History of the Marshall Islands began asserting her sovereignty over the Carolines, she made no effort to prevent the German Empire from gaining a foothold there. Britain also raised no objection to a German protectorate over the Marshalls in exchange for German recognition of Britain's rights in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. On October 13, 1885, the gunboat under Captain Fritz Rötger brought German emissaries to Jaluit. They signed a treaty with Kabua, whom the Germans had earlier recognized as "King of the Ralik Islands," on October 15. Subsequently, seven other chiefs on seven other islands signed a treaty in German and Marshallese and a
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