Niue

Niue is a single coral island in the South Pacific that governs itself in free association with New Zealand. It lies between Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands, about 2,400 km (1,500 mi) northeast of New Zealand, with Alofi as its capital and Niuean and English as its languages.

Polynesians from Samoa settled the island around 900 CE, and Niuean tradition tells of a war party from Tonga landing in the 16th century. Chiefs and heads of families held power until a line of kings, the patu-iki, began with Puni-mata. Ships under James Cook sighted the island in 1774, but the people refused him a landing three times and he called it Savage Island; the name Niue is usually translated as behold the coconut. Nukai Peniamina, a Niuean trained as a pastor in Samoa by the London Missionary Society, landed at Mutalau in 1846, and Christianity spread from there to every village.

In 1889 the chiefs wrote to Queen Victoria asking for British protection, and in 1900 the king and chiefs agreed to give up the island. New Zealand took in Niue on 11 June 1901 together with the Cook Islands. In a 1974 referendum Niueans chose self-government over independence, and since 3 September 1974 the island has run its own affairs while Niueans keep New Zealand citizenship.

Far more Niueans live in New Zealand than on the island itself. Fishing ventures, noni juice and the .nu internet domain, assigned in 1997 to a private society that the government later moved to take over, have brought in income. Niue is not a member of the United Nations but belongs to agencies such as UNESCO and the World Health Organization. In 2020 it became the first whole country named an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, and in 2022 it declared its entire exclusive economic zone a marine park.