Fiji
From Conservapedia
Fiji, officially the Fijian Republic, is an island group 5500 miles south west of the continental United States (3100 miles from Hawaii). It is located north of New Zealand and west of Tonga. The largest islands are Viti Levu with the capital Suva on the east coast and international airport at Nadi on the west coast, and Vanua Levu. Outlying islands include Taveuni and Kadavu, both world-famous SCUBA-diving destinations.
History
About four thousand years ago,[Citation Needed] Lapita people, ancestors of current Fijian aborigines settled in Fiji. These aborigines are genetically related to Malay and Polynesians, and linguists classify their language as Austronesian.
Fiji is the source of many of the tales of South Pacific cannibalism, the consumption of enemy tribesmen captured in the internecine warfare being a major social activity, and other victims being used as foundations of buildings and living rollers to launch war canoes. The arrival of (initially Catholic) missionaries and conversion of the islanders to Christianity brought an end to cannibalism in the islands. However today, a second wave of missionaries (predominantly of recently formed American sects) is reigniting strife in the rural villages of Fiji, some of which may contain half a dozen different churches.[Citation Needed]
Fiji gained independence from Britain in 1970. Almost two-fifths of the population is of Indian descent, whose ancestors were brought to Fiji to work on sugar plantations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; these live almost entirely on the two main islands of the group. Conflict of interests, superficially between the indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian populations, but actually between rural and reactionary, and urban and progressive factions, has led to a number of non-violent, but highly disruptive political coups since independence.
