The first three quarters of the Nineteenth Century were marked by tribal warfare, incursions from neighbouring Tonga, and the increasing encroachment of foreign powers. This period also saw the rise of a warlord by the name of Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who forged the first nation-state covering all of modern Fiji (except the island of Rotuma) in 1871, before ceding it to the United Kingdom in 1874. Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau (1815-1883) was King of Fiji from 8 December 1852 to 10 October 1874, when he ceded his country to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. ... Rotuma is a Fijian Dependency, consisting of the island of Rotuma and the nearby islets of Hatana, Hofliua, Solkope, Solnohu and Uea. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Tribal warfare and Tongan intrusions

Levuka, 1842

Fiji 1842

In the early 1820s, Levuka was established as the first modern town in Fiji, on the island of Ovalau. The intervention of European traders and missionaries, of whom the first arrived from Tahiti in 1830, led to increasingly serious wars among the native Fijian confederacies. Supplied with weapons by Swedish mercenary Charlie Savage, Ratu Tanoa, the Vunivalu (a chiefly title meaning Warlord, often translated also as Paramount Chief) of Bau Island, defeated the much larger Burebasaga Confederacy and succeeded in subduing much of western Fiji. His successor, Seru Epenisa Cakobau, fought to consolidate Bauan domination throughout the 1850s and 1860s, and started calling himself the Tui Viti, or King of Fiji. He faced opposition, however, from local chiefs who saw him at best as first among equals, and also from the Tongan Prince Enele Ma'afu, who had established himself on the Island of Lakeba in the Lau archipelago in 1848. A Christian, Ma'afu brought Wesleyan missionaries from Tonga, and the Methodist Church gained its first foothold in Fiji. Most chiefs in the west regarded the Wesleyan missionaries, aligned as they were seen to be with Ma'afu, as a threat to their power, refused conversion, and resisted missionary attempts to set up outposts in their villages. Image File history File links Urville-Viti-Lebouka2. ... Image File history File links Urville-Viti-Lebouka2. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (700x1004, 182 KB) Interieur dune case a Lebouka. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (700x1004, 182 KB) Interieur dune case a Lebouka. ... Events and Trends Nationalistic independence movements helped reshape the world during this decade: Greece declares independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821). ... Beach Street, Levuka, Fiji Levuka is a town on the south-east coast of the Fijian island of Ovalau, in Lomaiviti Province, in the Eastern Division of Fiji, of which it is the capital. ... Ovalau (IPA: []) is the largest island in Fijis Lomaiviti archipelago. ... Map of French Polynesia Map of Tahiti and Moorea View of Raiatea Mountain. ... Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution 1830 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The term House of Chiefs is a collective term used to refer to the Fijian nobility, which consists of about seventy chiefs of various ranks. ... A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. ... Charlie Savage is a newspaper reporter in Washington, DC, with the Boston Globe. ... Ratu is a title used by Fijians of chiefly rank. ... The Vunivalu of Bau is the Paramount Chief of the Kubuna Confederacy, and is generally considered to be the highest chiefly title in Fiji. ... Bau (IPA: ) is a small island in Fiji, off the east coast of the main island of Viti Levu. ... Burebasaga is the largest of the three confederacies that comprise Fijis House of Chiefs, to which all Fijian chiefs belong. ... Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau (1815-1883) was King of Fiji from 8 December 1852 to 10 October 1874, when he ceded his country to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. ... // Events and Trends Technology Production of steel revolutionised by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman fractionates petroleum by distillation for the first time First transatlantic telegraph cable laid First safety elevator installed by Elisha Otis Science Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, putting forward the theory of evolution... // Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States is built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... The title Tui Viti was a title used by Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, who, with the help of foreign settlers, united Fijis disparate tribes under his leadership and was crowned Tui Viti (King of Fiji) in 1871. ... The term prince (the female form is princess), from the Latin root princeps, when used for a member of the highest aristocracy, has several fundamentally different meanings - one generic, and several types of titles. ... Enele Maafuatuitoga, commonly known as Maafu, was a Tongan Prince and Fijian chief. ... Lakeba (IPA: []) is an island in Fijis Southern Lau archipelago. ... The Lau Islands (also called the Lau Group, the Eastern Group, the Eastern Archipelago) of Fiji are situated in the southern Pacific Ocean, just east of the Koro Sea. ... 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Methodism or the Methodist movement is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity. ...

