Blackwell Reference Online

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Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides, was jointly ruled by the French and the British until its independence on July 30, 1980. It was visited by French and English sailors in the eighteenth century, and both Louis Antoine de Bougainville and James Cook landed there. Chinese merchants also visited in search of sandalwood. The Irish trader Peter Dillon started to harvest sandalwood in large amounts in 1825; before long, the sandalwood was largely depleted and most trees had been felled by 1868. This destruction was followed by “blackbirding,” in which people from the New Hebrides were used as indentured laborers in sugar cane plantations in Fiji and in Queensland, Australia. Many people were seized and chained or enticed aboard ships to serve for up to 12 years in what was effectively a form of slavery. Presbyterian missionaries used the White Australia Policy to put an end to blackbirding, but much damage had been done to the society in the New Hebrides, with the population falling from 650,000 in 1870 to about 100,000 by 1890. By 1935, the indigenous Hebrideans were estimated at only 41,000, and the islands of Aneityum, the location of the early sandalwood trees, and Erromano lost up to 95 percent of their original population. The American Civil War led to high prices for cotton. Thus, cotton plantations were established on the New Hebrides, followed later by coconut and cocoa plantations. ... log in or subscribe to read full text