Vanuatu - History & Culture

The first European to discover these islands was the Spanish explorer, Captain Pedro Ferdinand De Quiros, in 1605.  He named them "Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo", believing he had discovered the great southern continent.The island he landed on still bears the name Espiritu Santo.

In 1768, the next European to land here was the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville.  He put ashore on the islands of Aoba, Pentecost, and Maewo and named them the "Cyclades" after the Greek Islands and named the strait between the islands after himself. 

In 1774, Captain James Cook sailed through the chain from north to south.  He chartered many of the islands, gave many of them their present names, and renamed the archipelago the New Hebrides after the islands off Scotland, by which name it was known until Independence in 1980. 

Following Cooks voyage the islands were visited by other French explorers and by 1895 both French and English subjects had settled here.  In 1902 both nations appointed Resident Commissioners and in October 1906, Britain and France signed an agreement resolving their various claims to the country and making it a Condominium (the only one of its kind in the world) under joint management of both nations.  It is estimated that through imported diseases brought to the country by missionaries, sandalwood traders and  blackbirding etc. the population dropped from approx. 1,000,000 in 1800 to 45,000 in 1935.

At the end of 1978, the Condominium arrangement ceased, elections were held in November 1979 and the nation became independent on July 30th, 1980.  Vanuatu joined the United Nations on September 15th, 1981.

Source: Vanuatu Online