Native name: Isatabu | |
|---|---|
 Guadalcanal Map | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 09°35′24″S160°14′06″E / 9.59000°S 160.23500°E /-9.59000; 160.23500 |
| Archipelago | Solomon Islands |
| Area | 5,302 km2 (2,047 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 2,335 m (7661 ft) |
| Highest point | Mount Popomanaseu |
| Administration | |
| Province | Guadalcanal Province |
| Largest settlement | Honiara (pop. 92,344 (2021) |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 161,197 (2021) |
| Pop. density | 30.4/km2 (78.7/sq mi) |
| Ethnic groups |
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Guadalcanal (/ˌɡwɑːdəlkəˈnæl/; indigenous name:Isatabu) is the principal island inGuadalcanal Province ofSolomon Islands, located in the southwesternPacific Ocean, northeast ofAustralia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second-largest by population (afterMalaita). The island is mainly covered in densetropical rainforest and has a mountainoushinterland.
Guadalcanal was first charted by Europeans during the Spanish expedition ofÁlvaro de Mendaña in 1568. The name comes from the village ofGuadalcanal, in the province ofSeville, inAndalusia, Spain, birthplace of Pedro de Ortega Valencia, a member of Mendaña's expedition.
During 1942 and 1943, it was the scene of theGuadalcanal campaign and saw bitter fighting between Japanese and U.S. troops. The Americans were ultimately victorious. At the end ofWorld War II,Honiara, on the north coast of Guadalcanal, became the new capital of theBritish Solomon Islands Protectorate and later the capital of the independent nation of Solomon Islands.
Guadalcanal is the largest island inSolomon Islands, with a total land area of 5,302 km2 (2,047 sq mi), and has a population of 155,605 people, making it the second-most populous island in the country after Malaita.Mount Popomanaseu is the island's highest point and the highest in Solomon Islands, with an elevation of 7,661 ft (2,335 m) above sea level. The Mbokokimbo River is the island's longest river, with a total length of 98.7 km (61.3 mi).
List of peaks in Guadalcanal by elevation
List of longest rivers by length
The island has been settled since at least 4500–2500 BC based on archaeological finds at Poha Cave and Vatuluma Posovi.[1][2] During the period 1200-800 BC, AustronesianLapita peoples settled the islands.[1]
ASpanish expedition fromPeru in 1568 under the command ofÁlvaro de Mendaña de Neira were the first Europeans to see the island. Mendaña's subordinate, Pedro de Ortega Valencia, named the island after his home townGuadalcanal in Andalusia, Spain.[3] In the years that followed the discovery, the island was variously referred to as Guadarcana, Guarcana, Guadalcana, and Guadalcanar, which reflected different pronunciations of its name in Andalusian Spanish.
European settlers, whalers, and missionaries began to arrive in the 18th and 19th centuries. With these outsiders also arrived foreign institutions such as forced labour. Beginning during the 1860s, about 60,000 natives from many parts of the Solomon Islands were indentured and sent to Australia or Fiji by British authorities to work on plantations. This system continued into the 1890s.[4] In the 1880s, the Germans and the British vied for control of the Solomons. Germany established a protectorate over the northern Solomons in 1884, while in 1893, theBritish Solomon Islands Protectorate was proclaimed, which included the island of Guadalcanal.[3][4] Germany eventually handed over most of their protectorate to Britain, though, in 1899. By the early 20th century, large agricultural plantations (specialising incopra), run mainly by Australians, were established in the region. Guadalcanal was not seriously affected by World War I.[4] In 1932, the British confirmed the name Guadalcanal in line with the town in Andalusia, Spain.
In the months following theattack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese drove the Americans out of thePhilippines, the British out ofBritish Malaya, and the Dutch out of theEast Indies. The Japanese then began to expand into the western Pacific, occupying many islands in an attempt to build a defensive ring around their conquests and threaten the lines of communication from the United States to Australia and New Zealand. The Japanese reached Guadalcanal in May 1942.
When an American reconnaissance mission spotted construction of a Japanese airfield atLunga Point on the north coast of Guadalcanal, the situation became critical.[5] This new Japanese airfield represented a threat to Australia, so as a matter of urgency, despite not being adequately prepared, the United States conducted its first amphibious landing of the war on Guadalcanal. The initial landings of the1st Marine Division on 7 August 1942 secured the airfield with little difficulty, but holding the airfield for the next six months against combined Japanese ground assault, air attack and naval bombardment was one of the most hotly contested campaigns in the entire Pacific theater of war.
Immediately after landing on the island, U.S. NavySeabees began finishing the airfield begun by the Japanese. It was then namedHenderson Field after a Marine aviator killed in combat during theBattle of Midway. Aircraft operating from Henderson Field during the campaign were a mix of U.S. Marine, Army, Navy, and other Allied aircraft that became known as theCactus Air Force. They defended the airfield and threatened any Japanese ships that ventured too close to the island during daylight hours. At night, however, Japanese naval forces were frequently able to shell the airfield and deliver troops with supplies, retiring before daylight. The Japanese used fast ships, namely destroyers, to conduct this reinforcement and supply effort, which became known as theTokyo Express. So many ships from both sides were sunk in the many naval engagements in and around the Solomon Island chain that the nearby waters came to be referred to asIronbottom Sound.
