New Hebrides
No reliable estimates of the New Hebrides population exist until the 1950s, although the pre-contact figure could have been approximately 400,000, reduced by the introduction of infectious diseases.
The New Hebrides attracted Protestant Christian missionaries from the 1830s and because of proximity to New Caledonia and Fiji was involved in the sandalwood trade. Europeans first acquired land and planted crops in the 1860s, initially cotton and coconuts. In 1878 the British and French authorities agreed that neither would try to take total control. During the 1880s a French company acquired large areas of land and encouraged French settlement around Port Vila, and argued for annexation. A rival Australasian company quickly gained control of most of the overseas trade. Many British settlers sold out, but the combination of British and French settlers in the islands was sufficient for neither side to give way, though the French predominated. In 1887 the first European form of government was a joint naval administration. In 1906 a unique and curious British—French condominium was created—two flags, two foreign proconsuls, two currencies. The British—French protocol left the indigenous people without any clear national status.Moves towards self-government were understandably slow due to the complex joint administration system. The islands staggered to independence in 1980, facing French ill will and a bid for succession on the island of Espiritu Santo, with calm only restored with the aid of external peacekeepers. The first prime minister, Father Walter Lini, an Anglican priest from Pentecost Island, is illustrative of the new type of leadership which emerged, as the Christian missions had created an educated elite in Pacific islands without a traditional chiefly elite.
More on the topic New Hebrides:
- The Australian colonies and the Coral Sea
- The British in the Coral Sea: Fiji
- 48 Melanesian Religions