Kingdom of Fiji

The Kingdom of Fiji was the first unified Fijian state, created in June 1871 when the British honorary consul John Bates Thurston persuaded the leading chiefs to accept a constitutional monarchy under Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the Vunivalu of Bau, as King of Fiji. Cakobau had long claimed the title Tui Viti, but many chiefs regarded him as no more than first among equals. The new kingdom covered all of modern Fiji except Rotuma; its cabinet and legislature, which first met at Levuka in November 1871, were dominated by Australian settlers. Within months government overspending produced an unmanageable debt, and in 1872, amid continuing unrest, Cakobau asked Britain to consider annexation. Rivalry with the chief Ma'afu delayed negotiations, but on 10 October 1874 Cakobau and the senior chiefs signed the Deed of Cession, and Fiji became a British colony. The monarchy lasted barely three years, yet it marked the moment when the islands were first governed as a single political unit.