Tonga

Tonga is a Polynesian kingdom in the South Pacific of 171 islands, 45 of them inhabited, about 1,800 km (1,100 mi) from New Zealand. Nukuʻalofa on Tongatapu is the capital, and Tongan and English are the official languages.

People of the Lapita culture reached the islands between 1500 and 1000 BC, and thorium dating shows settlers at Nukuleka by 888 BC. The name means southward, as Tonga is the southernmost group of western Polynesia. From the first king, ʻAhoʻeitu, the Tuʻi Tonga line built a maritime power whose influence by the 12th century reached from Niue and Samoa to New Caledonia and Fiji. The Dutch ship Eendracht under Willem Schouten made the first European contact in 1616.

James Cook called in 1773 during the ʻinasi festival and named them the Friendly Islands, though according to William Mariner the chiefs had planned to kill him. In 1845 the warrior Tāufaʻāhau united Tonga into a kingdom, and in 1875, with the missionary Shirley Baker, he gave it a constitution, a code of law and freedom for serfs. From 1900 to 1970 Britain handled foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship, yet Tonga never gave up its sovereignty, and it joined the Commonwealth in 1970 with its own monarch.

Reforms in 2010 moved the country from absolute to constitutional monarchy and brought its first partly elected parliament. About 70% of the people live on Tongatapu. James Cook called them the Friendly Islands after his welcome in 1773, and the constitution keeps Sunday free of commerce. Kava, vanilla and squash, much of it sold to Japan, are the main farm exports, and Vavaʻu draws cruise ships for whale watching.