TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93CT1909> <title> Vanuatu--History </title> <history> Compact ALMANAC--CIA Factbook Australia & Oceania Vanuatu </history> <article> <source>CIA World Factbook</source> <hdr> History </hdr> <body> The prehistory of Vanuatu is obscure; archaeological evidence supports the commonly held theory that peoples speaking Austronesian languages first came to the islands some 4,000 years ago. Potshards have been found dating back to 1300-1100 B.C. The first island in the Vanuatu group discovered by Europeans was Espiritu Santo, when in 1606 the Portuguese explorer, Pedro Fernandez De Quiros, spied what he thought was a southern continent. Europeans did not return until 1768, when Louis Antoine de Bougainville rediscovered the islands. In 1774, Captain Cook named the islands the New Hebrides, a name lasting until independence. In 1825, trader Peter Dillon's discovery of sandalwood on the island of Erromango began an eventual rush that ended in 1830 after a clash between immigrant Polynesian workers and indigenous Melanesians. Sandalwood trade resumed in 1839 and spread to the other islands, finally centering on Espiritu Santo in the 1860s. During the l860s, planters in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, and the Samoa Islands, in need of laborers, encouraged a form of long-term indentured labor called "blackbirding." At the height of the labor trade, more than one-half of the adult male population of several of the islands worked abroad. During this time, missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant arrived on the islands. Settlers also came, looking for land on which to establish cotton plantations. When international cotton prices collapsed, they switched to coffee, cocoa, bananas, and, most successfully, coconuts. Initially, British subjects from Australia made up the majority, but the establishment of the Caledonian Company of the New Hebrides in 1882 soon tipped the balance in the favor of French subjects. By the turn of the century, the French outnumbered the British two to one. The jumbling of French and British interests in the islands brought petitions for one of the two powers to annex the territory. In 1906, however, they agreed to jointly administer the islands. Called the British-French Condominium, it was a unique form of government, with separate governmental systems, coming together only in a joint court. Melanesians were barred from acquiring the citizenship of either power. This form of government was challenged beginning in the early 1940s. The arrival of Americans during World War II--their demeanor and apparent wealth was instrumental in the rise of nationalism on the islands. An indigenous cargo cult (a movement attempting to obtain industrial goods through magic) promising Melanesian deliverance was led by a mythical messianic figure named John Frum. The first political party was established in the early 1970s and originally was called the New Hebrides National Party. One of the founders was Father Walter Lini, who later became prime minister. Renamed the Vanua'aku Pati in 1974, the party had pushed for independence until 1980, when the Republic of Vanuatu was created. Current Political Conditions On the eve of independence in 1980, Jimmy Stephens' Nagriamel, in alliance with French interests, declared Espiritu Santo independent of the new government. After negotiations failed, the government requested troops from Papua New Guinea and Australia to help arrest the secessionists. Since 1980, the Vanua'aku Pati (VP) has controlled the Vanuatu Government. In 1988, Barak Sope, the VP's secretary-general, attempted to remove Father Lini as prime minister. In May 1988, Sope was fired from the cabinet following violent antigovernment protests in Port Vila for which he was blamed. Subsequently, Sope and four other VP members of parliament resigned de facto from the party and were dismissed from parliament. Later, 18 Union of Moderate Parties (UMP) members also were expelled from parliament under constitutional provisions forbidding members to boycott parliamentary sittings. Sope and his supporters were later reinstated by the courts, but he subsequently resigned when the court upheld the expulsion of the 18 boycotting UMP members. Following this, President Ati George Sokomanu dissolved parliament and announced the establishment of an interim government headed by Sope. The Lini government challenged Sokomanu's authority to dissolve the government without the advice of the cabinet, and this position was upheld by the courts. Sokomanu, Sope, and four other members of Sokomanu's purported "interim government" were arrested and tried on charges involving sedition and conspiracy to overthrow the government. Four were convicted but ultimately released on appeal. Throughout this period, the Vanuatu courts have continued to function, and their authority has been upheld. In 1989, Sope founded the Melanesian Progressive Party as an alternative to the VP and UMP. Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, May 1990. </body> </article> </text>