Fiji is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island.

Its closest neighbors are Vanuatu to the west, New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec Islands to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas and France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast, and Tuvalu to the north.Fiji is an archipelago of more than 332 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 18,300 square kilometers (7,100 sq mi).Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BCE, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers.

It is believed that the Lapita people or the ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands first but not much is known of what became of them after the Melanesians arrived; they may have had some influence on the new culture, and archaeological evidence shows that they would have then moved on to Samoa, Tonga and even Hawai'i.Across one thousand kilometers (six hundred and twenty) from east to west, Fiji has been a nation of many languages.

Fiji's history is one of settlement but also of mobility.

Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture develops.

Constant warfare and cannibalism between warring tribes are rampant and very much part of everyday life.

The ferocity of the cannibal lifestyle deters European sailors from going near Fijian waters, giving Fiji the name Cannibal Isles; as a result, Fiji remains unknown to the rest of the world.

The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visits Fiji in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent.

Europeans settle on the islands permanently beginning in the nineteenth century.

The first European settlers to Fiji are beachcombers, missionaries, whalers, and those engaged in the then booming sandalwood and bêche-de-mer trade.The British subjugate the islands as a colony in 1874,