Colony of Fiji

The Colony of Fiji was a British Crown colony in the South Pacific, existing from 10 October 1874 until independence on 10 October 1970. Fiji had been a constitutional monarchy under Ratu Seru Epenisa Cakobau, whose debts and conflicts with foreign powers led him to offer the islands to Britain. The colony was at first governed from Levuka, the old trading capital on Ovalau, and the capital moved to Suva in 1882. Sir Arthur Gordon, the first substantive governor, introduced a policy of indirect rule that preserved Fijian chiefly authority, restricted land sales and created the Great Council of Chiefs. Indian indentured labourers were brought in from 1879 to work sugar plantations, a migration that shaped the colony's demography. Sugar became the main export, and the colonial government regulated Fijian land and labour while European planters dominated the economy and politics of the colony. Fiji became independent in 1970, with Suva as its capital.