6°14′40″S155°23′02″E / 6.24444°S 155.38389°E /-6.24444; 155.38389
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TheNorth Solomon Islands form a geographical area covering the more northerly group of islands in theSolomon Islands archipelago and includesBougainville andBuka Islands,Choiseul,Santa Isabel, theShortland Islands andOntong Java Atoll. In 1885 Germany declared aprotectorate over these islands forming theGerman Solomon Islands Protectorate. With the exception of Bougainville and Buka, thesewere transferred to theBritish Solomon Islands Protectorate in 1900. Bougainville and Buka continued under German administration until the outset ofWorld War I, when they were transferred toAustralia, and after the war, were formally passed to Australian jurisdiction under aLeague of Nations mandate.[1]
Today, what were the North Solomon Islands are split between theAutonomous Region of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) and the sovereign state ofSolomon Islands. The latter gained independence in 1976 andsucceeded the British Solomon Islands Protectorate known for decades before 1975 as theBritish Solomon Islands.
On 17 February 1568, the Spanish explorerAlvaro de Mendaña y Neyra became the first European to sight the island, naming themIslas de Salomon.[2]
In April 1885 a German protectorate (Schutzgebiet) was declared over the northern Solomon Islands:Bougainville,Buka,Choiseul,Santa Isabel andOntong Java Atoll.[1]
In June 1893, CaptainHerbert Gibson ofHMS Curacoa, declared the southern Solomon Islands ofNew Georgia,Guadalcanal,Malaita andSan Cristobal aBritish protectorate,[3][4] and this protectorate became known as theBritish Solomon Islands Protectorate. In 1898 Britain annexed theSanta Cruz and theRennell and Bellona Islands.[5]
In 1900, under the terms of theTreaty of Berlin (14 November 1899), Germany transferredChoiseul,Santa Isabel,the Shortlands andOntong Java Atoll Islands to theBritish Solomon Islands Protectorate, but retained Bougainville and its surrounding islands. Germany granted this claim in exchange for the British giving up all claims toWestern Samoa.[5]
The Roman Catholic "Apostolic prefecture of the Northern Solomon Islands" was established on 23 May 1898, by separation from theApostolic Vicariate of New Pomerania, including the Islands of Ysabel, Choiseul, Bougainville and all the islets under German protectorate; until 1904, it was namedApostolic Prefecture of German Solomon Islands.
In 1897 the islands were put under the jurisdiction of Broyer, Apostolic Vicar ofSamoa, and in 1898 formed into a new prefecture under Joseph Forestier, who resided atKieta, on Bougainville Island. Fever was so prevalent at the mission that most of the priests who went to the islands in 1898 died from disease.
In 1911 the mission contained: 3 churches; 3 stations; 10Marist Fathers; 5 lay brothers; 7 sisters of theThird Order of Mary; 2 Samoancatechists; 5 Catholic schools, with 140 pupils; 2 orphanages; and a few hundred Catholics. The Marist missionaries belonged to the province of Oceania, the superior of which resided at Sydney, New South Wales.
In 1930, it was promoted toApostolic Vicariate of Northern Solomon Islands, from which the presentRoman Catholic Diocese of Bougainville stems.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Prefecture Apostolic of Northern Solomon Islands".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Islands ofPapua New Guinea | |
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| Bismarck Archipelago | |
| Louisiade Archipelago | |
| North Solomon Islands | |
