronesia, the sociologists and historians are in no doubt that the Rorscach Test-like scattering of islands belong to Polynesia. Language, traditions and artifacts indicate that Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa in the southeast arrived in the island group early in the 14th century. Almost three centuries later, the Spanish in Peru were starting to look around for new lands. In 1597, Don Alvaro de Mendaña y Neyra took off in search of the legendary southern islands or, perhaps, continent. On the way to a terrible holiday in the Solomon Islands, Mendaña cruised through the coral atolls of Tuvalu, not paying too much attention at all. Further European contact came in the late 18th century, and all of the islands were finally mapped by 1826. They were named the Ellice Islands after the British MP who owned the ship that first landed on Funafuti Atoll in 1819.

Labour 'recruiters' from Peru and missionaries arrived in the 1860s, doing what they did best. So successful were the 'blackbirders' from far-off plantations that Britain decided to annex the islands in order to halt the labour trade.

Modern History

In 1892 the islands became part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands protectorate, then, in 1916, a crown colony. During WWII the US used Tuvalu's northernmost atoll, Nanumea, as a base to repel the Japanese who were threatening the Gilbert Islands. Wrecks of air and sea craft are still present on the island.

From the 1960s through to 1977, Tuvaluans embarked on steady constitutional development. In 1974 the Ellice Islanders voted to separate from the Micronesian Gilbertese. They then reverted to their pre-colonial name of Tuvalu ('eight standing together') and attained independence on 1 October 1978. In 1987 the Tuvalu Trust Fund was set up by Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Korea to provide development aid.

Recent History

In March 2000 Tuvalu received international attention because of a fire that killed 17 students and a teacher. The fire broke out in the country's only secondary school, killing students who were unable to escape the flames because the dormitory doors were locked.

The internet has proven to be a boon for the country - the 2002 sale of its web suffix (.tv) for an annual multimillion dollar payment to an American company is a major earner.

There has also been focus on Tuvalu because of concerns that global warming could cause sea levels to swamp the country, as it is one of the lowest-lying nations in the world. With its admission to the UN in 2000, Tuvalu may now have a better opportunity to campaign about the threat of global warming (New Zealand has committed to resettling the whole population in event of catastrophic sea rise). In the same year Tuvalu was one of a group of countries hoping to sue the US for not ratifying the Kyoto protocol.

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