The archeological remains found in Vanuatu indicate that human beings have been living here for a very long time (some 3000 years). It would appear that Melanesian navigators from Papua New Guinea were the first to colonize Vanuatu.

3000 years ago

Crossing was long and dangerous, especially as the canoes were also used to carry animals and plants (taro, manioc, yam, etc.). Other migrations followed and continued for quite some time before the people settled down. Nowadays, all the inhabited islands have their own languages and their own customs and traditions.

Early explorers

The very first time the island group was discovered by Europeans dates back to May 1606. That European was Pedro Fernandez de Queiros, a Portuguese who, thinking he had reached the austral continent, christened it “Terra Australia del Espiritu Santo” hence the name of Espiritu Santo, which has remained ever since. Relationship with the natives was not particular good and once Queiros left, the islands were soon forgotten. It was not until 160 years later that Louis Antoine de Bougainville recognized the island and named it “The Great Cyclade” (Les Grandes Cyclades) at the same time as he christened Maewo, Pentecost, Malekula, Malo and Ambae to which he laid claim.

Then on July 16th, 1774, another famous navigator discovered the islands as well, on his second voyage through the Pacific: James Cook, on board his ship HMS “Resolution”. We have him to thank for the very first map of the island group, and its name, the “New Hebrides”. However, he did not stay long, only 46 days.

After that there was a succession of navigators who came and went, such as La Perouse. A few whalers also called in. But the first settlement of Europeans really dates back to 1825 when the Irishman Peter Dillon established sandalwood trade with China. In spite of the many clashes with the natives, this trade survived for nearly 40 years. As sources of sandalwood dwindled, many sandalwood traders turned to recruiting laborers for the sugar cane fields of Fiji and Queensland, which became known as “Blackbirding”.

Missionaries

The first two missionaries began to set foot in Vanuatu in 1839. The following years saw Catholic, Presbyterian and Anglican missionaries making various short lived or aborted attempts to convert the ni-Vanuatu. They were nothing if not persistent and by 1860's various denominational mission stations existed throughout the islands.

Many Ni-Vanuatu soon died of introduced diseases, mainly because of lack of resistance to disease. By then these included not only measles and dysentery, but also smallpox, influenza, pneumonia, scarlet fever, mumps, whooping cough and the simple, but often quite deadly, common cold.

Traditional medicines, proved effective against endemic diseases, had no impact on these new medical horrors. Others took a more pragmatic view, Christianity must be a particularly malevolent religion to attack its converts in such a violent manner. However, the missionaries kept coming and eventually proved to have a profound impact on Melanesian society,

Anglo-French condominium

During the nineteenth century, planters as well as missionaries began to colonize the islands that had become known as the New Hebrides. English Men o’ War patrolled the waters irregularly, to safeguard settlers and monitor the sandalwood trade. Joint Naval Commission had been set up to maintain order until France and English began playing serious political footsies with the New Hebrides. Each in turn sent consuls, High Commissioners and Governors to assume some sort of control of the islands. It was called the Condominium. In real terms it meant passing through two sets of Customs on arrival, dealing with two law systems based on quite different principles, two jails (the French served wine), two hospitals, two of everything. It was grossly inefficient, incredibly costly in Bureaucratic terms and totally ridiculous in the eyes of the world. Vanuatu was ruled by the head of state of Britain and France----the British Queen and the French President. Issues were so confused that many ni-Vanuatu believed the two were married.

This rivalry between the English and the French resulted in the establishment of the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides, which was created in London on 20th October 1906 and signed in 1922. Condominium kept the New Hebrides in this state of confused flux for the next 74 years.

World warⅡand the Americans

In early 1942, the Japanese reached the nearby Solomon Islands and the New Hebridean's lived in real fear that they would be next. The Americans, however, arrived first, totally unannounced, in May 1942.

After the first glance at Mele Bay filed with warships, a good number of the Vila population fled into the hills in the belief that the Japanese had arrived. It took some time for American to convince everyone. And American built an entire infrastructure and the necessary equipment. They brought in tens of thousands of tons of machinery, built barracks and hospitals, a road around the entire island, airstrips and wharves, all with the efficient lightening speed typical of the Seabees and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Three years later, in December 1942, a former American luxury passenger liner, the SS president Coolidge, which was converted to a troop ship when the war started, hit a mine at the entrance of the Segond Canal in Santo and sank and became world-known diving place.

At the end of the war, the Americans left swiftly and suggested Condominium Government to purchase left equipment with low price. Condominium hedged and finally refused to pay for the equipment. The disgusted response was to bulldoze every movable object into the ocean. There are places around Efate Island where divers will find much of this discarded war materiel, but the most famous of all is a place called Million Dollar Point in Espiritu Santo.

The postwar Condominium authorities came into Ni-Vanuatu’s homes and took what the Americans had given their fathers; clothes, furniture and such precious treasures as iceboxes and radios. The New Hebridean economy staggered along under the dual political system.

Independence

Since 1960s, politics were growing in the New Hebrides. One of the most famous movement called Nagriamal, which claims to protect traditional lands, attracted thousands of people to join. In 1971, leader of this movement petitioned the U.N. for early independence of the archipelago.