The Solomon islands are a country in the west Pacific comprised of hundreds of atolls and islands occupying a total area of 28,450 km2. The climate is tropical monsoon with few extremes of temperature and weather. The terrain is comprised mostly of rugged mountains with some low coral atolls. Natural resources are fish, forests, gold, bauxite, phosphates. The religion is almost all at least nominally Christian; Anglican, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Roman Catholic Churches dominant. There are over 120 indigenous languages spoken with English spoken by between one and two percent of the population. The largest island of the group is Guadalcanal. The Solomon Islands were discovered for Europeans by Alvaro de Mendana of Spain in 1568, and colonised by Spain. In 1893 the Solomon Islands became a British protectorate, and in 1976 realised self government followed by independence in 1978. Research Solomon Islands
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
Research Solomon Islands