Anglo-German Declarations about the Western Pacific Ocean whole area. Disputed claims to land prior to the declaration of sovereignty or protectorate, should be settled by a mixed commission, unless the plaintiff did not request the settlement by the local authority alone. Great Britain and Germany should treat each other as most-favoured nation, equal law for citizens of each nation in the area of the other one should be applicated. Religious freedom should be granted. No convicts should be brought in the area and no penal colonies should be founded. After the declaration, Great Britain colonised the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and the British Solomon Islands, Germany took
History of the Pacific Islands Western Samoa became the first Pacific Island nation to gain political independence. In 1997, Samoa officially dropped the 'Western' from its name as it was an appendage from its colonial era. The human history of the Solomon Islands begins with the first settlement at least 30,000 years ago from New Guinea. They represented the furthest expansion of humans into the Pacific Ocean until the expansion of Austronesian-language speakers through the area around 4000 BCE, bringing new agricultural and maritime technology. Most of the languages spoken today in the Solomon Islands derive from this era, but some thirty languages of the