WE are always being told that Scotland is too wee and too poor to be independent, yet 50 years ago today a country with less than a fifth of the Scottish population and a quarter of our land area became independent of the UK.

Fiji has been independent ever since, and despite considerable internal political problems – including several mostly military-led coups d’etat and splits on racial lines – the country has never asked to re-join the UK.

In one way there was a similarity between Fiji’s road to independence and Scotland’s current situation. Rather a lot of Fiji’s people – mostly ethnic Fijians – were quite happy to stay in the British Empire, though a large contingent of mostly Indo-Fijians wanted out. The big difference was that Harold Wilson’s Labour Government, and Ted Heath’s successor Tory Government, wanted Fiji to be independent to continue the process of Britain divesting itself of its Empire.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the UK holds the record for having the most countries gain independence from it, with 62 noted so far.

WHERE IS FIJI AND WHAT IS ITS HISTORY?

LYING in the middle of the Southwest Pacific, Fiji is just more than 3000 miles south-west of Hawaii and about 2000 miles from the east coast of Australia. Its neighbours include Tonga, Tuvalu, and Samoa. Fiji is an archipelago which consists of 332 islands and 522 islets, with a third of the islands being inhabited. The total land area is around 7000 sq miles, and the capital city Suva is by far the largest settlement, home to almost three-quarters of the total population of some 900,000 people.

Fiji was first colonised more than 3000 years ago by the Lapita people, who were most probably from other islands in Polynesia and Melanesia such as Vanuatu. By the end of the first millennium AD, Fiji was part of the Tu’I Tonga Empire, and Polynesian practices and culture became the norm on the islands. The Fijians were a warlike tribal people who also practised cannibalism, but they also had their own writing, currency, and fairly ordered societies controlled by chiefs and spiritual leaders called bete.

WHEN WAS IT COLONISED?

THE first European to sight Fiji was Abel Tasman in 1643, followed by captain James Cook more than a century later. He heard the natives call the islands Viti pronounced “Vissee”, which he rendered into English as Fiji. On his remarkable voyage to escape the Mutiny on the Bounty in 1789, captain William Bligh charted the main islands and for a while they were named after him.

It wasn’t until the early 19th century that Britain in particular began to take an interest in the islands, and around 1830, a small settlement was formed at Levuka, on Ovalau. Christian missionaries from the UK preached against cannibalism and at the same time, Fijian warriors traded local produce for firearms which also had the effect of reducing tribal warfare. Americans and Australians tried to gain a foothold on Fiji where many people from the surrounding islands were enslaved, but the British gradually took control from the local chiefs.

WHEN DID THE EMPIRE STRIKE?

WITH internal warfare still a problem, Britain forced the Fijians to make peace and become a kingdom governed by a paramount chief called Cakobau. After yet more warfare, Britain declared Fiji a Crown Colony on October 10, 1874. Local unrest was put down by British forces, sometimes quite savagely.

One third of the population succumbed to measles in the 1870s, and Fiji having become an important grower of cotton, while the colonial government protected the land-owning rights of native Fijians, huge numbers of Indians were imported to work on plantations, with many thousands choosing to stay.

Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, whose father was the 4th Earl of Aberdeen, was named the first Governor of Fiji and he enthusiastically backed the scheme which changed the population. Ethnic Fijians are still the largest part of the citizenry, but Indo-Fijians are a sizeable minority.

WHEN DID FIJI GET SELF-GOVERNANCE?

ALTHOUGH there was a Council of Chiefs, Fiji was very much run as a colony by civil servants. After the bravery shown by Fijian troops in World War II – they are still recruited by the British Army – discussions began over self-determination for Fiji.

These accelerated under the Labour Government of Harold Wilson, and a leader emerged to take the project forward – Ratu (chief) Kamisese Mara, founder of the Alliance Party which formed the first self-governing Cabinet in 1967, and was later the country’s first Prime Minister.

Full independence became inevitable and was achieved when the ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian parties agreed on an equable split of the seats in the new parliament.

WHAT HAPPENED AT INDEPENDENCE?

ON October 10, 1970, a few months after neighbouring Tonga gained independence and on the 96th anniversary of it becoming a crown colony, Fiji’s independence was declared with Prince Charles representing the Queen at the formal ceremony.

Though its future has been debated several times, the flag of Fiji which was first flown on Independence Day in 1970, retains the Union Flag in its top left quarter to show the long links with Britain.

Fiji has had many ups and downs in the past 50 years, including being suspended from the Commonwealth over military coups, but the people are showing they are very proud to be Fijians and independent.