Fiji Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Colonisation === {{Main|Colony of Fiji|British Western Pacific Territories}} Despite achieving military victories over the Kai Colo, the Cakobau government was faced with problems of legitimacy and economic viability. Indigenous Fijians and white settlers refused to pay taxes, and the cotton price had collapsed. With these major issues in mind, John Bates Thurston approached the British government, at Cakobau's request, with another offer to cede the islands. The newly elected [[Conservative Party (UK)|Tory]] British government under [[Benjamin Disraeli]] encouraged expansion of the empire and was therefore much more sympathetic to annexing Fiji than it had been previously. The murder of Bishop [[John Patteson (bishop)|John Patteson]] of the [[Melanesian Mission]] at [[Nukapu]] in the [[Reef Islands]] had provoked public outrage, which was compounded by the massacre by crew members of more than 150 Fijians on board the brig ''Carl.'' Two British commissioners were sent to Fiji to investigate the possibility of an annexation. The question was complicated by maneuverings for power between Cakobau and his old rival, Ma'afu, with both men vacillating for many months. On 21 March 1874, Cakobau made a final offer, which the British accepted. On 23 September, [[Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead|Sir Hercules Robinson]], soon to be appointed the British Governor of Fiji, arrived on HMS ''Dido'' and received Cakobau with a royal 21-gun salute. After some vacillation, Cakobau agreed to renounce his ''Tui Viti'' title, retaining the title of ''Vunivalu'', or Protector. The formal cession took place on 10 October 1874, when Cakobau, Ma'afu, and some of the senior chiefs of Fiji signed two copies of the Deed of Cession. Thus the Colony of Fiji was founded; 96 years of British rule followed.<ref>Sarah Searight, "The British Acquisition of Fiji" ''History Today'' (Nov 1972), pp 806β813, online</ref> ==== Measles epidemic of 1875 ==== To celebrate the annexation of Fiji, Hercules Robinson, who was [[Governor of New South Wales]] at the time, took Cakobau and his two sons to [[Sydney]]. There was a [[measles]] outbreak in that city and the three Fijians all came down with the disease. On returning to Fiji, the colonial administrators decided not to quarantine the ship on which the convalescents travelled. This was despite the British having a very extensive knowledge of the devastating effect of infectious disease on an unexposed population. In 1875β76 the resulting epidemic of measles killed over 40,000 Fijians,<ref>[http://www.fiji.gov.fj/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=645:our-country&catid=68:about-fiji-&Itemid=196 "Historical Time line"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629140914/http://www.fiji.gov.fj/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=645%3Aour-country&catid=68%3Aabout-fiji-&Itemid=196 |date=29 June 2011 }}. Fiji government.</ref> about one-third of the Fijian population. Some Fijians allege that this failure of quarantine was a deliberate action to introduce the disease into the country. Historians have found no such evidence; the disease spread before the new British governor and colonial medical officers had arrived, and no quarantine rules existed under the outgoing regime.<ref>[[#Gravelle|Gravelle]], pp. 139β143</ref><ref>David M. Morens, "Measles in Fiji, 1875: thoughts on the history of emerging infectious diseases." ''Pacific Health Dialog'' 5#1 (1998): 119β128 [http://invisibleworld.org/MeaslesinFiji1875.pdf online].</ref> ===== Sir Arthur Gordon and the "Little War" ===== [[File:Sir_Arthur_Hamilton_Gordon.jpg|thumb|left|Governor Arthur Hamilton Gordon]] Robinson was replaced as Governor of Fiji in June 1875 by [[Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore|Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon]]. Gordon was immediately faced with an insurgency of the Qalimari and Kai Colo people. In early 1875, colonial administrator [[Edgar Leopold Layard]] had met with thousands of highland clans at Navuso to formalise their subjugation to British rule and Christianity. Layard and his delegation managed to spread the measles epidemic to the highlanders, causing mass deaths in this population. As a result, anger at the British colonists flared throughout the region, and a widespread uprising quickly took hold. Villages along the Sigatoka River and in the highlands above this area refused British control, and Gordon was tasked with quashing this rebellion.