The navalBattle of Cape Esperance was fought on 11 October 1942 in the waters off the northwest coast of Guadalcanal. During the engagement, theUnited States Navy intercepted and defeated a Japanese formation of ships on their way down "the Slot" to reinforce and resupply troops on the island, suffering losses of their own in the process. The multi-dayNaval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November marked a critical turning point in the campaign. Allied naval forces engaged a large, experienced Japanese surface force at night and forced it to withdraw, sinking theIJN battleshipKirishima in the process. This was one of only two times in the Pacific theater of war that two battleships engaged each other in combat, with the next such engagement occurring in 1944 during theBattle of Leyte Gulf. Some Japanese viewpoints consider these naval engagements, which showcased the improving capability of Allied warships to challenge the Imperial Japanese Navy's significant advantage in night-fighting techniques, to be just as significant as the Battle of Midway in turning the tide against them.
After six months of hard combat in and around Guadalcanal, the Japanese forces on the island were critically undersupplied and no longer combat effective, while Allied troops were steadily increasing in quantity and quality. Remaining Japanese forces on the island were evacuated atCape Esperance on the northwest coast in February 1943.[6] American authorities declared Guadalcanal secure on 9 February 1943. The Guadalcanal campaign was a major turning point in the war, as it stopped further Japanese expansion.
Two U.S. Navy ships have been named for the campaign:
To date, the onlyU.S. Coast Guardsman recipient of theMedal of Honor is Signalman 1st ClassDouglas Albert Munro, awarded posthumously for his extraordinary heroism on 27 September 1942 atPoint Cruz. Munro provided covering fire and helped evacuate 500 besieged Marines from a beach at Point Cruz; he was killed during the evacuation. During theBattle for Henderson Field, the Medal of Honor was also awarded toJohn Basilone, who was later killed in action during theBattle of Iwo Jima in 1945.
After the war, American and Japanese groups repeatedly visited Guadalcanal to search for the remains of missing soldiers. The bodies of some 7,000 Japanese troops remain missing on the island, and islanders still bring the Japanese groups bones that they say are those of unearthed Japanese soldiers.[7]
Immediately after the Second World War, the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate was moved to Honiara on Guadalcanal from its previous location atTulagi in theFlorida Islands. In 1952, thehigh commissioner for the Western Pacific moved fromFiji to Honiara, and the post was combined with that of the governor of the Solomon Islands. The airfield which was the cause of the fighting in 1942, and which became well known as Henderson Field, is now theinternational airport for the Solomon Islands. It sits about five miles to the east of Honiara. The secondary airfield, known as "Fighter Two", is now the local golf course.[8]
In early 1999, long-simmering tensions between the local Guale people on Guadalcanal and more recent migrants from the neighbouring island ofMalaita erupted into violence. The Guadalcanal Revolutionary Army, later calledIsatabu Freedom Movement, began terrorising Malaitans in the rural areas of the island in an effort to force them out of their homes. About 20,000 Malaitans fled to the capital, and others returned to their home island; Guale residents of Honiara fled. The city became a Malaitanenclave and theMalaita Eagle Force took over government. TheRoyal Australian Navy andRoyal New Zealand Navy deployed vessels to the area to protect the expatriate community resident mostly in Honiara. In 2003, thePacific Forum negotiated the intervention ofRAMSI or Operation Helpem Fren involving Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific island nations.
About 25 km (15 mi) from Honiara to the west, Vilu War Museum houses an outdoor collection of remains of various parts of military equipment and of several aircraft. Several memorials for the American, Australian, Fijian, New Zealand, and Japanese soldiers who died were erected, as well.[9]
The island hosts a nativemarsupial known as thephalanger or grey cuscus,Phalanger orientalis.[10] The only other mammals are bats and rodents.
Many species of colourful parrots are found there, andestuarine crocodiles inhabit the island's shores. In recent times, these crocodiles have been found only on the Weather Coast in the south of the island, but during World War II, they were found along the north coast in the vicinity of the airstrip where the fighting was taking place, as evidenced by names such asAlligator Creek.
Venomous snakes are rare on the island and are not considered to be a serious threat, but a kind ofcentipede there has a particularly nasty bite.[11]The Guadalcanal Watersheds form a site that has been identified byBirdLife International as animportant bird area, because it supports populations ofthreatened orendemic bird species. At 376,146 ha (1,452 sq mi), it covers some 70% of the island, extending along the southern coast inland to the central highlands, and contains riverine and lowlandtropical rainforest, as well as the greatest contiguous area ofcloud forest in the Solomons. Although it also contains gardens and old village sites, most of it has never been permanently inhabited. Significant birds for which the site was identified includechestnut-bellied imperial pigeons,Woodford's rails,Guadalcanal moustached kingfishers,Meek's lorikeets,Guadalcanal honeyeaters,Guadalcanal thicketbirds, andGuadalcanal thrushes. Potential threats to the site includelogging andinvasive species.[12]
The islands were named by a Spanish explorer, Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira, who, on finding alluvial gold on Guadalcanal in 1568, believed he had found the biblical King Solomon's source of gold.
| Central | |
|---|---|
| Choiseul | |
| Guadalcanal | |
| Isabel | |
| Makira-Ulawa | |
| Malaita | |
| Rennell and Bellona | |
| Temotu | |
| Western | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
