Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Solomon Islands

Starting point is 00:00:00 Lying northeast of Australia and almost due east of Papua New Guinea lies one of the world's lesser-known and seldom visited countries, the Solomon Islands. The country has few resources, is located on no major shipping routes, and is seldom mentioned in any news stories whatsoever. Yet, it played a major role in the Second World War and is one of the most linguistically diverse places on the planet. Learn more about the Solomon Islands, its past and present, on this episode of Everything everywhere daily. Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep only to have your mind start racing the

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Starting point is 00:01:26 every Monday and Thursday. I've often wondered what the least known country in the world is. The country that makes the news the least and is seldom thought of by anyone. I don't know the answer to that question, but I do believe a contender for the title just might be the Solomon Islands. It's a small country, but not the smallest country. It's a poor country, but not the poorest country. There are no major modern trade routes that would cause ships to pass through or near the Solomon's. Given the geologic origins of the islands, there's little in the way of minerals or other natural resources. The biggest export product is wood and timber. There was a small gold mine that used to operate, and there is also a limited amount of fishing.

Starting point is 00:02:14 75% of the people who live there are still engaged in subsistence agriculture at some level. So why do an episode about the Solomon Islands? Well, for all the reasons I just listed. I visited the Solomon Islands back in 2007, very early in my travels. I spent more time there than I did in other countries in the region. And my time there left me with a soft spot for the country. And I've always looked for mentions of the Solomon Islands in the news ever since. Even if it was bad news, I was still curious as to what was happening back in the country.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Even though I read multiple international news outlets every single day, the number of times I've seen the Solomon Islands mentioned over the last decade and a half, I could probably count on one hand. So let's start our discussion of the Solomon Islands with the geography of the islands. The nation of the Solomon Islands consists of most of the archipelago of the Solomon Islands located east of Pawpaw-New Guinea, as well as a few outlying islands in the archipelago, including the islands of Ronell and Santa Cruz. When I say it consists of most of the archipelago of the Solomon Islands, the only island in the

Starting point is 00:03:20 archipelago that isn't part of the country is the island of Bougainville, which is the largest island in the chain and is part of Plopinugin, Guinea. The island of Bougainville is worth an episode of its own in the future. If for no other reason, then it is scheduled to become the world's next independent country in just a few years. The majority of the majority of the majority of the country consists of mountainous islands in the archipelago. There are over 900 islands that make up the Solomon Islands, the largest of which is the island of Guadalcanal, which is a name that many of you might have heard of before. Another major island is Malata, which is the most populated of the islands. The total population of the country is around 700,000 people,

Starting point is 00:03:59 of which a third live on Maleta. Almost all of the people in the country are classified as Melanesian by their linguistic groups. As with other Melanesian countries such as Popinue Guinea and Vanuatu, there are a wide number of languages that are spoken, many of which seem to have nothing in common with neighboring tongues. There are as many as 70 native languages spoken in the Solomons, as well as the unifying second languages of Toc Pigeon and English. One exception to this is the islands of Ronell and Bologna. These small islands are part of the country of the Solomon Islands, but lie outside of the main archipelago of the Solomon Islands. They are considered to be Polynesian outliers.

Starting point is 00:04:40 Almost all Polynesian islands are located in an area known as the Polynesian Triangle, which consists of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. However, there are a few islands outside of the triangle, and Rennell and Bolona are such islands. The language there is called Renalese, and I spoke to one man on the island who received medical training in New Zealand. while he was there, he said he was able to understand people from Samoa or Tonga so long as they just spoke slowly. Human migration of the Solomons may have begun as early as 30,000 years ago. During the last Ice Age, sea levels were dramatically lower, and at that time, the Solomons were connected by land, and were connected to Pawpenni and Australia.

Starting point is 00:05:20 About 1,200 to 800 BC, a migration of people known as the Lapita arrived on the islands. The Lapita were the ancestors of the Polynesians, and were a... a seafaring people that came from southeast or East Asia. Their Austronesian language became dominant, and most of the 70 native languages spoken in the Solomon Islands today are classified as Austronesian. The first European to encounter the islands was the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Daneda, who came across the islands in 1568. He had sailed across the Pacific from Peru. Almost three decades later, in 1595, he returned in an attempt to establish a colony there, but poor relations with the locals and disease rendered the experiment to failure,

Starting point is 00:06:03 and the colony was abandoned in 1598. The islands were forgotten and left alone for almost 170 years. In the 18th century, there were some French and British ships that visited the islands, but again, there was no widespread attempt to colonize or settle in the islands. Whaling ships began regularly visiting the islands in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, where they would trade with the islanders for provisions. This actually resulted in a massive shift of power between the various groups on the islands. The people who lived in coastal regions now had access to European weapons and technologies, and were able to use these against the people who lived in inland regions. The 19th century also saw the rise of what was known as blackbirding, which was basically

Starting point is 00:06:45 the forced capture and enslavement of people on the islands to work on plantations in Australia and throughout the Pacific. And I touched on this topic in my episode on Vanuatu. Former European colonial rule didn't begin until 1886, when Germany annexed the northeast part of Pawpennie, along with the Bismarck Archipelago and the northern part of the Solomons. The Germans basically ignored the islands and didn't even send anyone to visit for years, just claiming the islands on paper. In 1893, the British claimed the southern Solomon Islands as a protectorate, and in 1900, Germany ceded all of the islands to Britain, save for the island of Bougainville,

