When was vanuatu settled

The stories were so accurate that in the digs were easy to locate and revealed the stories were true. European explorers visited the islands in the 17th and 18th centuries from various parts of the globe.

The 19th century saw the indigenous population decimated by atrocities — slaughtered by sandalwood traders, kidnapped as cheap labour for the cane fields and the infected by missionaries who introduced many diseases.

In , it was decided without any consultation with the indigenous people that the New Hebrides would become an Anglo-French Condominium. This caused chaos with French and English currencies, two prisons, two hospitals, 'Bobbies' patrolling one side of the street and gendarmes the other and, for a short time, vehicles drove on both sides of the road.

The early part of the 20th century saw the local people employed on low wages by white plantation owners in conditions not much better than slavery. Later, the planters recruited labour from Malaya, China, Vietnam, Fiji and Tonga, which explains today's multicultural mix. Getting Here. About Us. Waterfront Villa. View Photo Gallery.

But the flag-raising in Luganville on Espiritu Santo was jeered by Nagriamel supporters. Also there were British and French troops, sent at the insistence of the French until the new government guaranteed protection to French interests.

The man who had to resolve this colonial interference was Prime Minister Walter Lini. An Anglican priest who became known as the father of independence, he was born in Pentecost and brought up as an English-speaking New Hebridean. Terrorist activity on Santo increases. PNG troops arrest Jimmy Stevens and some foreigners.

September PNG troops leave. Vanuatu Police charge several hundred people associated with rebellion. Jimmy Stevens sentenced to Vanuatu official denied entry to New Caledonia. Vanuatu is a double chain of 13 principal and many smaller islands in the south-western Pacific Ocean. The islands are volcanic and coral in origin. They lie about kilometres west of Fiji and nearly kilometres east of Australia.

Around 65 of the islands are inhabited.