🇹🇰 Tokelau

Tokelau was first settled by Polynesian voyagers from surrounding island groups roughly a thousand years ago.

Archaeological evidence indicates the three atolls were settled about a thousand years ago by voyagers from Samoa. The settlers brought Polynesian mythology and the local god Tui Tokelau, and developed distinctive musical and art forms. The atolls functioned separately in political terms while retaining social and linguistic cohesion under chiefly clans.

The British Navy officer sighted Atafu on 24 June 1765 and landing parties reported no sign of current or former inhabitants. This marked the beginning of European contact with the Tokelau group.

Edwards reached Atafu on 6 June 1791, finding houses with canoes and fishing gear but no residents, suggesting temporary use by fishing parties. On 12 June he sighted Nukunonu, naming it Duke of Clarence's Island, where a landing party saw burial places and lagoon canoes but could not make contact.

Strong and his crew arrived at Nukunonu on 29 October 1825 and found the small settlement's women and children removed to canoes offshore. His account is among the earliest written descriptions of Tokelauan reaction to outsiders.

The United States whaling ship General Jackson recorded a sighting of Fakaofo on 14 February 1835. The naming reflected the pattern of successive foreign labels applied to the atolls before the group's own name prevailed.

The expedition visited Atafu on 25 January 1841, finding a small apparently temporary population with double canoes, blue beads and a plane-iron indicating earlier foreign contact. It reached Nukunonu on 28 January and sighted Fakaofo on 29 January, naming it Bowditch. A French captain, Morvan, also sighted Fakaofo in the same period.

Washington asserted a claim to the atolls under its Guano Islands Act, a claim that remained unresolved for over a century. It was renounced in 1979 when the United States conceded New Zealand sovereignty.

Aided by Swains Island-based Eli Jennings Sr, the traders removed nearly all able-bodied men as labourers; most died of dysentery and smallpox and very few returned. The loss destroyed the existing order and governance shifted to the Taupulega, or Councils of Elders, representing individual families on each atoll. Polynesian immigrants and American, Scottish, French, Portuguese and German beachcombers subsequently married local women and repopulated the atolls.

French Catholic missionaries based on Wallis Island and Protestant London Missionary Society missionaries in Samoa used Tokelauan and other native teachers to spread Christianity. Atafu became Protestant, Nukunonu Catholic and Fakaofo divided between both denominations, a religious geography still visible in modern census returns. The Rev. Samuel James Whitmee of the LMS visited in 1870.

An Order in Council claimed jurisdiction over all unclaimed Pacific Islands, notionally including the Tokelau group. It provided the legal basis for the formal protectorate declared twelve years later.

Oldham landed at each of the three atolls in June 1889 and formally proclaimed the protectorate, at a time when the group was considered a possible staging point for a trans-Pacific telegraph line. The islands were placed under the Western Pacific High Commission, with deputy commissioners in Samoa until 1899 and thereafter in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. No official resided in the islands and visits were infrequent.

The Tokelau Islands (Union Islands) Order in Council, 1916, stated to conform with the desire of the native government, annexed the group with effect from 29 February 1916. Tokelau thereby passed from loose protectorate status into a formal colonial administration.

Tokelau, a British protectorate since 1889, was transferred to New Zealand administration: two Orders in Council made on the same day in 1925 removed the islands from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and placed them under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of New Zealand, the transfer taking effect on 11 February 1926. This began the enduring constitutional link with New Zealand, of which Tokelau remains a territory.

The name Tokelau Islands was formally adopted in 1946, replacing the earlier designation Union Islands. It marked the beginning of official recognition of the indigenous name.

The Union Islands (Revocation) Order in Council, 1948 recited the agreement of the British and New Zealand governments that the islands should become part of New Zealand, and the New Zealand Parliament provided for incorporation through the Tokelau Islands Act 1948. That Act, amended several times since, remains the basis of Tokelau's legislative, administrative and judicial systems.

Incorporation took effect on 1 January 1949. On the same day the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into force, giving Tokelauans who were British subjects New Zealand citizenship, a status they still hold.

On 9 December 1976 the official name was shortened from Tokelau Islands to Tokelau. The change consolidated the territory's indigenous identity in law.

The United States abandoned its Guano Islands Act claims to the three atolls and recognised New Zealand sovereignty, while a maritime boundary was fixed between Tokelau and American Samoa. Tokelau in turn surrendered its claim to Olohega (Swains Island), which had been under United States control since about 1900 and administered with American Samoa since 1925. The treaty settled Tokelau's external boundaries and secured its extensive exclusive economic zone.

Before 1993 the New Zealand-appointed administrator was the highest official and the territory was run directly by a New Zealand government department. The annual election of the Ulu-o-Tokelau shifted political leadership to Tokelauans themselves.

The Act conferred legislative power on the General Fono, Tokelau's unicameral assembly. It marked a decisive devolution of law-making authority to the territory.

