Fiji

Fiji, officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population.

The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 3500 years ago. Trade between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga long before European contact. Across 1000 kilometers from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many languages. Fiji's history was one of settlement but also of mobility. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed. Constant warfare and cannibalism between warring tribes was quite rampant and very much part of everyday life. The ferocity of the cannibal lifestyle deterred European sailors from going near Fijian waters, giving Fiji the name Cannibal Isles, in turn Fiji was unknown to the rest of the outside world.

The British subjugated the islands as a colony in 1874, and the British brought over Indian contract laborers to work on the sugar plantations as the Governor adopted a policy disallowing the use of native labor and no interference in their culture and way of life.

The British granted Fiji independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by military coups in 1987, 2000 and 2006.

Fiji, endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, is one of the more developed of the Pacific island economies, though still with a large subsistence sector. Natural resources include timber, fishing, gold, copper, offshore oil potential, hydro-power. Fiji experienced a period of rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s but stagnated in the 1980s. The coup of 1987 caused further contraction.