Page 432 - Melanesia

issionaries began visiting the Solomons in being so close to Australia, the island was viewed peared and disappeared without gaining strength.
as an important stronghold. At dawn on August 7, Since early 1999, the Isatabu Freedom Movement,
M the mid-1800s. They made little progress at a militia group made up of indigenous Isatabus
first, however, because “blackbirding”--the often 1942 the American Navy fired on the island while from Guadalcanal, have expelled more than 20,000
Malaitans from the island. The Malaitans had
brutal recruitment of laborers for the sugar planta- Marines landed on the beaches. They caught the migrated from nearby Malaita, and many secured
jobs in the capital, Honiara, stirring resentment
tions in Queensland and Fiji--led to a series of Japanese completely by surprise and swarmed among Isatabus that has grown steadily since
independence. In response to the ethnic violence
reprisals and massacres. The evils of the labor trade ashore. Elsewhere on the islands, the brutal and expulsions, a rival Malaitan militia group was
founded, the Malaita Eagle Force. In June 2000, the
prompted the United Kingdom to declare a pro- fighting continued. A Japanese tactic was to take Malaita Eagle Force stole police weapons, forced
Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu to resign,
tectorate over the southern Solomons in 1893. In advantage of the honeycombed hills and hole and seized control of Honiara. The rival groups
agreed to a cease-fire in June 2000, barely averting
1898 and 1899, more outlying islands were added up in the caves, pouring machine gun fire over a civil war. Although a peace agreement had been
signed and elections had taken place, the country
to the protectorate. Under the protectorate, mis- approaching Marines. After many months of con- continued to suffer from lawlessness. In July 2003,
at the request of the prime minister, a 2,250-strong
sionaries settled in the Solomons, converting most stant combat, the Japanese withdrew completely international peacekeeping force led by Australia
arrived on the island to restore order, disarm the
of the population to Christianity. In the early 20th in early 1943. Before the Japanese completely militias, and expel the “thieves, drunkards, and
extortionists” from the notoriously corrupt police
century, several British and Australian firms began withdrew from Guadalcanal in February 1943, over force. Australia’s intervention was highly successful,
and two years after troops had arrived, the country
large-scale coconut planting. Economic growth 7,000 Americans and 21,000 Japanese died. By remained relatively stable.

was slow, however, and the islanders benefited December 1943, the Allies were in command of the

little. With the outbreak of WWII, most planters entire Solomon chain.

and traders were evacuated to Australia and most POSTWAR DEVELOPMENTS: Following the
cultivation ceased. end of WWII, the British colonial government
returned. The capital was moved from Tulagi to
WWII HISTORY: World War II and its aftermath Honiara to take advantage of the infrastructure
had a significant impact on the islands and
people. There were heavy losses of life on all sides left behind by the U.S. military. A native movement

and names of key battle sites like Bloody Ridge, known as the Marching Rule defied government

Red Beach, Skyline Ridge and Henderson Field authority. There was much disorder until some of

remain to mark the brutal campaign. Guadalcanal the leaders were jailed in late 1948. Throughout

was invaded by the Japanese in July 1942 and the 1950s, other indigenous dissident groups ap-