Solomon Islands , [ 7 ] also known simply as the Solomons , [ 8 ] is an island country consisting of six major islands and over smaller islands in Melanesia , part of Oceania , to the northeast of Australia. It has a total area of 28, square kilometres 11, sq mi , [ 9 ] and a population of , according to the official estimates for mid The country takes its name from the wider area of the Solomon Islands archipelago , which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the Autonomous Region of Bougainville currently a part of Papua New Guinea , but excludes the Santa Cruz Islands.
The islands have been settled since at least some time between 30, and 28, BC, with later waves of migrants, notably the Lapita people, mixing and producing the modern indigenous Solomon Islanders population. The official name of the then-British administration was changed from the " British Solomon Islands Protectorate " to "The Solomon Islands" in , and self-government was achieved the following year.
Independence was obtained, and the name changed to just "Solomon Islands" without the definite article , in At independence, Solomon Islands became a constitutional monarchy. The King of Solomon Islands is Charles III , who is represented in the country by a governor-general appointed on the advice of the prime minister. The definite article, "the", has not been part of the country's official name since independence but remains for all references to the area pre-independence and is sometimes used, both within and outside the country.
Colloquially, the islands are referred to simply as "the Solomons". The Solomons were first settled by people coming from the Bismarck Islands and New Guinea during the Pleistocene era c.
From c. Some of the earliest regular foreign visitors to the islands were whaling vessels from Britain, the United States and Australia. Beginning in the s, and accelerating in the s, islanders began to be recruited or often kidnapped as labourers for the colonies in Australia, Fiji and Samoa in a process known as " blackbirding ".