The government-regulated service connected the atolls by telephone for the first time, making Tokelau the last place in the world to be linked by phone. It ended the territory's near-total telecommunications isolation.

Reported as moving forward in 2022 with New Zealand funding, the airport plan was cancelled in January 2026, the government citing high costs and adverse environmental impact. Tokelau therefore remains dependent on sea transport for all external access.

The April 2025 expedition surveyed the atolls' environment, home to 38 indigenous plant species, over 150 insect species and 10 land crab species. It added to the scientific basis for managing Tokelau's marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Meta sued Freenom for cybersquatting and trademark infringement on 3 March 2023, halting new registrations, and in November 2023 ICANN terminated the registrar's accreditation over unresolved breaches. Freenom settled with Meta and announced its exit from the domain business by February 2024, and by March 2024 some 99% of its domains were inaccessible. The collapse removed a pillar of Tokelau's revenue base.

Tokelau agreed in 2019 to join the 60 Tbps cable linking Australia, New Zealand and the United States, was physically connected in September 2021 and launched services in July 2022. The link gave the atolls access to 400GbE service to data centres worldwide, a transformation of connectivity for a territory phone-linked only since 1997.

By 2019 rising demand and battery degradation had increased reliance on backup power. Plans were drawn up for a further 210 kW of photovoltaics and close to 2 MWh of lithium-ion storage.

The purpose-built freighter entered service in 2018, replacing chartered freight vessels. It gave Tokelau greater control over its supply chain.

Plans to connect the atolls with Samoa by helicopter were dropped in 2016 because of high costs. The failure prompted renewed appeals to the New Zealand government for help in establishing air services, an airstrip having been considered as early as 2010.

Delivered new in 2016 to replace the smaller MV Tokelau, the vessel carries 60 passengers on international voyages and 120 between the atolls, and is jointly managed with the company Transport and Marine. It sails fortnightly between Tokelau and Apia, a trip of a little over a day, and remains the territory's lifeline link.

The 2016 census showed a 6.2% rise in the usually resident population since 2011, with 44.9% born overseas, mostly in Samoa and New Zealand. In the 2013 New Zealand census more than 7,000 people identified as Tokelauan, almost five times the number living in Tokelau. Religious affiliation was 50.4% Congregational Christian Church and 38.7% Roman Catholic.

Existing four-digit numbers were prefixed with the digit 2 from November 2015 under the international calling code 690. The change expanded numbering capacity for the territory.

New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully confirmed the goal of 100% renewable electricity was met on 7 November 2012, the first of three solar stations having been completed in August 2012. The 930 kWp system uses 4,032 panels and 1,344 lead-acid batteries storing around 8 MWh, and is designed to withstand winds of 230 km/h. Electricity had already been 93% photovoltaic by 2011, with the remainder from coconut oil.

By 2012 income from .tk domain name registrations accounted for about a sixth of the territory's economy, based on free domains pointed at Tokelau name servers with redirection services. A 2016 Nominet analysis using ZookNIC data found .tk to be the world's largest country-code domain, almost as large as China's .cn and Germany's .de combined.

At midnight on 29 December 2011 Tokelau moved from eleven hours behind UTC to UTC+13:00, following Samoa's decision to switch sides of the International Date Line. The change aligned Tokelau's calendar with New Zealand and its main trading and travel partner, at the cost of skipping a day.

The 2011 declaration covered 319,031 square kilometres of ocean. It gave the tiny territory an outsized role in Pacific marine conservation.

Speaking as leader of the National Party, the future New Zealand Prime Minister said New Zealand had imposed two referendums on Tokelau and questioned the assumption that small states should undergo decolonisation. The remarks signalled a shift in the administering power's posture on Tokelau's status.

A second referendum held on 20–24 October 2007 once more narrowly missed the two-thirds threshold for free association with New Zealand. The result entrenched Tokelau's dependent status.

The listing formalised international recognition of Tokelau's undecolonised status. In May 2008 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged administering powers to complete decolonisation in all sixteen remaining territories, including Tokelau.

Voting took place on the three atolls on successive days from 13 February 2006, with Tokelauans in Apia voting on 11 February. Of 581 votes cast, 349 favoured free association, short of the required two-thirds majority, so the territory remained non-self-governing.

Striking in late February and early March 2005, the cyclone coincided with a spring tide that put most of the village areas of Fakaofo and Nukunonu under a metre of seawater. It caused major erosion on several islets, damaged roads and bridges, disrupted power and telecommunications and destroyed banana, coconut and pandanus crops. Nobody was seriously injured, but property losses were heavy, underlining the vulnerability of land nowhere more than two metres above high tide.

On 11 November 2004 the two parties moved to formulate a treaty that would convert Tokelau from a non-self-governing territory into a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand. The initiative framed the two subsequent self-determination referendums.

Fakaofo was connected in September 2003, opening the way for the territory's later reliance on internet-based revenue. By 2012 there were around 120 computers in Tokelau, mostly laptops.