The Northern Solomons were the more northerly group of islands in the

Solomon Islands (archipelago) The Solomon Islands (archipelago) is an island group in the western South Pacific Ocean, north-east of Australia. The archipelago is in the Melanesian subregion and bioregion of Oceania and forms the eastern boundary of the Solomon Sea. T ...

over which Germany declared a

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its int ...

in 1885. Initially, the German Solomon Islands Protectorate included, in the south-east, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, and the

Shortland Islands The Shortland Islands is an archipelago of Western Province, Solomon Islands, at . The island group lies in the extreme north-west of the country's territory, close to the south-east edge of Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea. The largest isl ...

, along with

Ontong Java Atoll Ontong Java Atoll or Luangiua, (formerly ''Lord Howe Atoll'', not to be confused with Lord Howe Island) is one of the largest atolls on earth. Geographically it belongs to a scattered group of three atolls which includes nearby Nukumanu Atol ...

. These were transferred to the

British Solomon Islands Protectorate The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

in 1900. The main island in the region, Bougainville, continued under German administration until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when it fell to Australia, and after the war, it formally passed to Australian jurisdiction under a League of Nations mandate. Today, what were the North Solomon Islands are split between the

Autonomous Region of Bougainville Bougainville ( ; ; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil''), officially the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Tok Pisin: ''Otonomos Region bilong Bogenvil''), is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The largest island is Bougainville Island, while the re ...

(

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

) and the sovereign state of

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. The latter gained independence in 1976 and succeeded the British Solomon Islands Protectorate known for decades before 1975 as the British Solomon Islands.

History

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''. In April 1885 a German protectorate (''Schutzgebiet'') was declared over the northern Solomon Islands: Bougainville, Buka, Choiseul, Santa Isabel and

. In 1893 the British declared a protectorate over the southern Solomon Islands of

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the 200th-largest island in the world. Geography New Georgia island is located in the New Georgia Group, an archipelago including most ...

, Guadalcanal, Malaita and San Cristobal, and this protectorate became known as the

. In 1898 Britain annexed the Santa Cruz and the

Rennell and Bellona Rennell and Bellona is one of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands, comprising two inhabited atolls, Rennell and Bellona, or and respectively in Rennellese (a Polynesian language), as well as the uninhabited Indispensable Reef. Rennell and B ...

Islands. In the year 1900, under the terms of Treaty of Berlin (14 November 1899), Germany transferred Choiseul, Santa Isabel, the Shortlands and

Islands to the

, but retained Bougainville and its surrounding islands. Germany granted this claim in exchange for the British giving up all claims to

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

Missions

The Roman Catholic ''

Apostolic prefecture An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

of the Northern Solomon Islands'' was established on 23 May 1898, by separation from the

Apostolic Vicariate of New Pomerania New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the ...

, including the Islands of Ysabel, Choiseul, Bougainville and all the islets under German protectorate; until 1904, it was named Apostolic Prefecture of German Solomon Islands. In 1897 the islands were put under the jurisdiction of Mgr Broyer, Apostolic Vicar of

, and in 1898 formed into a new prefecture under Mgr Joseph Forestier, who resided at Kieta, on Bougainville Island. Fever was so prevalent at the mission that most of the fathers who went to the islands in 1898 were carried off by disease. In 1911 the mission contained: 3 churches; 3 stations; 10

Marist Fathers The Society of Mary ( la, Societas Mariae) abbreviated SM, commonly known as the Marist Fathers, is a men's Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right. It was founded by Jean-Claude Colin and a group of seminarians in ...

; 5 lay brothers; 7 sisters of the Third Order of Mary; 2 Samoan 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 The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bougainville is a suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rabaul. It was erected as the Prefecture Apostolic of German Solomon Islands in 1898 and elevated to a Vicariate Apostolic in 1930. It was furth ...

stems.

References

External links

World Statesmen – Solomon Islands

{{Catholic, title=North Solomon Islands Solomon Islands (archipelago) Former colonies in Oceania Former German colonies History of the Solomon Islands History of Papua New Guinea Geography of Melanesia Geography of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea 1885 establishments in German New Guinea 1900 disestablishments in Germany 1885 establishments in Oceania 1900 disestablishments in Oceania Former protectorates