Fiji ( ; ), officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands ( ; ), is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population.

Etymology

Fiji's main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name "Fiji" is derived, through the pronunciation of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence was best described as follows:

Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as formidable warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific, but not great sailors. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly esteemed and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known.

History

main: History of Fiji

The first people of Fiji arrived long before contact with European explorers in the seventeenth century. Pottery excavated from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500-1000 BC, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers.It is believed that the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived but they may have had some influence on the new culture and archaeological evidence shows that they would have then moved on to Tonga, Samoa and Hawai'i.

The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 3500 years ago. Lapita pottery sherds have been found at numerous excavations around the country. Fijians have aspects of their culture that is similar to Melanesian culture to the western Pacific but has a stronger connection to the older polynesian cultures such as those of Samoa and Tonga. Trade between these three nations long before European contact is quite obvious with Canoes made from native Fijian trees found in Tonga and Tongan words being part of the language of the Lau group of islands. Pots made in Fiji have been found in Samoa and even the Marquesas Islands. For most of its history, across 1000 kilometres from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many Languages; often people were unable to understand conversations of others. Nothing was static in Fiji. It was a history of settlement but also of mobility. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed. Constant warfare and cannibalism between warring tribes was quite rampant and very much everyday part of life Fijians today regard those times as "na gauna ni tevoro" (time of the devil) the ferocity of the cannibal lifestyle deterred European sailors from going near Fijian waters giving Fiji the name Cannibal Isles, in turn Fiji was unknown to the rest of the outside world.