The first Lapita settlers settled in Fiji around 1500 BC, mostly from other parts of Melanesia. Initially they were coastal fishing people, but a shift in emphasis towards agriculture around 500 BC spurred a dramatic increase in population and tribal feudalism.

Around 1000 AD Polynesians invaded from Tonga and Samoa, engaging the Melanesians in large scale wars. Cannibalism was common and people lived in

The first known European to sight the Fijian islands was Abel Tasman who passed by on his way to Indonesia in 1643. He negotiated the treacherous reefs north-west of Vanua Levu and Taveuni, but his accounts of the dangers kept other sailors away from Fijian waters for another 130 years. James Cook was next to visit when he stopped at Vatoa in the Lau group in 1774. Fifteen years later William Bligh dropped in under some duress after the mutineers of the HMS

In the early part of the next century, traders came seeking sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (succulent sea cucumbers prized in Asia), and suddenly Fijians had access to metal tools, tobacco, cloth and guns. The impact of this was enormous: violent clan warfare broke out and Fijian society began to change rapidly. Shipwreck survivors, deserting sailors and escaped convicts from the British penal settlements in Australia also began to play an important part in Fijian societies. Many found out why the islands were nicknamed the 'Cannibal Isles', but a few, most notably Swede Charles Savage, came to be well integrated into the upper echelons of the feuding Fijian clans, serving chiefs as interpreters, go-betweens, carpenters and armsmen.

The Tongan military and English missionaries were other prominent invaders of the mid-1800s. The missionaries sought to convert the tribal chiefs, but they had notable failures - the Reverend Thomas Baker was eaten in 1867 and his shoe is exhibited in the Fiji Museum. Levuka, on Ovalau island, became an important South Pacific trading post where American, French and British interests nervously squabbled and suspected one another of imperialist intentions. Levuka became a lawless place and relations with the local people reached a nadir in 1847 when the settlement was razed by fires.

Cakobau, the self-proclaimed King of Fiji, attempted to form a western-style government in 1871, but it collapsed after just two years. In 1873 the acting British consul JB Thurston sought British annexation of Fiji, and on 10 October 1874 it was pronounced a British colony and a capital established at Suva. Governor Sir Arthur Gordon sought economic self-sufficiency for the colony through plantation crops, such as cotton, copra and sugar cane, and productivity was boosted when Gordon began importing indentured labour from India. Hopeful Indians saw Fiji as an escape from poverty but plantation life was a predictable melange of human rights abuses, crime, suicide, rape and disease. By the time indentured labour was abolished in 1919 there were more than 60,000 Indians in Fiji. The Indian community, which had been prevented from owning land, moved into small business holdings, trade and bureaucracy, or took out long-term leases on farms. Australians came to dominate the local economy through sugar production and gold mining, while Europeans manipulated the racial tensions between the Fijians and the Indians in an effort to maintain a stranglehold on economic and political power.

After WWII (to which Fiji committed 8000 troops to fight the Japanese in the Solomons), a greater political awareness permeated the Fijian and Indian people, but racial segregation continued. Fiji became independent on 10 October 1970 and introduced a Westminster political system. The political parties were organised along racial lines. The 1987 elections were won by a shaky coalition, and while there was a Fijian prime minister and a cabinet with a Fijian majority, the new government was seen as Indian dominated. Demonstrations followed and the extremist Taukei movement set about destabilising the new government. Indian-owned businesses were petrol-bombed and there were violent attacks on Indian communities. One month later, on 14 May 1987, Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka invaded the parliament and seized power in a bloodless coup. In October, Fiji was dismissed from the Commonwealth. Rabuka was re-elected in 1991, and gave up his military career to pursue politics full time. He tried to soften his hardline image by making concessions to labour groups and trade unions.

In 1999, Fiji elected its first prime minister of Indian descent, Mahendra Chaudhry. Chaudhry instituted land reforms which indigenous Fijians saw as a threat to their landholdings, and introduced a social justice bill which reduced government programs for indigenous people. Fijian resentment coalesced around the Taukei movement, and after some months of anti-government protests, Chaudhry's government was overturned by a coup led by George Speight in May 2000. Backed by a 100-man private army, Speight stormed parliament and took more than 30 MPs hostage, calling for a new constitution to guarantee political supremacy for the indigenous minority. With the weight of international and internal pressure against them, Speight and his followers were eventually arrested and now await trial. The political situation is still in considerable turmoil.

Fijians still practise many traditional arts and crafts, some of which have endured the destructive impact of western influences and the relentless campaigning of the Christian missionaries, and some which have been modified and embellished to satisfy the demands of tourism.

Dance is still strong in Fiji and the narrative meke performances rest on strong oral traditions. Dances are passed down from generation to generation, and in their strict forms the dancers' bodies are said to take on spirits of the netherworld. Mekes accompanied special events like births, deaths, calls to war, marriages and property exchanges. At times of war men would perform cibis with spears and clubs, while women performed deles or wates - dances which sexually humiliated enemy captives. Traditional Indian dances are still taught in Indian communities.

The missionaries brought hymns and choir singing to Fiji, and local church singing is truly divine. Popular local musical artists include Seru Serevi, Danny Costello, Michelle Rounds, Karuna Gopalan, Laisa Vulakoro, the Freelancers and the Black Roses. Cassettes of local music are available in Fijian stores. Music from 'Bollywood' films (Indian melodramas) is popular amongst Fiji Indians and local bands play covers of Indian songs. At Indian cultural centres performances and lessons are given in traditional Indian music featuring vocal, harmonium, tabla and sitar ensembles.

Fiji has been famous for pottery since the Lapita people began trading their wares deep into the South Pacific thousands of years ago. The most famous of the contemporary potters are Dian Tugea and Taraivini Wati, both of whom are featured in the Fiji Museum. Wood carving is still important, perhaps mostly because of the steady tourist demand for souvenirs to take home. Fijian carvers make war clubs, spears and cannibal forks. Drinking bowls, or tanoas, are still in daily use in Fijian households. Carvings in areas that have a Polynesian influence (from Tongan and Samoan settlers) feature inlays of shell and bone. Bark cloth, known in Fiji as masi, was traditionally made throughout the Pacific and was usually known as tapa. Ceremonial robes, waistbands, trains and turbans were once made from masi and the cloth was decorated with symbolic motifs in ochre-rusts and charcoal-blacks. The cloth is made from the bark of the mulberry tree and its production is very labourious. Traditionally, large and highly decorated masi cloths were used as ceremonial gifts and there was much prestige associated with their ownership. The weaving of pandanus leaves into mats and baskets has a long tradition, too. Most village girls still learn the craft, and there are all sorts of variations in style and colour (achieved by scraping the leaves, burying them in mud and boiling them with other plants, for example). The borders of pandanus mats used to be decorated with parrot feathers, but these days brightly coloured wool and yarns are used.

Fiji has a small but strong writers' community. Notable figures include Joseph Veramu, who has published a short-story collection called The Black Messiah and a novel called Moving Through the Streets about teenagers in Suva. Playwrights Jo Nacola, whose works include the play I Native No More, and Vilsoni Hereniko, and short-story writer Marjorie Crocombe are also worthy of mention. Fiji-Indians, including Subramani, Satendra Nandan, Raymond Pillai and Prem Banfal write in both Hindi and English, and a central thread in their work is the unjust plight of indentured labourers.