Solomon Islands (country), constitutional monarchy and
member of the Commonwealth of Nations, consisting of about 30 islands and
numerous atolls in the South Pacific Ocean, east of New Guinea. The country
includes most of the Solomon Islands group, notably Guadalcanal, New Georgia,
Santa Isabel, Malaita, Choiseul, San Cristobal (Makira), and Vella Lavella, as
well as Ontong Java (Lord Howe) Atoll, Rennell, and the Santa Cruz Islands. The
total area is 27,556 sq km (10,639 sq mi).
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II
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LAND
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Solomon Islands is a mountainous country; the
highest peak, Mount Popomanaseu on Guadalcanal, rises to an elevation of 2,331
m (7,648 ft). The mountains are of volcanic origin. The climate of Solomon
Islands is hot and humid.
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III
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PEOPLE
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The population (2008 estimate) is 581,208. The
capital and principal port is Honiara (population, 1990 estimate, 35,288), on
Guadalcanal. Melanesians (see Melanesia) make up 93 percent of the
population, with a small minority of Polynesians. Solomon Islands has a high
birth rate, which has resulted in low literacy rates and a high level of
unemployment. English is the official language, although Pidgin is more widely
spoken; some 80 local languages are also used.
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IV
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ECONOMY AND GOVERNMENT
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The chief products of Solomon Islands are copra,
timber, rice, cacao, processed fish, sweet potatoes, plantains, pineapples, and
trochus shells (used in making buttons and ornamental objects). Large deposits
of bauxite and phosphate rock are found here, and alluvial gold is produced on
Guadalcanal. In the early 1990s logging accounted for more than half of Solomon
Islands' export earnings. However, forests are being logged at unsustainable
levels. In 1994 the government proposed that a logging ban take effect
beginning in 1997.
The Solomon Islands is governed according to a 1978
constitution, which took effect when the country gained independence from Great
Britain. Although fully independent, the Solomon Islands is a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations that chooses to recognize the British monarch as its
own sovereign and, as such, its symbolic head of state. Real power is vested in
the prime minister, who is head of government. The prime minister is chosen by
and must have the confidence of the nation's popularly elected 50-member
unicameral parliament.
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V
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HISTORY
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The Solomon Islands were visited and named in 1568
by the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. The northernmost islands
of the group were explored in 1768 by Louis Antoine de Bougainville, for whom
the island of Bougainville is named. Germany established control over the
northern Solomons in 1885, but in 1900 it transferred these islands, except
Bougainville and Buka, to the British, who had declared a protectorate over the
central and southern Solomons in 1893. In 1914, at the start of World War I,
Australia occupied the remaining German Solomons, and in 1919 the League of
Nations granted the area to Australia as a mandate. Most of the Solomons were
occupied by Japan during World War II (1939-1945), and heavy fighting occurred
in the region, especially on and around Guadalcanal, before the Allies forced
the last Japanese to leave the island group in 1945. In 1975 the
Australian-administered Solomons became independent as part of Papua New
Guinea. The British Solomons gained independence as Solomon Islands on July 7,
1978.
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