Far East Kingdoms

Modern Fiji (Melanesia) (Oceania)
AD 1970 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1970-2024), Dominion of Fiji (1970-1987), & Republic of Fiji (1987-On)

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Considered in some quarters to be a watery continent in its own right, Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. Its territory is somewhat debatable but generally consists of the waters of the Pacific Ocean dotted with some two thousand islands, some of which are independent states and others either parts of countries or colonies.

Melanesia, of which Fiji is a part, is in south-western Oceania, between Micronesia and Australasia. The area includes New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Norfolk Island, and Fiji. To the north and north-east of Melanesia is the aforementioned Micronesia, to the east and south is Polynesia (including New Zealand), and to the south-west is Australia.

More specifically in Fiji's case, its ancient name was Viti. It is formed out of a group of islands in the South Pacific, which collectively are situated to the east of Vanuatu, to the south of Tuvalu, to the south-west of the Wallis Islands, and to the west of Tonga.

The Lapita from the Santa Cruz Islands in the eastern Solomon Islands originally inhabited Fiji by about 1100 BC, during the Neolithic Oceania period. They quickly spread outwards from Fiji (Viti) by 800 BC to reach Tonga and Samoa. Descendants of the Lapita became the Polynesians. They tended to gravitate towards Fiji, particularly the western part of the island of Viti Levu. They settled on that island for several generations until the native Lapita drove them out, after which they scattered to their current locations in Polynesia.

In 1643, Dutch Captain Abel Tasman became the first European to find Fiji. Captain James Cook of Great Britain found the island of Vatoa in 1774. Early in the nineteenth century the various kingdoms of Viti attempted to consolidate into more unified federations, probably as a result of this external contact.

Please note that the History Files does not regularly monitor changes in modern heads of state or their representatives. Get in touch here if this section requires updating.

(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I, Abraham Fornander (Mutual Publishing Company, 1996, and originally published as An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, Vol II), from Beyond the Blue Horizon (National Geographic, March 2008), from Washington Post (18 December 1993, 27 February 1994, 19 May 2000, 20 May 2000, 28 May 2000, 30 May 2000, 31 May 2000, 3 July 2000, 14 July 2000, 28 July 2000, and 17 February 2011), from WETA-FM, Washington, DC (30 May 2000), from WJLA-TV News, Washington, DC (19 May 2000), and from External Links: Fiji (Rulers.org), and Fiji (World Statesmen), and Fiji (Zárate's Political Collections (ZPC)), and Fiji: Coronavirus Pandemic Country Profile (Our World in Data), and Hawaiki: The Original Home of the Maori; with a Sketch of Polynesian History (Victoria University of Wellington Library), and History of Fiji (Encyclopaedia Britannica), and Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, and Tangia and Tutapu (History and Traditions of Rarotonga), and Pacific islands submit court ecocide proposal (The Guardian).)

1970 - 1975

Governor-general of the new dominion (former 'Colony of Fiji').

1970

The former British crown 'Colony of Fiji' now becomes a dominion territory, still with Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as its head of state, and with a local governor-general to act as her representative in Fiji itself. The first occupant of this post is Sir Robert Sidney Foster.

The Fijian islands in the 1840s were being visited by Europeans but relations with them could be awkward and prone to problems and attacks

1973 - 1983

Governor-general.

1983 - 1993

Governor-general (1983-1987). President (1987-1993). Died.

1987

When Indians gain a majority over Fijians for the first time in the national legislature, Fijians become alarmed. Lieutenant-Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, an indigenous Fijian, leads a military coup in May 1987 which aims to establish a republic with himself at its head.

He overthrows the governor-general as Britain's representative, but Sir Penaia K Ganilau joins the movement by declaring himself to be head of state and chairman of the council of ministers. Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations, the first of three times in which this happens after military coups.

Later in the same month, Sitiveni Rabuka, now prime minister, agrees to restore the commonwealth while retaining true authority. Finally, in September, Rabuka again overthrows the government of the commonwealth, again declares a republic, and becomes the head of an interim military government.

