Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Kingdom of Tonga

Starting point is 00:00:00 Located in the South Pacific, squarely within the Polynesian triangle, lies the Kingdom of Tonga. While there are many islands and several countries within that region, Tonga has a history which is unique among them. The Tongans were one of the most dominant cultures in the Pacific, ruled an extensive sea-based empire, and were one of the only people in the Pacific who were never technically colonized by Europeans. Learn more about the Kingdom of Tonga, its history, and its culture on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:00:54 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. As I mentioned in previous episodes, as a traveler, the Pacific is my favorite region on Earth. It's a region that few people are familiar with and fewer people actually visit. Some of the countries might be names that you have heard of, like Samoa, Tonga, or Fiji, and other places like Tuvalu, Tokalau, or Nauru are so obscured that you might not even know that they exist. On a map, it's very difficult to pick out most of these countries because they lack land borders, and oftentimes they're so small that when looking at a map of the world on a computer screen,

Starting point is 00:01:37 the actual size of the country would be smaller than a pixel. Because they're so remote and so little understood, people just tend to lump them all together. To be fair, some of the countries do have cultural similarities, in particular the Polynesian ones. However, once you've been to the region and have experienced several of these places yourself, you can get a better sense of how they're different. When I first visited Tonga, I had spent several months island hopping through the Pacific, almost exclusively through other Polynesian territories, such as French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, Samoa, and American Samoa.

Starting point is 00:02:12 When I arrived in Nukuwalaofa, the capital of Tonga, I sensed that something was different here. Things were similar, but not quite the same as I found in other Polynesian islands. And it turns out that there was a reason for it, and that reason mostly had to do with the unique history of Tonga. But before I get into the history of Tonga, I should briefly describe the geography of the country. Tonga is located due south of Samoa, southeast of Fiji,

Starting point is 00:02:36 and about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand. The largest island is Tonga Tapu, where the capital city of Nukualofa is located. The other major island groups are Haha Pai and Vavau. Many Pacific countries consist either of coral atolls, which sit mostly at sea level or volcanic islands. Tonga actually has both. There are a total of 171 islands in Tonga, of which 45 are inhabited. However, if you remember back to my episode on the 22 Hunga-Tonga-Tonga-Hanga-Haha-Pai eruption, New islands are being made in Tonga all the time.

Starting point is 00:03:09 The first humans arrived in Tonga about 3,000 years ago, and the first settlers are believed to have been the Lapita people who migrated from Asia. The story of early settlement in Tonga is very similar to other islands in the region, which saw the first humans around the same time. Many of the early Polynesian settlers from all over the Polynesian triangle, from New Zealand to Hawaii, may have all descended from some of the first Lapita people to arrive on Tonga. In fact, I've mentioned the ancient Lapita people so many times, that I figure they deserve an episode of their own at some point in the future.

Starting point is 00:03:40 Eventually, as the islands were settled, chiefdom sprang up and a civilization developed. There's a great deal we don't know about ancient Polynesia due to the geology of the region and the lack of a written language. However, it's believed that in Tonga, many of the chiefdoms may have been unified under a single ruler. And the reason for this belief is what began to happen around the year 950. The Tongans began to expand, conquering other islands in the region.

Starting point is 00:04:05 This was the beginning of the Tui Tonga Empire, otherwise just known as the Tongan Empire. The term Tuetonga comes from the name of the king of Tonga, which was known as the Tui Tonga. There were 49 holders of the title, Tui Tonga, which lasted until 1865. The Tongan Empire largely replaced the Tuimani Empire, also known as the Samoan Empire, which had established hegemity in the region several centuries before. The core of the Tongan Empire included modern-day Tonga, Samoa, American Samoa, and Fiji. However, over several hundred years, the empire ranged as far as the Solomon Islands in the west to parts of French Polynesia in the east.

Starting point is 00:04:42 And for those of you studying for the language section of the SAT or a spelling bee, the name for a maritime empire is a thalisocracy. The Samoans eventually broke free of the Tongan sometime in the late 12th or early 13th century, but the Tongan Empire continued for several more centuries, exerting influence around the Pacific. I don't want to gloss over this period of Tongan dominance in the region, because, as we'll see, there are still echoes of this that can be felt in Tonga today in the form of the Tongan monarchy. The first European contact with Tonga occurred in 1616,

Starting point is 00:05:14 when Captain Willem Schauta of the Dutch ship Endrakt arrived looking to trade with locals. This was followed by a series of European ships that stopped at the islands over the next 150 years. The visits were rather infrequent, perhaps only one visit every decade or more. When British Captain James Cook visited Tonga in the 1770s, he recorded seeing a wide diversity of people from various Pacific islands in Tonga, which was a testament to how much power and influence Tonga still wielded even as late as the 18th century. The 19th century saw large changes in Tongan society. While Europeans never took over and officially colonized Tonga, they did have a great deal of influence. The biggest change was the spread of Christianity.

