Solomon Islands is a nation in the southwestern Pacific, an archipelago of nearly a thousand islands lying east of Papua New Guinea. A Melanesian land of jungle-covered islands, volcanic peaks, and coral lagoons, it is one of the least developed countries of the Pacific, where most people live by subsistence farming and fishing in close-knit village communities. Its name evokes the legendary riches that early Spanish explorers hoped to find, and its waters were the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War.
The islands were settled by Melanesian peoples thousands of years ago, who lived in a multitude of small communities speaking many languages. The Spanish navigator Mendaña reached them in 1568 and, dreaming of gold, named them after the biblical King Solomon, but found no treasure. In the nineteenth century the islands suffered from the labour trade that carried islanders away to work on distant plantations, before Britain established a protectorate. After the upheaval of the Second World War, Solomon Islands moved toward self-rule and gained independence in 1978.
Solomon Islands stretches across a long double chain of islands in the Pacific, most of them large, mountainous, and densely forested, with active volcanoes and surrounding coral reefs. The climate is hot and humid, and the islands lie in a zone of earthquakes and the occasional tsunami. The rich rainforests and reefs support abundant wildlife on land and in the sea. The largest island, Guadalcanal, holds the highest mountains and the capital, and its name became famous around the world during the Second World War.
The flag of Solomon Islands is divided by a thin yellow diagonal stripe, with a blue upper triangle bearing five white stars and a green lower triangle. The blue represents the surrounding ocean, rivers, and rain, the green the land and its forests, and the thin yellow line the sunshine. The five white stars originally stood for the five administrative districts of the country at independence, though the islands now have more provinces. The design reflects the natural setting of this Pacific island nation.
Solomon Islands is overwhelmingly Christian, the result of missionary work in the colonial era, with the population spread across Anglican, Roman Catholic, and various other Protestant and evangelical churches, which play a central role in community life. As elsewhere in Melanesia, Christian faith frequently coexists with enduring traditional beliefs, including respect for ancestral spirits and customary practices. This blend of church and custom shapes the values and daily life of the villages where most Solomon Islanders live.
The cuisine of Solomon Islands is based on the root crops, fish, and produce of the islands. Staples include sweet potato, taro, yam, cassava, and sago, along with abundant fish and seafood from the reefs and lagoons, and the ever-present coconut. Food is often cooked in earth ovens or boiled in coconut milk, and tropical fruits such as banana and pawpaw are plentiful. The diet is overwhelmingly local and fresh, reflecting a society in which most families still grow and catch much of what they eat.
Agriculture sustains the great majority of Solomon Islanders, most of whom are subsistence farmers tending gardens of root crops and raising pigs in their villages. The country's exports come largely from the land and sea: timber from its rainforests has been a major and sometimes controversially overharvested export, along with palm oil, copra, cocoa, and fish, especially tuna from the rich surrounding waters. The economy is small and heavily dependent on these natural resources, and the country relies significantly on foreign aid.
The Spanish naming of the islands, the harsh labour trade of the nineteenth century, and British rule shaped their history, but the most momentous event was the Second World War. The Guadalcanal campaign of 1942 and 1943 was a brutal turning point in the Pacific war, with ferocious land, sea, and air battles. Independence came in 1978. In more recent times the country was torn by ethnic conflict around the turn of the century, which led to a regional peacekeeping intervention that helped restore order.
Solomon Islands has a population of around 700,000 people, the great majority of them Melanesians, alongside small Polynesian, Micronesian, and other communities. The country is highly diverse, with around seventy languages spoken, so that an English-based creole known as Pijin serves as the common tongue alongside the official English. The population is overwhelmingly rural, living in villages scattered across the many islands, with only a small share in the capital, Honiara, on Guadalcanal. Society remains strongly built around the village and the extended family.
