Far East Kingdoms

Modern Solomon Islands (Melanesia) (Oceania)
AD 1978 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1978-2025)

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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 the Solomon Islands are a part, is the south-western part of Oceania. Proceeding from the west, Melanesia begins with the island of New Guinea, followed in turn by the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji.

The islands are formed from a string of seven large islands and thirty small islands, located to the east of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. New Britain and New Ireland are to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the north, and the Solomon Islands' own Santa Cruz islands are to the west. To the south is the Solomon Sea. One of the Solomon Islands lies between the Solomon Sea and the Coral Sea and is separated from the rest of the island chain by the Solomon Sea.

Human settlement in the Solomon Islands began by around 30,000 BC, during the Palaeolithic Oceania period. Lapita settlers who had reached the islands then branched out, first to the Santa Cruz islands and then to Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides) in 1200 BC, and Fiji (Viti) by 1100 BC, both during the Neolithic Oceania period.

Alvaro de Mendaña, a Spanish navigator who became the first European to find the islands in AD 1568, was the one to name them. He claimed that he had found the riches of King Solomon and the biblical land of gold. Great Britain in 1893 proclaimed a protectorate over the Solomons.

Germany in 1899 had commercial interests in the islands, but it ceded those interests to the British while retaining the island of Bougainville. In the early twentieth century, British and Australian companies established large coconut plantations in the islands. Along with them came missionaries who converted much of the population to Christianity.

Following the end of the Second World War nationalist sentiment grew until, finally, on 7 July 1978, the Solomon Islands became independent. Today they operate as a parliamentary democracy which is based on the United Kingdom's usage. The UK monarch is also the monarch of the Solomon Islands and is represented by a governor-general.

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(Information by John De Cleene and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information from Asia in the Modern World. Claude A Buss (Macmillan Publishing Company, 1964), from Beyond the Blue Horizon (National Geographic, March 2008), from Times Atlas of World History, Geoffrey Barraclough (Ed, Maplewood, New Jersey, 1979), from Washington Post (5 June 2000, 7 June 2000, 8 June 2000, and 24 February 2006), and from External Links: History of the Solomon Islands (Solomon Islands), and Solomon Islands (Rulers.org), and Melanesian Culture (Encyclopaedia Britannica), and Mothers of the Land: the Birth of the Bougainville Women for Peace and Freedom, Josephine Tankunani Sirivi & Marilyn Taleo Havini (Eds, Pandanus Books, 2004, accessed via The Bougainville Rebellion (The Free Library), 16 February 2023), and Peace Agreements (University of Edinburgh), and The Solomon Islands, Emily Caglayan (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and Solomon Islands (Flags of the World), Solomon Islands (Zárate's Political Collections (ZPC)), and Solomon Islands chooses China-friendly ex-diplomat (The Guardian).)

1978

The Solomon Islands achieves independence on 7 July 1978 from the United Kingdom. The new nation joins the United Nations on 19 September. The Solomon Islands are governed under a parliamentary democracy on the British style, sharing the same monarch and being represented by a governor-general.

Buloabu Island is an artificial construction on the Langa Lagoon, part of the Solomon Islands which achieved colonial independence in 1978

1978 - 1988

Governor-general.

1988 - 1994

Governor-general.

1994 - 1999

Governor-general.

1999 - 2004

Governor-general during a troubled period.

1999

The Istabu Freedom Movement (IFM) consists of members of the local Gwale population on the island of Guadalcanal. It begins a terror campaign against immigrant Malaitans who had largely arrived during the Second World War. The IFM sets up checkpoints around Honiara, the capital of the Solomons, forcing Malaitans to flee.

Some Malaitans, led by Andrew Nori, set up the 'Malaita Eagles' to defend their people. Fighting breaks out between the rival factions. In June the two enter a peace agreement which quickly breaks down. Sir John Lapli, the governor-general, requests help from Australia and New Zealand, but they refuse.

As part of the royal tour of Australia and the South Pacific in October 1982, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Nauru, meeting the president, Hammer DeRoburt

2000

The Malaita Eagles take control of the capital of Honiara on 5 June 2000, and place Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu under house arrest. The rebels briefly release Ulufa'alu on 7 June but promptly re-arrest him. Ulufa'alu resigns and, on 1 July, Manasseh Sogavare is elected prime minister.

2003

Sir John Lapli requests an international peacekeeping force to intervene in 2003. Australia and New Zealand take the lead in establishing a multinational force, the 'Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands' (or Ramsi). Ramsi disarms the militia groups and remains in the Solomons until 2013 (some ethnic violence continues and, in 2006, even expands to involve Chinese residents).

Despite looking like paradise, the Solomon Islands face some of the most difficult challenges in the Pacific, including ethnic violence, fragile state institutions, corruption, and increasing crime

2004 - 2009

Governor-general.

2009 - 2019

Governor-general.

2011

At a summit in Perth in Australia the heads of the sixteen Commonwealth countries of which Queen Elizabeth II is head of state unanimously approve changes to the royal succession. Sons and daughters of any future monarch of the United Kingdom will have equal right to the throne, bringing to an end the use of three hundred year-old succession laws.

Perhaps equally momentous, the ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic is also lifted. The succession changes require a raft of historic legislation to be amended, including the 1701 Act of Settlement, the 1689 Bill of Rights, and the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

Queen Elizabeth is pictured here at the Commonwealth summit of 2011 with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh on the left, and on the right Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

The change to the Royal Marriages Act will end a position in which every descendant of the Hanoverian George II is legally required to seek the consent of the monarch before marrying. In future, the requirement is expected to be limited to a small number of the sovereign's close relatives (essentially meaning only those who are in direct line to succeed to the throne).

2009 - 2013

A 'Truth and Reconciliation' commission is formed to address the ethnic violence which had begun in 1999. The Ramsi international peacekeeping force withdraws from the Solomon Islands in 2013.

2019 - 2024

Governor-general.

2019

The Solomon Islands reverses a long-standing position with has been favourable to Taiwan and instead shifts its friendship to China, causing concern in Australia, the United States, and their allies.

An increasingly self-confident China under its increasingly controlling leader, Xi Jinping, sought in the early twenty-first century to impose its own authority on the South China Sea and beyond

2024

Jeremiah Manele, foreign minister during the 2019 change of support from Taiwan to China, is elected prime minister. He promises that the country will retain its cordial relationship with China.

2024 - On

Governor-general.

2024

Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has been true to his word to pursue closer relations with China. In December 2024 he faces a motion of no confidence from Central Honiara MP and former prime minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo. Lilo soon withdraws the motion due to a lack of support.

2025

Lilo introduces a second no-confidence motion on 28 April 2025. It follows political instability, including the resignation announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Bradley Tovosia and reports of cabinet ministers defecting to the opposition.