Starting point is 00:05:54 Christian missionaries came to Tonga and were quite successful. The first wave of missionaries converted people primarily to the Catholic and Methodist churches, however, other Protestant denomination soon followed. The other big change in Tongan society was a result of a civil war which began with the assassination of one of the chiefs in 1799. The war lasted for 50 years, and when the dust settled, the Tuytonga line of kings, which had existed for centuries, came to an end. However, near the end of their royal lineage, they mostly became figureheads and held no real power. The man who unified Tonga again was King George Tupot I, the first, the first king of the current Tupot dynasty, which rules Tonga today. King Tupo ushered in a series of reforms to Tonga,

Starting point is 00:06:36 including creating the first set of written laws, calling the first elected parliament, banning serfdom, limiting the power of local chiefs, and instituting freedom of the press. At the start of the 20th century, Tonga was facing pressure from European powers, in particular Germany, who was looking to expand its possessions in the Pacific. There were also European migrants who began working with local chiefs to overthrow the king to establish their own monarchy, which would be more friendly to various European powers. This led the then-king of Tonga, King to Po II, to sign a treaty of friendship with the United Kingdom on May 18, 1900. Under the treaty, the UK was responsible for the defense and foreign diplomacy

Starting point is 00:07:14 of Tonga, but they had no ability to veto any laws or foreign policy decisions that the Tongans made. While they managed to retain their independence, the relationship with the British was extremely rocky, especially during the first several years of the treaty when the British were threatening several times to take Tonga by force. Due to their issues with Britain, Tonga initially declared neutrality in World War I, but did eventually send a very small contingent of Tongan soldiers who fought with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in World War I, with three Tongans dying in combat. In 1918, the Spanish flu reached the remote country, which killed 1,800 Tongans or 8% of the total population.

Starting point is 00:07:53 In World War II, the Tongan response was very different than that of the First World War. Tonga, under the rule of Queen Salote, declared war against Germany in 1939 and later against Japan on December 8, 1941, the same day as Pearl Harbor, just on the other side of the international date line. While Tonga didn't see any combat during the war, the war did fundamentally change the country. Whereas the First World War was on the other side of the planet and didn't really affect Tonga, Tonga was directly threatened by the Japanese who were expanding across the Pacific. Tonga created a national militia, and most importantly, allowed the Americans to come and establish

Starting point is 00:08:30 a military presence on the island during the war. The occupation of Tonga by the Americans dramatically changed the culture of the country. While there had been contact with the Western world for almost two centuries, most people in Tonga would have had no day-to-day interactions with foreigners except for perhaps missionaries. After the war, Tonga saw increased immigration from the country, primarily to countries like New Zealand and Australia. After the war, Queen Salote negotiated an end to the British protectorate. She died in 1965 after 48 years of rule, and the agreement she negotiated came to fruition in 1970 when the protectorate ended, and Tonga achieved full independence,

Starting point is 00:09:09 with the responsibility for their own foreign relations and defense. Because of their previous British ties, they joined the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming one of the few countries in the Commonwealth that had their own monarch and never had the British monarch. Tonga joined the United Nations in 1999, and today is a member of most international organizations. In the 21st century, changes continued in Tonga. Even in the early 2000s, Tonga was still mostly dominated by the king and an aristocratic class that held most of the government positions. In most international indexes, Tonga was not considered to be a a free democracy, as most of the seats in the parliament were not democratically elected.

Starting point is 00:09:49 Pro-democracy riots broke out in 2006 in Nukuolofa, which killed eight people. My first trip to Tonga was only a few months after the riots, and I could still see the aftermath of the fires in the city. 2008 ushered in massive changes to the country as elections took place where all pro-democracy candidates won, and King George Dupo V, announced that the monarchy would give up most of its powers, and the country would become a constitutional monarchy with the king taking it. a mostly ceremonial role. In 2010, the most democratic election in the country's history was held, but the Parliament still isn't totally democratic. Nine of the 26 seats in Parliament are still selected by a small group of Tongan nobles. In 2012, King George Tupot V died and was replaced

Starting point is 00:10:31 by his brother and the current king of Tonga Tupo the 6th. Today, Tonga is unique among the countries of the Pacific. For starters, they have a monarchy, which no other country in the region has. Tonga has a standing army, despite only having a population of 100,000 people. There are only about 500 soldiers on active duty, but they have served in campaigns overseas, including the First Iraq War. Tonga is one of the Pacific powerhouses in rugby. While often dominated by much larger countries in international play, they do punch above their weight, and there are several Tongan players who play for international rugby clubs. In 1996, Tonga won its only Olympic medal, a silver medal in men's super heavyweight boxing.

Starting point is 00:11:12 One of the things that first struck me in Tonga was the use of traditional dress in everyday wear. Men will often wear what's known as a Tupanue, which is a Tongan equivalent of a kilt. The style of dress is very common in many different Polynesian countries. However, on top of that, I saw several people in Nukuulofa wearing a woven palm frond item on the top, known as a Taovala. A Taolala is a sort of very wide belt, almost a mat, which is worn by both men and women for formal attire. It's often considered to be the equivalent of wearing a tie. In fact, I saw several men wearing a western suit coat and tie with a tupeanu on their legs and a ta'ovala around their waist. Queen Salote mandated that the Ta'uvala be part of a standard uniform for all Tongan civil servants, which is why it's still worn today.

Starting point is 00:11:58 If you manage to visit the main island of Tonga Tapu, one of the top attractions is the hahamunga Amawi. It is an 800-year-old tri-lithon structure made out of coral, which looks very similar to the structure. own formations at Stonehenge. And like Stonehenge, the structure was believed to have been built for astronomical reasons. And before closing, I have to mention that the Vavau Islands are one of the best places in the world to see humpback whales. It's one of the largest humpback whale breeding grounds in the Pacific. Tonga isn't the biggest country in the world in terms of area or population, and it's pretty far away from most other countries in the world. However, it has a unique history and culture, unlike anywhere else, even compared to its other Polynesian neighbors.

Starting point is 00:12:40 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Kingdom of Tonga

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