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Fiji has long had permanent settlements, but its peoples also have a history of mobility. Over the centuries, unique Fijian cultural practices developed. Fijians constructed large, elegant watercraft, with rigged sails called drua and exported some to Tonga.
A Quick History of Fiji. Fiji has a colourful history of early Lapita and Melanesian settlement, the development of Pacific Islander tribes, European colonisation and political unrest resulting in four military coups. In this brief history of Fiji, we look at the snapshots of history that make Fiji the islands they are today.
Fiji was settled first by the Lapita culture, around 1,500–1,000 years BC, followed by a large influx of people with predominantly Melanesian genetics about the time of the beginning of the Common Era.
History of Fiji. Early history. Discovery of Fiji. The rise and fall of Cakobau. Colonial Fiji. Modern history. Dominion of Fiji. Constitutional crisis of 1977. Coups of 1987. Military–church relations. COVID-19 pandemic. Coup of 2000. Timeline. Mutinies. Mara resigned. Iloilo plot. Trials. Court Martial. Proposed Reconciliation Commission.
Jan 4, 2018 · 1643 - Dutch explorer Abel Tasman is the first European to visit the islands. 1830s - Western Christian missionaries begin to arrive. 1840s-50s - Christian convert chief Cakobau gains control of...
May 1, 2024 · Introduction. Background. Austronesians settled Fiji around 1000 B.C., followed by successive waves of Melanesians starting around the first century A.D. Fijians traded with Polynesian groups in Samoa and Tonga, and by about A.D. 900, much of Fiji was in the Tu’i Tongan Empire’s sphere of influence.
European explorers first arrived in Fiji accidentally, with the Dutchman Abel Tasman landing first in 1643, followed by the English ship captains James Cook in 1774 and William Bligh in 1789, who came after the famed mutiny on the Bounty.
