Tonga

Tonga

Tonga ( (listen), Tongan: [ˈtoŋa]), officially named the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country, and also an archipelago comprising 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The archipelago's total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. As of 2021, Tonga had a population of 104,494, 70% of whom resided on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches across approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north–south line. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest; Samoa to the northeast; New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the west; Niue (the nearest foreign territory) to the east; and Kermadec (New Zealand) to the southwest. Tonga is about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) from New Zealand's North Island. First inhabited roughly 2,500 years ago by the Lapita civilisation, Tonga’s Polynesian settlers gradually evolved a distinct and strong ethnic identity, language and culture as the Tongan people. They were quick to establish a powerful footing across the South Pacific, and this period of Tongan expansionism and colonisation is known as the Tu’i Tongan Empire. From the rule of the first Tongan king, ʻAhoʻeitu, Tonga grew into a regional superpower. It was a thalassocracy that conquered and controlled unprecedented swathes of the Pacific, from parts of the Solomon Islands and the whole of New Caledonia and Fiji in the west, to Samoa and Niue and even as far as parts of modern-day French Polynesia in the east. Tu’i Tonga became renowned for its economic, ethnic and cultural hegemony over the Pacific, which remained strong even after the Samoan revolution of the 13th century and the outside discovery of the islands by Europeans in 1616.From 1900 to 1970, Tonga had British protected-state status. The United Kingdom looked after Tonga's foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship, but Tonga never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step away from its traditional absolute monarchy and towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections.

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