Solomon Islands

People reached the Solomons at least three thousand years ago, part of the Lapita expansion into the western Pacific, and developed the seafaring, gardening, and clan-based societies that persist today. A Spanish expedition under Álvaro de Mendaña sighted the islands in 1568 and named them for the biblical King Solomon, imagining gold that was not there. In the nineteenth century "blackbirding" ships took thousands of islanders, often by force or deceit, to work plantations in Queensland and Fiji.

Britain declared a protectorate over the southern islands in 1893. During the Second World War the archipelago became a crucial theatre: the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942–43, fought on land, at sea, and in the air, was the first major Allied offensive against Japan and a turning point in the Pacific, at a heavy cost in lives and ships. The waters off Honiara are still called Iron Bottom Sound for the wreckage that lies there.

Independence came in 1978. From 1998 to 2003 the country was torn by "the Tensions", a conflict between militias from Guadalcanal and Malaita rooted in land and migration grievances, which paralysed the state until the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) restored order and stayed until 2017. Riots hit Honiara in 2006 and again in 2021, and in 2019 the government switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing, followed in 2022 by a security agreement with China that drew concern across the region.

Society is organised around the wantok system — literally "one talk", the network of language, clan, and kin that carries strong mutual obligations of support and hospitality. Most land is held communally under customary tenure, not by the state, and permission from the owning clan is needed to use a beach, reef, or forest.

Christianity is near-universal and church life is central, but it coexists with kastom, the body of ancestral custom, ritual, and law. Regional cultures are distinct: Malaita is known for its shell money, still used in bride-price and compensation; the Western Province for fine canoe carving and the nguzunguzu figurehead; and many islands for panpipe ensembles and dance. Betel nut chewing is widespread.

Respect for elders and chiefs, restraint in public behaviour, and modest dress away from resorts are expected, and the pace of village life is slow and communal.

Around 750,000 people live in the Solomons, and roughly three-quarters of them in villages, growing taro, yam, sweet potato, and cassava, fishing the reefs, and selling copra, cocoa, or garden produce. Honiara, on Guadalcanal, is the only real town and draws a steady drift of young people looking for work and schooling.

The cash economy depends on logging — much of it foreign-run and widely seen as unsustainable — along with fisheries, palm oil, and a nascent gold mine. Government services are thin, electricity and roads are limited, and the population is very young and growing fast.

The islands are highly exposed to natural hazards: cyclones, earthquakes, and tsunamis strike regularly, and rising seas have already forced some communities on low-lying reef islands to move to higher ground.

The everyday diet is built on root crops — taro, yam, sweet potato (kumara), and cassava — with reef fish, shellfish, and coconut in many forms. Food is often cooked in a motu, an earth oven of hot stones, and coconut cream (miti) dresses fish and greens. Slippery cabbage (a local hibiscus spinach) and ferns are common vegetables.

Imported white rice and tinned fish or corned beef have become staples, especially in Honiara, alongside instant noodles and bread. Markets sell tropical fruit — pawpaw, pineapple, banana, and cut-nut and ngali nut in season.

Betel nut, chewed with lime and leaf, is the near-universal stimulant rather than alcohol or kava, though beer is sold in town. Fresh coconut and locally grown cocoa and coffee are the notable drinks.

The Western Province is the scenic heart: Marovo Lagoon, one of the world's largest saltwater lagoons, enclosed by a double barrier reef, with carving villages and eco-lodges, plus world-class diving and surfing around Gizo and the New Georgia group. Wreck and reef diving is the main draw nationally, above all in Iron Bottom Sound off Honiara, where warships and aircraft lie within reach.

Guadalcanal holds the Second World War sites — Bloody Ridge, the Vilu open-air war museum, and coastal relics — as well as waterfalls and rainforest behind the capital. Rennell Island in the far south has East Rennell, a UNESCO World Heritage Site: the largest raised coral atoll in the world, with the brackish Lake Tegano at its centre.

Tetepare, the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific, is run as a community conservation area with nesting turtles and dugongs, and Malaita's lagoons hold hand-built artificial islands and the shell-money workshops of Langa Langa. Almost everything requires a boat, a guide, and time.