🇨🇰 Cook Islands

The Cook Islands were first settled around AD 1000 by Polynesian voyagers thought to have come from Tahiti, some 1,154 kilometres to the northeast of Rarotonga. This settlement established the Polynesian population and culture that define the nation today.

The Spanish navigator sighted Pukapuka and named it San Bernardo, the first recorded European encounter with the islands. It opened the archipelago to later European charting and contact.

The Portuguese captain in Spanish service set foot on Rakahanga, naming it Gente Hermosa. It was the first recorded European landing in the islands.

The British explorer arrived in 1773 and again in 1777, naming Manuae after Augustus Hervey; the name Hervey Islands later applied to the whole southern group. The archipelago was eventually named in Cook's honour.

The missionary aboard the colonial brig Endeavour sighted Rarotonga, the island that would become the country's population and administrative centre. The first recorded European landing there followed in 1814 by the Cumberland, ending in violence between sailors and islanders.

The Russian admiral referred to the southern group as the Cook Islands in his Atlas de l'Ocean Pacifique. The name later attached to the whole territory after New Zealand annexation.

Missionaries reached the islands in 1821 after several years of no European contact, and Christianity rapidly took hold in island culture. Most Cook Islanders remain Christian today, and missionary wives later introduced crafts such as tivaevae quilting.

From at least 1826, whalers from the United States, Britain and Australia called at Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangaia and Penrhyn for water, food and firewood. This drew the islands into 19th-century Pacific commercial networks.

Following her petition, and amid fears among British residents that France might occupy the islands as it had Tahiti, the Cook Islands became a British protectorate. This placed the archipelago firmly in the British rather than French Pacific sphere.

By 1900 administrative control of the islands had been transferred to New Zealand, which formally annexed them the following year.

On 6 September 1900 leaders petitioned for annexation as British territory, and on 8–9 October seven instruments of cession of Rarotonga and other islands were signed. A British Proclamation accepted the cessions and declared the islands part of Her Britannic Majesty's dominions, though Aitutaki was not included.

An Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act 1895 included the Cook Islands within New Zealand's boundaries, effective 11 June 1901. The Cook Islands have had a formal relationship with New Zealand ever since. The New Zealand parliament also passed the Cook and other Islands Government Act that year.

Five contingents of volunteers reinforced the Māori Contingents and the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Rifles, with the first recruits departing on 13 October 1915. Cook Islanders fought with the Pioneer Battalion at Flers on the Somme in September 1916 and later served in the Sinai-Palestine campaign; many died of disease, and returning men met the influenza epidemic in New Zealand.

The Act defined the area of the Cook Islands and included all the islands presently within the country. It settled the territorial extent of the nation under New Zealand administration.

When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, Cook Islanders who were British subjects automatically became New Zealand citizens. This underpins the enduring free movement of Cook Islanders to New Zealand and the large diaspora there.

A constitution was promulgated on 4 August 1965, ending dependent territory status, as residents opted for self-government in free association with New Zealand — an arrangement that retains the right to move to full independence at any time by unilateral action. Albert Henry of the Cook Islands Party became the first Premier and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and the first Monday in August is celebrated annually as Constitution Day.

The emigration of skilled workers to New Zealand, together with government deficits, has been a continuing problem since the later twentieth century, leaving more Cook Islanders living abroad than at home.

The first Premier led the nation until 1978, when he was accused of vote-rigging and resigned; he was stripped of his knighthood in 1979. Tom Davis of the Democratic Party succeeded him, holding office until March 1983.

The country became an active member of what is now the Pacific Community in 1980. Membership marked its emergence as a participant in regional institutions in its own right.

The prime minister said the Cook Islands did not meet the requirements for UN membership, while the foreign minister said any decision would require a referendum and re-evaluation of the relationship with New Zealand. The statements defined the limits of the country's sovereign ambitions.

The country concluded seabed mineral exploration agreements with both the United States and China in 2025. Balancing the two great powers over its resource wealth placed the Cook Islands at the centre of Pacific strategic competition.

Efforts to join the Commonwealth of Nations as a full member remained ongoing in 2024, but the government could not obtain an invitation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. The episode underlined the ambiguities of the country's international legal status.

On 25 September 2023 the two countries formally established diplomatic relations at a ceremony in Washington DC under Prime Minister Mark Brown. It reflected the country's exercise of an independent foreign policy, having held relations in its own name with 52 countries as of 2018.

Legislation decriminalising homosexuality was enacted in 2023. It marked a significant liberalisation of the country's rights framework.

The SBMA issued exploration licences to three private companies, one of them co-owned by the government. The step advanced the country's ambition to develop deep-sea mineral resources.

The Cook Islander held the region's most senior diplomatic post from 2021 to 2024. His tenure reflected the country's growing weight in Pacific regional affairs.

The 2021 census counted 14,987 people, with 10,863 on Rarotonga. This is far smaller than the Cook Islands populations abroad: 80,532 identified as Cook Islanders in New Zealand's 2018 census and some 28,000 live in Australia.

The 2019 Act established a framework to manage seabed minerals within the country's exclusive economic zone. It laid the legal basis for a potential new resource industry, with three exploration licences for polymetallic nodules granted in 2022.

In March 2019 plans were reported to remove the reference to Captain Cook in favour of a title reflecting the country's Polynesian nature, but the diaspora reacted poorly by May 2019. As a compromise it was decided the English name would remain while a new Cook Islands Māori name would be adopted; discussions continued in 2020.

On 13 July 2017 the government created the Marae Moana marine park, at the time the world's largest protected area by size. It gave the country international standing in ocean conservation across its vast maritime zone.

The country signed the treaty banning nuclear weapons in 2017. The move reflected its increasingly assertive and distinct foreign policy conducted in its own name.

Three vaka councils headed by mayors were established on Rarotonga by the Rarotonga Local Government Act 1997. They were abolished in February 2008 despite considerable controversy.

The 1990 treaty fixed the maritime boundary between the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. It further consolidated the country's control over its extensive exclusive economic zone.

The Pacific-class patrol boat entered service in May 1989 and was refitted in 2015 before withdrawal. It was replaced in 2022 by the larger Guardian-class CIPPB Te Kukupa II, though the government described its forces in 2023 as not in a fit state to meet regional challenges.

From about 1989 the country specialised in asset protection trusts through its International Trusts Act. Offshore banking became a significant element of the economy alongside tourism and pearls.

The country has taken part in the Summer Olympics since 1988, though without winning a medal. Independent Olympic participation reinforced its distinct international identity.

The Outer Islands Local Government Act 1987, amended up to 2004, established island councils headed by mayors on the inhabited outer islands. A Palmerston Island Local Government Act followed in 1993, extending devolved local administration across the archipelago.

The treaty of 11 June 1980 specified the maritime border with American Samoa and relinquished American claims to Penrhyn, Pukapuka, Manihiki and Rakahanga. It secured the northern islands and a vast exclusive economic zone for the Cook Islands.