| Archaeological
evidence shows that the first settlers in Tonga
sailed from the Santa Cruz Islands, as part of the
original Austronesian-speakers' (Lapita) migration
which originated out of S.E. Asia some 6,000 years
ago. Archaeological dating places Tonga as the oldest
known site in Polynesia for the distinctive Lapita
ceramic ware, at 2,800-2,750 years ago. The "Lapita"
people lived and sailed, traded, warred, and intermarried
in the islands now known as Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji
for 1,000 years, before more explorers set off to
the east to discover the Marquesas, Tahiti, and
eventually the rest of the Pacific Ocean islands.
For this reason, Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji are described
by anthropologists as the cradle of Polynesian culture
and civilization.
By
the 12th century, Tongans were known across the
Pacific, from Niue to Tikopia, sparking some historians
to refer to a 'Tongan Empire'. A network of interacting
navigators, chiefs, and adventurers might be a
better term although the empire did have its own
dynasties. It could be compared to the Scandinavian
kingdoms and the Vikings. In the 15th century
and again in the 17th, civil war erupted. It was
in this context that the first Europeans arrived,
beginning with Dutch explorers Willem Schouten
and Jacob Le Maire in 1616, who called on the
northern island of Niuatoputapu, and Abel Tasman,
who visited Tongatapu and Ha?apai in 1643. Later
noteworthy European visits were by Captain Cook
in 1773, 1774, and 1777, the first London missionaries
in 1797, and the Wesleyan Methodist Walter Lawry
Buller in 1822.
Tonga,
alias the Friendly Islands, became a British protected
state under a Treaty of Friendship on 18 May 1900,
when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs
tried to oust the second king. Within the British
Empire, which posted no higher permanent representative
on Tonga than a British Consul (1901-1970), it
was part of the British Western Pacific Territories
(under a colonial High Commissioner, then residing
on Fiji) from 1901 until 1952.
The
Treaty of Friendship and Tonga's protectorate
status ended in 1970 under arrangements established
prior to her death by Queen Salote Tupou III.
Tonga joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1970
(atypically as an autochthonous monarchy), and
the United Nations in September 1999. While exposed
to colonial forces, Tonga has never lost indigenous
governance, a fact that makes Tonga unique in
the Pacific and gives Tongans much pride, as well
as confidence in their monarchal system. As part
of cost cutting measures across the British Foreign
Service, the British Government closed the British
High Commission in Nuku?alofa in March 2006, transferring
representation of British interests in Tonga to
the UK High Commissioner in Fiji. The last resident
British High Commissioner was His Excellency Mr.
Paul Nessling.
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