Starting point is 00:07:23 which remained part of German New Guinea. and that is the historical reason why Bougainville was never part of the nation of the Solomon Islands. Despite the European powers drawing lines on a map and claiming the islands, there was almost nothing done in the way of day-to-day control or administration of the islands. Most of the people who lived on the islands had no idea that some European country had claimed it on a map. Case in point, by 1903, there were only 80 Europeans who were living on the islands in any capacity. There were regular conflicts between Europeans and locals, accumulating with the murder of the colonial administrator in the Solomon's,

Starting point is 00:08:01 William R. Bell, in 1927. But everything in the Solomon's radically changed in 1942. The Second World War came to the Solomons in May 1942, when Japanese forces landed and occupied the islands. The islands themselves really weren't of interest to the Japanese. It was just a means of protecting their flank in their campaign in Paupe, New Guinea. The Americans quickly counter-invaded the islands. The Guadalcanal campaign began on August 7, 1942,

Starting point is 00:08:29 when U.S. Marines landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Florida, and Tulagi. It lasted until late January 1943 with the Battle of Ronell, when the Japanese finally gave up on the Solomons. The Solomon Islands was the location where John Kennedy's boat, PT109, was sunk. It was also the location for several on-screen depictions of World War II. The 1970s series Black Sheep Squadron and the movie The Thin Red Line were located. there. The war thrusts the Solomon Islands into the modern world, whereas before the war there were only a handful of foreigners on the islands, most of whom were missionaries, during the war they

Starting point is 00:09:04 were suddenly everywhere. After the war, islanders began to organize across islands for greater autonomy and independence. The capital was moved from Toulagi to the current capital of Honiara on the island of Guadalcanal in 1952. One idea floated by the British in the early 50s was to give control of the islands to Australia, but the Australians didn't want to have the financial burden. By the 1960s, as decolonization was well underway, and the British made it clear that they didn't want the burden of administering the islands either, the process of ceding control to the local population began. A legislative council was created, which represented all of the islands, constitutions were written up, and eventually by 1976, the full self-government had been achieved.

Starting point is 00:09:46 The final step, a full formal independence for the country, took place. place on July 7, 1978. Ethnic groups and islands dominated politics in the Solomans. In particular, one of the biggest problem was the migration of people from the most populist island of Maleta to Honiara for economic opportunities. This migration caused tensions between the people from Maleta and those on Guadalcanal, which resulted in the creation of the Ista Tabu Freedom Movement on Guadalcanal in 1998. They were a nationalist group that fought against the government and people from Maleta.

Starting point is 00:10:18 In response, the Maleta Eagle Force was established. The result was several years of conflict and violence, which resulted in the collapse and bankruptcy of the Solomon Islands government. Eventually, in desperation in 2003, the Parliament unanimously reached out for international assistance. This led to the creation of the regional assistance mission to the Solomon Islands, or Ramsey. It brought in over 2,200 soldiers and police officers to the Solomon Islands. Australia and New Zealand spearheaded Ramsey, but if, also had members from 15 other Pacific nations. When I visited in 2007, there were still Ramsey's officials that could be seen in the country. And given the tirade I heard from one man

Starting point is 00:10:58 on the island of Ronell, where there was no violence, the Ramsey's forces weren't necessarily welcome everywhere. The Ramsey mission ended in 2017. Since the violence in 2003, one of the biggest issues in the Solomon's has been Chinese involvement in the country. In 2006, there were riots in the Haniyara Chinatown when it was discovered Chinese concern, gave members of parliament bribes, and again in 2021, when the Solomon switched their official recognition from Taiwan to mainland China. Almost all of the unrest in the Solomon's over the last 25 years has taken place in the capital of Honiara and Guadalcanal. Most of the islands in the country have been totally peaceful. Today, the Solomon Islands is one of the least visited countries in the

Starting point is 00:11:40 world. Prior to the pandemic, only 26,000 people visited annually, of which many of those were there for business or work for non-governmental organizations. It isn't a hard place to visit, as there are regular flights, but it also is a place you have to intend to visit. You probably aren't going to be stopping there in route to someplace else. While tensions in the Solomons have been reduced, the underlying problems haven't necessarily been solved. The potential of an independent Bougainville next door in just a few years may increase the demands for independence of some of the islands or for a more federal system of government where individual islands and provinces manage their own affairs.

Starting point is 00:12:19 The fact that the Solomon Islands doesn't get the attention of the rest of the world isn't necessarily a bad thing. Despite its recent problems, from my personal experience, the people, the cultures, and the islands of the Solomon's are one of the most special places on Earth. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Dan C-78 over on Apple Podcasts in the United States. They write, very informational. And then there are a whole lot of emojis, I'm guessing, probably around 30 of all different types of animals. Very informational. I find that this podcast is very interesting, and I like how random the subjects are. Can you do an

Starting point is 00:13:04 episode about popcorn? Thank you. Well, thanks, Dan. I don't know if a full episode on popcorn is in the works, but it certainly may get a starring role in a future episode on corn, one of the most important commodities in the world. Remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram, you two can have it run in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Solomon Islands

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