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Arthur Hamilton|title=Letters and Notes written during the disturbances in the highlands of Viti Levu, 1876|date=1879|publisher=R&R Clark|location=Edinburgh|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersandnotes01stangoog}}</ref> In what Gordon termed the "Little War", the suppression of this uprising took the form of two co-ordinated military campaigns in the western half of Viti Levu. The first was conducted by Gordon's second cousin, Arthur John Lewis Gordon, against the Qalimari insurgents along the Sigatoka River. The second campaign was led by [[Louis Knollys]] against the Kai Colo in the mountains to the north of the river. Governor Gordon invoked a type of martial law in the area where Arthur John Lewis Gordon and Knollys had absolute power to conduct their missions outside of any restrictions of legislation. The two groups of rebels were kept isolated from each other by a force led by Walter Carew and [[George Le Hunte]] who were stationed at Nasaucoko. Carew also ensured the rebellion did not spread east by securing the loyalty of the Wainimala people of the eastern highlands. The war involved the use of the soldiers of the old Native Regiment of Cakobau supported by around 1,500 Christian Fijian volunteers from other areas of Viti Levu. The colonial [[New Zealand Government]] provided most of the advanced weapons for the army including 100 [[SniderβEnfield|Snider rifles]]. The campaign along the Sigatoka River was conducted under a [[scorched earth]] policy whereby numerous rebel villages were burnt and their fields ransacked. After the capture and destruction of the main fortified towns of Koroivatuma, Bukutia and Matanavatu, the Qalimari surrendered ''en masse''. Those not killed in the fighting were taken prisoner and sent to the coastal town of Cuvu. This included 827 men, women and children as well as Mudu, the leader of the insurgents. The women and children were distributed to places like [[Nadi]] and [[Nadroga-Navosa Province|Nadroga]]. Of the men, 15 were sentenced to death at a hastily conducted trial at [[Sigatoka]]. Governor Gordon was present, but chose to leave the judicial responsibility to his relative, Arthur John Lewis Gordon. Four were hanged and ten, including Mudu, were shot with one prisoner managing to escape. By the end of proceedings the governor noted that "my feet were literally stained with the blood that I had shed".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Arthur Hamilton|title=Letters and Notes Vol. 1|date=1879|page=[https://archive.org/details/lettersandnotes01stangoog/page/n469 441]|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersandnotes01stangoog|publisher=Privately printed by R . and R. Clark}}</ref> The northern campaign against the Kai Colo in the highlands was similar but involved removing the rebels from large, well protected caves in the region. Knollys managed to clear the caves "after some considerable time and large expenditure of ammunition". The occupants of these caves included whole communities, and as a result many men, women and children were either killed or wounded in these operations. The rest were taken prisoner and sent to the towns on the northern coast. The chief medical officer in British Fiji, William MacGregor, also took part both in killing Kai Colo and tending to their wounded. After the caves were taken, the Kai Colo surrendered and their leader, Bisiki, was captured. Various trials were held, mostly at Nasaucoko under Le Hunte, and 32 men were either hanged or shot including Bisiki, who was killed trying to escape.<ref name="Letters and Notes Vol. 2">{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Arthur Hamilton|title=Letters and Notes Vol. 2|date=1879|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersandnotes00stangoog|publisher=Privately printed by R . and R. Clark}}</ref> By the end of October 1876, the "Little War" was over, and Gordon had succeeded in vanquishing the rebels in the interior of Viti Levu. Remaining insurgents were sent into exile with hard labour for up to 10 years. Some non-combatants were allowed to return to rebuild their villages, but many areas in the highlands were ordered by Gordon to remain depopulated and in ruins. Gordon also constructed a military fortress, Fort Canarvon, at the headwaters of the Sigatoka River where a large contingent of soldiers were based to maintain British control. He renamed the Native Regiment, the Armed Native Constabulary to lessen its appearance of being a military force.<ref name="Letters and Notes Vol. 2"/> To further consolidate social control throughout the colony, Governor Gordon introduced a system of appointed chiefs and village constables in the various districts to both enact his orders and report any disobedience from the populace. Gordon adopted the chiefly titles ''Roko'' and ''Buli'' to describe these deputies and established a [[Great Council of Chiefs]] which was directly subject to his authority as Supreme Chief. This body remained in existence until being suspended by the military-backed interim government in 2007 and only abolished in 2012. Gordon also extinguished the ability of Fijians to own, buy or sell land as individuals, the control being transferred to colonial authorities.