Notorious during the colonial period for being jointly administered
by Britain and France as a condominium with the additional cultural
dislocation which this caused.
It is interesting anthropologically for the Cargo Cult called John Frum based
on the expectation of material gifts from the gods caused by
the experience of American occupation during the second world
war when vast quantities of military equipment suddenly arrived
and then after a few years was withdrawn or destroyed.
The Condominium was established in 1906 following a period
of rivalry in the islands between the British and French interests.
It took the form of two separate colonial administrations in
the same country with some co-ordination between them.
The islands became independent in 1980 at the insistence of
the British and the reluctant agreement of the French.
There is genetic evidence to suggest that some of the Polynesians
who settled the islands to the east and south may have come from
these islands, though linguistic evidence suggests Taiwan.