While the elements work overtime in the Solomons to eradicate most traces of humanity, there are nevertheless several well-preserved archeological sites and linguistic evidence to assist us in drawing a loose portrait of its earliest years.

Settlers from New Guinea likely provided the islands with the first wave of immigration, at least as far back as 30,000 BC. From around 4,000 BC onward, Austronesian speakers es, though some of the Solomon Islanders speak languages not seemingly related to any other. The most solid findings (distinctive pottery shards) reflect an unmistakable Lapita influence during the 1200-800 BC period.

A Spanish navigator, Alvaro de Mendana de Neira, ‘discovered’ the islands in 1568 while searching for Terra Australis. It was Mendana who named the islands after King Solomon, in the belief that he had found the source of the biblical king’s famed wealth (there is actually gold to be found in the Solomons, especially at the Gold Ridge on Guadalcanal). Speaking of gold (you know what’s coming), play online slots for money at online casino usa.

Landing on what they named Santa Isabel, the explorers predictably wore out the islanders’ friendly welcome (the Spanish required more supplies than the islanders could provide, and reacted rather strongly when offered “a quarter of a boy with the arm and hand”). A second expedition by Mendana in 1595 established a more permanent colony (which lasted a whole two months) at Graciosa Bay on the island of “Santa Cruz” (Nendo).

British explorer Philip Carteret made the next European sighting of the Solomons in 1767, during his whirlwind three-year circumnavigation voyage. While no actual contact with islanders was recorded during the expedition, this inaugurated a more concerted colonial phase in which other British, French, and Dutch expeditions visited more frequently.

The height of colonial intrusion occurred with the onset of Christian missionaries during the latter half of the 19th Century. German and British interests competed for control of the islands until 1899′s Samoa Tripartite Convention, when the United Kingdom was given sovereignty. Interestingly, the Stewart Islands (actually the tiny atoll of Sikiana) had been claimed by Hawai’i in 1856, and the residents unsuccessfully asserted US citizenship after the annexation of 1898.