|RConstitution:|N Independent parliamentary country, member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, July 7.
|RNature and climate:|N Group of islands east of Papua New Guinea and north of Australia.
Most islands are of volcanic origin, with many volcanoes still active. Most of them are surrounded by coral reefs and vegetation is dominated by tropical rainforests with mangroveswamps by the coasts.
Tropical climate.
Percipitation between 2000 and 3000 mm.
|RPeople:|N 93% Melanesian, 4% Polynesian and 2% Micronesian.
|REconomy:|N The economy is based on subsistence farming. Most important crops are rice, bananas, sweetpotatoes and coconuts.
Fishing gives most exportrevenues, not least because fishingrights are sold to other countries.
During the last decades a number of light manufacturies have been established.
The most important natural resources are fish, forests, gold, bauxite and phosphates.
|RHistory:|N The islands were discovered by the Spaniard Alvaro Mendana in 1567 but were forgotten. 200 years later Louis de Bougainville from France and Philip Carteret from Britain visited the islands that in 1885 were divided between Britain and Germany. After World War I the German islands became a mandate under Australia and later became a part of Papua New Guinea.
The British Solomon Islands were occupied by Japan during World War II, but were recaptured after a series of bloody battles in 1943.
After the war the islands again became a British colony, with limited self-governing from 1960.