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=France|first1=Peter|title=The founding of an orthodoxy: Sir Arthur Gordon and the doctrine of the Fijian way of life|journal=Journal of the Polynesian Society|date=1968|volume=77|issue=1|pages=6β32|url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_77_1968/Volume_77%2C_No._1/The_founding_of_an_orthodoxy%3A_Sir_Arthur_Gordon_and_the_doctrine_of_the_Fijian_way_of_life%2C_by_Peter_France%2C_p_6_-_32|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-date=22 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230322062652/https://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_77_1968/Volume_77%2C_No._1/The_founding_of_an_orthodoxy%3A_Sir_Arthur_Gordon_and_the_doctrine_of_the_Fijian_way_of_life%2C_by_Peter_France%2C_p_6_-_32|url-status=dead}}</ref> ==== Indian indenture system in Fiji ==== {{main|Indian indenture system|Indian indenture ships to Fiji|Repatriation of indentured Indians from Fiji}} Gordon decided in 1878 to import indentured labourers from India to work on the sugarcane fields that had taken the place of the cotton plantations. The 463 Indians arrived on 14 May 1879 β the first of some 61,000 that were to come before the scheme ended in 1916. The plan involved bringing the Indian workers to Fiji on a five-year contract, after which they could return to India at their own expense; if they chose to renew their contract for a second five-year term, they would be given the option of returning to India at the government's expense, or remaining in Fiji. The great majority chose to stay. The Queensland Act, which regulated indentured labour in Queensland, was made law in Fiji also. Between 1879 and 1916, tens of thousands of Indians moved to Fiji to work as indentured labourers, especially on sugarcane plantations. Given the steady influx of ships carrying indentured Indians to Fiji up until 1916, repatriated Indians generally boarded these same ships on their return voyage. The total number of repatriates under the Fiji indenture system is recorded as 39,261, while the number of arrivals is said to have been 60,553. Because the return figure includes children born in Fiji, many of the indentured Indians never returned to India. ==== Tuka rebellions ==== With almost all aspects of indigenous Fijian social life being controlled by the British colonial authorities, a number of charismatic individuals preaching dissent and return to pre-colonial culture were able to forge a following amongst the disenfranchised. These movements were called Tuka, which roughly translates as "those who stand up". The first Tuka movement was led by Ndoongumoy, better known as Navosavakandua, which means "he who speaks only once". He told his followers that if they returned to traditional ways and worshipped traditional deities such as Degei and Rokola, their current condition would be transformed, with the whites and their puppet Fijian chiefs being subservient to them. Navosavakandua was previously exiled from the Viti Levu highlands in 1878 for disturbing the peace, and the British quickly arrested him and his followers after this open display of rebellion. He was again exiled, this time to [[Rotuma]] where he died soon after his 10-year sentence ended.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brewster|first1=Adolph|title=Hill tribes of Fiji|date=1922|page=[https://archive.org/details/hilltribesoffiji00brew/page/236 236]|url=https://archive.org/details/hilltribesoffiji00brew|publisher=London Seeley, Service}}</ref> Other Tuka organisations, however, soon appeared. The British colonial administration ruthlessly suppressed both the leaders and followers, with figureheads such as Sailose being banished to an asylum for 12 years. In 1891, entire populations of villages who were sympathetic to the Tuka ideology were deported as punishment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=Martha|title=Neither Cargo nor Cult|date=1995|publisher=Duke University Press|pages=100β118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ey0ms3khaAC|isbn=978-0822315933}}</ref> Three years later in the highlands of Vanua Levu, where locals had re-engaged in traditional religion, Governor Thurston ordered in the Armed Native Constabulary to destroy the towns and the religious relics. Leaders were jailed and villagers exiled or forced to amalgamate into government-run communities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nicole|first1=Robert|title=Disturbing History|date=2011|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/1607|isbn=9780824860981|access-date=16 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180416134822/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/1607|archive-date=16 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, in 1914, [[Apolosi Nawai]] came to the forefront of Fijian Tuka resistance by founding Viti Kabani, a co-operative company that would legally monopolise the agricultural sector and boycott European planters. The British and their proxy Council of Chiefs were not able to prevent the Viti Kabani's rise, and again the colonists were forced to send in the Armed Native Constabulary. Apolosi and his followers were arrested in 1915, and the company collapsed in 1917. Over the next 30 years, Apolosi was re-arrested, jailed and exiled, with the British viewing him as a threat right up to his death in 1946.