The 'Taukei Movement' was almost a spontaneous sprouting of indigenous opposition to Fiji's new coalition government in 1986, with protests and a pledge to remove the Bavadra government by hook or by crook being used as an excuse for a military coup to avoid bloodshed

In the following month the United Kingdom recognises the inevitable, and a presidency is established that December. The 'Great Council of Chiefs' assembles and chooses Ganilau as the first president. He dies in office in 1993.

1993 - 2000

President. Forced to resign after another coup.

1998 - 1999

The country adopts a new constitution in 1998 which attempts to reduce ethnic tensions between Indians and Fijians which the old constitution had encouraged. Mahendra Chaudhry becomes Fiji's first Indian prime minister in 1999, aggravating Fijian nationalists.

2000

Businessman George Speight leads a coup on 19 May 2000. He seizes parliament and takes hostage the prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry. Speight declared himself president and appoints an interim prime minister, while Sir Kamisese Mara declares a state of emergency.

A possible pardon in 2023 for the figurehead of Fiji's violent 2000 coup - George Speight - had the potential to put the Pacific island nation's reformist government at loggerheads with its influential military

2000

Self-declared president. Unseated by military coup.

2000

Sir Kamisese Mara fires Chaudhry from his role as the country's official prime minister, but it is not enough for the rebel elements in the armed forces. Head of the military Commodore Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama grabs power, declares martial law, obtains Mara's resignation, and assumes executive authority.

Once Speight has released his hostages the new military government allows the 'Great Council of Chiefs' to elect as president Josefa Iloilo, Speight's choice. When Speight complains about some of Iloilo's appointments, the military arrests him, despite having granted him amnesty.

2000 - 2009

President, selected through George Speight. Retired.

2002

The European Union's withdrawal of subsidies has caused the near-collapse of the sugar industry. The government nationalises the industry in a desperate attempt to prop it up.

A little more than half of Fiji's population of about nine hundred thousand are indigenous, or iTaukei, and nearly forty percent are ethnically Indian, descended from indentured labourers who were brought in to work on sugar plantations during British colonial rule

2006 - 2007

Bainimarama, still commander of the armed forces, deposes Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in 2006 and declares himself acting president on behalf of Iloilo. Bainimarama returns power to the president in 2007 and makes himself interim prime minister.

2009

The court of appeal rules in May that Bainimarama's government is illegal. All decisions which have been taken by his government are declared invalid. President Iloilo, Bainimarama's protégé, abolishes the constitution, fires all of the nation's judges, and imposes emergency rule. In November of the same year, Iloilo retires and Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, another military protégé, succeeds him.

2009 - 2015

President, leading a military dictatorship.

2012 - 2013

Bainimarama abolishes the 'Great Council of Chiefs' and, in the following year, promulgates a new constitution while retaining the premiership. He resigns from the military to serve as a civilian prime minister.

Epeli Nailatikau, president during one of Fiji's periods of military oversight, continued his career by being elected as Fiji's parliamentary speaker of the house in 2019

2015 - 2021

President. Returned Fiji to civilian rule.

2020 - 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic strikes Fiji in 2020 and eventually results in 68,898 cases of infection and a total of 883 deaths. The government quickly institutes lockdowns in an attempt to control the spread of the virus. Beginning in 2021, the government administers extensive vaccinations until over seventy percent of the population is vaccinated.

2021 - 2024

President. Youngest to date, at 57.

2024

Fiji, Samoa, and Vanuatu take the extraordinary step of making a submission to the international criminal court on Monday 9 September 2024. They propose a change in the rules to recognise 'ecocide' as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes. The idea is to transform the world's response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.

Vanuatu made its first call - and the first worldwide - in 2019 for the crime of ecocide to be recognised by the ICC, but the 2024 submission carried more weight in light of increasing climate change consequences

2024 - On

President. Former speaker of parliament.

2024

With Wiliame Katonivere declining to be re-elected as president for a second term of office, the seventy year-old Naiqama Lalabalavu stands instead. He defeats his opponent, Meli Tora, by thirty-seven to sixteen votes.