Fiji
Fiji
Fiji is a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman (ca. 1603–1959) reached some of the Fijian islands in 1643, and eighteenth-century visitors included James Cook (1728–1779) and William Bligh (1754–1817). Sandalwood, valued in China, drew European traders to Fiji in the early nineteenth century; missionaries also arrived at this time.
By the 1860s, Europeans, Americans, and colonial Australians began to negotiate substantial land sales with Fijian chiefs. A leading chief, Cakobau (1815–1883), attempted to form a centralized indigenous government in 1871, but the demands of investors, planters, traders, and Fijians proved irreconcilable. Fearing anarchy, Cakobau ceded Fiji to the British Crown in 1874.
British rule in Fiji was characterized by a romanticized view of indigenous Fijians, and a desire to promote Fiji's economy using imported labor from India. Fijians thus retained control of land and local government, and British governors prided themselves on their knowledge of Fiji's language and customs. This practice of Aindirect rule would be adopted in other parts of the British Empire.
By the 1960s decolonization was accelerating in other parts of the British Empire, but Fiji's small size and plural society were perceived to be barriers to rapid independence. Fiji had been described as a three-legged stool: Fijian land, Indian labor, and European government. The British perceived their role as crucial to the protection of indigenous Fijian interests, especially after the 1940s when Indians began to outnumber Fijians. Independence came in 1970, but unfinished business from the colonial period, especially the country's race-based approach to identity and political representation, continues to haunt Fijian politics.
see also Pacific, American Presence in; Pacific, European Presence in.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Derrick, Ronald. Albert. A History of Fiji. Suva, Fiji: Government Printer, 1957.
Scarr, Deryck. Fiji: A Short History. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1984.