<ref>[[#Gravelle|Gravelle]], pp. 179β183</ref> ====World War I and II==== Fiji was only peripherally involved in World War I. One memorable incident occurred in September 1917 when Count [[Felix von Luckner]] arrived at [[Wakaya Island]], off the eastern coast of Viti Levu, after his raider, {{SMS|Seeadler|1888|6}}, had [[Ship grounding|run aground]] in the [[Cook Islands]] following the shelling of [[Papeete]] in the [[French colonial empire|French colony]] of [[Tahiti]]. On 21 September, the district police inspector took a number of Fijians to Wakaya, and von Luckner, not realising that they were unarmed, unwittingly surrendered. Citing unwillingness to exploit the Fijian people, the colonial authorities did not permit Fijians to enlist. One Fijian of chiefly rank, a great-grandson of Cakobau, joined the [[French Foreign Legion]] and received France's highest military decoration, the [[Croix de guerre 1914β1918 (France)|Croix de Guerre]]. After going on to complete a law degree at [[Oxford University]], this same chief returned to Fiji in 1921 as both a war hero and the country's first-ever university graduate. In the years that followed, [[Lala Sukuna|Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna]], as he was later known, established himself as the most powerful chief in Fiji and forged embryonic institutions for what would later become the modern Fijian nation. [[File:Flag of Fiji (1924β1970).svg|thumb|Flag of Fiji 1924β1970]] By the time of World War II, the United Kingdom had reversed its policy of not enlisting natives, and many thousands of Fijians volunteered for the [[Fiji Infantry Regiment]], which was under the command of [[Edward Cakobau|Ratu Sir Edward Cakobau]], another great-grandson of Cakobau. The regiment was attached to New Zealand and Australian army units during the war. Because of its central location, Fiji was selected as a training base for the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]]. An airstrip was built at [[Nadi]] (later to become an international airport), and gun emplacements studded the coast. Fijians gained a reputation for bravery in the [[Solomon Islands campaign]], with one war correspondent describing their ambush tactics as "death with velvet gloves". Corporal [[Sefanaia Sukanaivalu]], of Yucata, was [[Posthumous award|posthumously]] awarded the [[Victoria Cross]], as a result of his bravery in the [[Bougainville campaign|Battle of Bougainville]]. ====Responsible government and independence==== [[File:Kamisese Mara.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kamisese Mara]]]] A constitutional conference was held in [[London]] in July 1965 to discuss constitutional changes with a view to introducing responsible government. Indo-Fijians, led by [[A. D. Patel]], demanded the immediate introduction of full self-government, with a fully elected legislature, to be elected by universal suffrage on a common voters' roll. These demands were vigorously rejected by the ethnic Fijian delegation, who still feared loss of control over natively owned land and resources should an Indo-Fijian dominated government come to power. The British made it clear, however, that they were determined to bring Fiji to self-government and eventual independence. Realizing that they had no choice, Fiji's chiefs decided to negotiate for the best deal they could get. A series of compromises led to the establishment of a cabinet system of government in 1967, with [[Kamisese Mara|Ratu Kamisese Mara]] as the first [[Chief Minister of Fiji|Chief Minister]]. Ongoing negotiations between Mara and [[Sidiq Koya]], who had taken over the leadership of the mainly Indo-Fijian [[National Federation Party]] on Patel's death in 1969, led to a second constitutional conference in London, in April 1970, at which Fiji's Legislative Council agreed on a compromise electoral formula and a timetable for independence as a fully sovereign and independent nation within the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]]. The Legislative Council would be replaced with a bicameral [[Parliament of Fiji|Parliament]], with a [[Senate of Fiji|Senate]] dominated by Fijian chiefs and a popularly elected [[House of Representatives of Fiji|House of Representatives]]. In the 52-member House, Native Fijians and Indo-Fijians would each be allocated 22 seats, of which 12 would represent [[communal constituencies]] comprising voters registered on strictly ethnic roles, and another 10 representing [[national constituencies]] to which members were allocated by ethnicity but elected by universal suffrage. A further 8 seats were reserved for "[[general electors]]" β [[European ethnic groups|Europeans]], [[Chinese people|Chinese]], [[Banaba Island|Banaban Islanders]], and other minorities; 3 of these were "communal" and 5 "national". With this compromise, it was agreed that Fiji would become independent. The British flag, the [[Union Jack]], was lowered for the last time at sunset on 9 October 1970 in the capital Suva. The Fijian flag was raised after dawn on the morning of 10 October 1970; the country had officially become independent at midnight. 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