Trouble with the United States

Cakobau's claimed position was also undermined by international developments. The United States threatened intervention following a number of incidents involving their consul, John Brown Williams. His trading store had been looted by Fijian natives following an accidental fire, caused by stray cannon fire during a Fourth of July celebration in 1849. When his Nukulau Island house was subjected to an arson attack in 1855, the commander of the United States naval frigate USS John Adams demanded compensation amounting to US$5000 for Williams from Cakobau, as the Tui Viti. This initial claim was supplemented by further claims totalling US$38,531. Cakobau was faced with a dilemma. To disclaim responsibility for the debt, he would have to deny his self-proclaimed and still far-from-universally accepted sovereignty. To admit responsibility, he would have to undertake to pay the debt, or else face punishment from the United States Navy. He chose the latter course, hoping that the United States was only bluffing. Consul (abbrev. ... July 4 is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 180 days remaining. ... 1849 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Nukulau Island is a small islet belonging to Fiji. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations. ... The first John Adams was a frigate in the United States Navy from 1800 to 1867. ...

Reality began to catch up with Cakobau in 1858, when the USS Vandalia sailed into Levuka. Unable to pay his debt, and faced with increasing encroachments onto Viti Levu's south coast from Ma'afu, Cakobau approached the British consul with an offer to cede the islands to the United Kingdom, if only they would assume responsibility for his debt in return for 5,000 square kilometres of land. His insistence, however, on being allowed to retain his questionable title of Tui Viti proved unacceptable to the British government, which turned his offer down after four years of consideration in 1862. This followed a report from Colonel W.J. Smythe, who had come to the conclusion, after interviewing every Paramount Chief in Fiji, that Cakobau's title was self-assumed and by no means universally accepted by his fellow chiefs, and that he did not have the authority to cede the islands. 1858 (MDCCCLVIII) is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Colonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with the corresponding ranks existing in nearly every country in the world. ...

The Kingdom of Fiji

Cakobau next turned to the Australian-based Polynesia Company. The rising price of cotton in the wake of the American Civil War (1861-1865) had interested the Polynesia Company in acquiring land in Fiji for planting. In return for 5,000 km², the company agreed to pay Cakobau's debt. Australian settlers landed on 575 km² of land in Viti Levu, near what was then a Fijian village called Suva, in 1868. Cotton ready for harvest. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederate) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties Killed in action: 110,000 Total dead: 360,000 Wounded: 275,200 Killed in action: 93,000 Total dead: 258... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Suva is the capital of Fiji. ... 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

The Polynesia Company settlers were joined by a further several thousand planters throughout the 1860s and 1870s. Often fraudulently, they obtained Fijian land, often in exchange for weapons or alcohol. Competing land claims followed, with no unified government to settle the disputes. Frustrations peaked following the collapse of cotton prices and the destruction of the crop by hurricanes in 1870. In June 1871, John Thurston, the British honorary consul, forged a "marriage of convenience" between Cakobau and the settlers, and persuaded the Fijian chiefs to accept a constitutional monarchy with Cakobau as king, but with real power in the hands of a cabinet and Legislaturelasulau dominated by settlers. The Legislative Assembly met for the first time in Levuka in November 1871. // Events and trends Technology The First Transcontinental Railroad in the United States is built in the six year period between 1863 and 1869. ... // Events and Trends Technology The invention of the telephone (1876) by Alexander Graham Bell. ... 1870 (MDCCCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... John Mellen Thurston (August 21, 1847 – August 9, 1916) was a Senator from Nebraska. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Alternate meanings in cabinet (disambiguation) A Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Cession to the United Kingdom

The new arrangements proved no more workable than the old. Within months, government overspending had led to the accumulation of another unmanageable debt. In 1872, following continuing economic and social unrest, Thurston approached the British government, at Cakobau's request, with another offer to cede the islands. The British were much more sympathetic to annexing Fiji this time than they had been almost two decades earlier. The murder of Bishop Paterson 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 manoeuverings 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, Sir Hercules Robinson, soon to be appointed the British Governor, arrived on the HMS Dido and received Cakobau with a royal 21-gun salute. After some vacillation, Cakobau agreed to renounce his Tui Viti title. The formal cession took place on 10 October 1874, when Cakobau, Ma'afu, and the Paramount Chiefs of Fiji signed two copies of the Deed of Cession. Ninety-six years of British rule followed. 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... The Reef Islands are a loose collection of islands in the northwestern part of the Solomon Islands province of Temotu. ... March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... Lord Hercules George Robert Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead (December 19, 1824 - October 28, 1897) was a British colonial administrator. ... Fiji was a British Crown Colony from 1874 to 1970, and an independent dominion in the British Commonwealth from 1970 to 1987. ... Seven ships of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Dido, after Dido, the legendary founder and queen of Carthage. ... October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in Leap years). ... 1874 (MDCCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...