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World > Countries > Fiji

Fiji

Facts & Figures

Map of Fiji

President: Ratu Epeli Nailatikau (2009)

Prime Minister: Frank Bainimarama (2007)

Total area: 7,054 sq mi (18,270 sq km)

Population (2010 est.): 957,780 (growth rate: 1.3%); birth rate: 21.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 11.2/1000; life expectancy: 71.03; density per sq km: 51

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Suva (on Viti Levu), 177,300

Monetary unit: Fiji dollar

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Geography

Fiji consists of 332 islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean about 1,960 mi (3,152 km) from Sydney, Australia. About 110 of these islands are inhabited. The two largest are Viti Levu (4,109 sq mi; 10,642 sq km) and Vanua Levu (2,242 sq mi; 5,807 sq km).

Government

Republic.

History

Fiji, which had been inhabited since the second millennium B.C. , was explored by the Dutch and the British in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1874, an offer of cession by the Fijian chiefs was accepted, and Fiji was proclaimed a possession and dependency of the British Crown. In the 1880s large-scale cultivation of sugarcane began. Over the next 40 years, more than 60,000 indentured laborers from India were brought to the island to work the plantations. By 1920, all indentured servitude had ended. Racial conflict between Indians and the indigenous Fijians has been central to the small island's history.

Fiji became independent on Oct. 10, 1970. In Oct. 1987, Brig. Gen. Sitiveni Rabuka staged a coup to prevent an Indian-dominated coalition party from taking power. The military coup caused an exodus of thousands of Fijians of Indian origin who suffered ethnic discrimination at the hands of the government.

A new constitution, which took effect in July 1998, provided for a multiracial cabinet and raised the prospect of a coalition government. The previous constitution had guaranteed dominance to ethnic Fijians. In 1999, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, took office.