Archeologists know the predecessors of the Fijians first came to these islands over 3,000 years ago, and their ancestors eventually moved on to Tonga and Samoa. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman accidentally discovered Fiji in 1643. British Captain James Cook also sailed through the islands in 1774, but credit for the first significant European exploration usually goes to Captain William Bligh: He sailed past "the Feejees" following the famous mutiny on the Bounty in 1789 and returned several years later in his quest to punish the mutineers. Shipwrecked sailors, sandalwood traders and Christian missionaries followed. When paramount chief, Ratu Seru Cakobau, converted to Christianity in 1854, intertribal warfare and cannibalism soon ceased.
As hereditary Fijian tribal chiefs watched the encroachment of European colonialism among the Pacific islands in the the 18th and 19th centuries, they collectively elected to associate with Great Britain in 1874. The first British Governor-General of Fiji, Sir Arthur Gordon, formalized the Great Council of Chiefs and ensured these traditional leaders would maintain control over almost all the land in Fiji, a situation which still basically exists today (contrasted with some other traditional Polynesian lands which eventually could be bought and sold by anyone). From 1879 to 1916, the British government imported indentured Indian laborers to work on sugar cane plantations and in other industries. After the indenture system was abolished there, about 60% of the Indians chose to remain in Fiji, where their descendants live today as small farmers and business owners.
In 1970, the citizens of Fiji elected to become an independent nation.
