Like all their Polynesian cousins, the Tongans did not have a written language to record their early history; but anthropologists recognize them as being among the most ancient of the Polynesians who probably migrated to their islands about 3,000 years ago.

Tonga's first contact with the western world came when Dutchmen Schouten and LeMaire came upon the islands in 1616. The Tongans called them palangi, which describes the white clouds of their sails "bursting from the sky." The Europeans found a socially advanced society which had already extended its influence beyond its own islands.

Over a century-and-a-half later, British explorer Captain James Cook was equally impressed in 1773 and gave the Tongans their nickname, the Friendly Islands. Capt. Cook returned in 1774 and 1777, giving the paramount chief or Tu'i Tonga a turtle from the Galapagos Islands which roamed the royal palace grounds until it died in 1960.

Spaniard Francisco Francisco Maurelle sailed into the excellent anchorage at Neiafu on the northern island of Vava'u in 1781, claiming the islands for Spain. The intrepid Capt. Bligh and those cast adrift with him from the Bounty mutiny successfully passed through Tongan waters in 1789, though not without some fatal skirmishes. The Spanish king sent Don Alejandro Malaspina on a follow-up voyage a dozen years after Maurelle, but Spanish influence waned as other European sandalwood traders, whalers and Christian missionaries became more prevalent in the first half of the 19th century.

By 1845 the first Taufa'ahau Tupou united all of the Tongan islands under his leadership as the first undisputed Tu'i Tonga ("king of Tonga"), who took the name King George Tupou I. In 1875 King Tupou instituted a constitutional monarchy, which still reigns to this day. In 1901, the kingdom entered into an international protection agreement with Great Britain, which left the Tupou dynasty in power. The agreement was rescinded in 1970, but Tonga remains a member of the British Commonwealth.