North Solomon Islands

Coordinates: 6°14′40″S 155°23′02″E / 6.24444°S 155.38389°E / -6.24444; 155.38389
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the short-lived unrecognized state, see Republic of the North Solomons.

6°14′40″S 155°23′02″E / 6.24444°S 155.38389°E / -6.24444; 155.38389

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History of Bougainville
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The North Solomon Islands form a geographical area covering the more northerly group of islands in the

Santa Isabel, the Shortland Islands and Ontong Java Atoll. In 1885 Germany declared a protectorate over these islands forming the German Solomon Islands Protectorate. With the exception of Bougainville and Buka, these were transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1900. Bougainville and Buka continued under German administration until the outset of World War I, when they were transferred to Australia, and after the war, were formally passed to Australian jurisdiction under a League of Nations mandate.[1]

The Solomons archipelago.

Today, what were the North Solomon Islands are split between the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) and the sovereign state of Solomon Islands. The latter gained independence in 1976 and succeeded the British Solomon Islands Protectorate known for decades before 1975 as the British Solomon Islands.

History

Main articles: History of Bougainville and History of Solomon Islands

On 17 February 1568, the Spanish explorer

Alvaro de Mendaña y Neyra became the first European to sight the island, naming them Islas de Salomon.[2]

In April 1885 a German protectorate (Schutzgebiet) was declared over the northern Solomon Islands:

Santa Isabel and Ontong Java Atoll.[1]

In June 1893, Captain

Rennell and Bellona Islands.[5]

In 1900, under the terms of the

Western Samoa.[5]

Missions

A United Church village choir in Siwai, Bougainville, 1978

The Roman Catholic "

Apostolic Prefecture of German Solomon Islands
.

In 1897 the islands were put under the jurisdiction of Broyer, Apostolic Vicar of Samoa, and in 1898 formed into a new prefecture under Joseph Forestier, who resided at Kieta, on Bougainville Island. Fever was so prevalent at the mission that most of the priests who went to the islands in 1898 died from disease.

In 1911 the mission contained: 3 churches; 3 stations; 10

catechists
; 5 Catholic schools, with 140 pupils; 2 orphanages; and a few hundred Catholics. The Marist missionaries belonged to the Province of Oceania, the superior of which resided at Sydney, New South Wales.

In 1930, it was promoted to Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Solomon Islands, from which the present Roman Catholic Diocese of Bougainville stems.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9781921934247
    .
  2. ^ Jack-Hinton, C. (1962). The Discovery, Rediscovery and Exploration of the islands of Solomon, 1568-1838. Canberra: ANU. p. 4.
  3. ISBN 9781925022032
    .
  4. ^ Commonwealth and Colonial Law by Kenneth Roberts-Wray, London, Stevens, 1966. P. 897
  5. ^
    ISBN 9781925022032
    .

External links


 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "North Solomon Islands". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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