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Some of the islands have been
populated continuously for thousands of years and others are still
uninhabited today. The earliest known settlement was on Malo Island, where
pottery at least 4000 years old has been unearthed. Prehistoric cultures
in Vanuatu were plagued by inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich
spiritual life attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck or
calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish festivals to appease the
gods. The elaborate burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265 was
excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of Efate, and bears evidence of
human sacrifice. Explorer Pedro Fernandez
de Quiros laid eyes on the islands in 1606, naming the first one he
sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, known today
simply as Santo. His lofty - if quixotic - ideal was to found New
Jerusalem in the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the Jordan. But
the locals didn't really want to be saved and the prevailing
south-easterlies continually hindered the Spanish landings. De Quiros
wandered off into the Pacific not long after he arrived, presumably
believing his failure had condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn
for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and French explorers who
followed was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been
'transported to the garden of Eden'. The Englishman Captain James Cook was
perhaps less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the traditional manner
of preparing kava 'is as simple as it is disgusting'.
Vanuatu's more recent history brims with a
panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous slavers and fumbling
colonial bureaucrats. Hot on the heels of the explorers came the
adventurers to harvest whales and sandalwood and the missionaries to
harvest souls. The Europeans brought epidemics of influenza and measles,
venereal disease and the slave trade, and the populations of some islands,
particularly in the north, have never recovered. The English and French,
often at war with each other last century, settled uneasily next to each
other in the New Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until
independence, and formed probably the strangest colonial administration
the world has seen. Two declared enemies were sitting in each other's
pockets and forced to cooperate in a far-flung outpost of the European
empire. They finally settled on a joint mandate early this century with
the Anglo-French Protocol (the 'Condominium', sometimes referred to as the
'Pandemonium'), establishing equal influence for both powers.
By far the greatest misery inflicted on the
islanders was 'blackbirding', the South Seas' own version of slavery that
continued into the early years of the 20th century. Thousands of
ni-Vanuatu were persuaded and downright kidnapped to work on the sugar and
cotton plantations of Queensland and Fiji, and many never returned. WWII
brought a massive influx of US military personnel to Efate and Santo,
which became crucial bases in the Pacific War. The country was awash with
American know-how and dollars, and many ni-Vanuatu earned real wages for
the first time in their lives. More importantly, the islanders observed
black Americans enjoying the material benefits and luxuries afforded the
whites, and this played no small part in their agitation for independence.
In the late 1960s the Nagriamel movement
began to attract thousands of followers, mostly in the northern islands.
Its leader was Chief President Moses (Jimmy Tupou Patuntun Stevens), and
it was originally confined to obtaining rights to the 'dark bush', the
land Europeans had never claimed or settled. Nagriamel became increasingly
politicised, however, and petitioned the United Nations in 1971 for an
'act of free choice' over the archipelago's independence. Britain and
France agreed that under the terms of the Condominium neither would
withdraw without the other, which became a recipe for inaction. They were
finally dragged to constitutional reform by 1974-75, and as the islanders
agitated for further rights they conceded to elections. Condominium
bureaucrats could see the writing on the sand by then - even they were
aware of the stink of colonialism in the modern world.
Independence was set for mid-1980, but amid
widespread secessions the Condominium fractured over its inability to
agree on much more than the height to fly their standards. Anglo-French
troops could not halt the violence and looting that broke out even in the
larger towns, and the local government finally called in troops from PNG
to restore order and declared independence on 30 July 1980. The 1990s have
seen bouts of instability in government. A scheme by the paramilitary
Vanuatu Mobile Force to overthrow the government and establish martial law
over a pay dispute was thwarted in 1996. Allegations of massive bank fraud
by members of the Carlot Korman government were aired the same year, and
continuing political uncertainty has seen the economy slow down, foreign
investment fall and the economy shrink despite the flood of money that has
washed in owing to the country's tax-haven status. In February 1997 the
government signed an agreement with the Asian Development Bank to
significantly restructure the economy with private investment funds.
In November 1997 Vanuatu's president, Jean-Marie
Leye, dissolved parliament and called fresh elections. He made the
decision so Vanuatu could find a solution to its problems and because the
current government had not kept its promises. Despite elections and a new
governement in March 1998 there was another change late 1999. Around the
same time Vanuatu was hit by an earthquake and tidal wave which caused
extensive damage on Pentecost Island. For
more general information
on Vanuatu to: |
