This page lists the individual Vanuatu year pages. It only references years after 1980, when the country gained independence.
Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is an island country in Melanesia, located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 km (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.
The history of Vanuatu spans over 3,200 years.
The politics of Vanuatu take place within the framework of a constitutional democracy. The constitution provides for a representative parliamentary system. The head of the Republic is an elected President. The Prime Minister of Vanuatu is the head of government.
Vanuatu maintains diplomatic relations with many countries, and it has a small network of diplomatic missions. Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, the People's Republic of China, South Korea and the United Kingdom maintain embassies, High Commissions, or missions in Port Vila. The British High Commission maintained a continued presence for almost a century, though closed from 2005 until reopening in 2019.
New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium and named after the Hebrides Scottish archipelago, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu. Native people had inhabited the islands for three thousand years before the first Europeans arrived in 1606 from a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in 1774 and subsequently colonised by both the British and the French.
Walter Hadye Lin̄i was a Raga Anglican priest and politician who was the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu, from independence in 1980 to 1991. He was born at Agatoa village, Pentecost Island. On his mother's side, he was a descendant of the high chief Virasangvulu, while on his father's side, he was descended from the famous weaver, Nuenue, as well as from the high chief Viralalau.
The flag of Vanuatu was adopted on 18 February 1980.
Tafea is the southernmost of the six provinces of Vanuatu. The name is an acronym for the five main islands that make up the province: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.
The Vanuatu men's national football team represents Vanuatu in international football, and is controlled by the Vanuatu Football Federation.
Tanna is an island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu.
The president of Vanuatu is the head of state of Vanuatu. The president is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of Parliament and the presidents of the regional councils.
The Parliament of Vanuatu is the unicameral legislative body of the Republic of Vanuatu.
The concept of Melanesian socialism was first advocated by Father Walter Lin̄i of the New Hebrides, who became the country's first Prime Minister upon its independence from France and the United Kingdom in 1980. Lin̄i's views on socialism were inspired by Julius Nyerere's experiments in African socialism in Tanzania.
Rugby union in Vanuatu, formerly known as the New Hebrides, is a popular sport. Vanuatu is a tier three rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby union in 1966 and have yet to make the Rugby World Cup.
The coat of arms of Vanuatu features a Melanesian warrior holding the spear standing before the mountain superimposed on the boar's tusk encircling two crossed namele fern fronds and the golden scroll on the bottom with the National Motto that reads: LONG GOD YUMI STANAP. The Bislama "long" is a preposition derived from the word "along" and has several flexible meanings, "in, on, at," and "with." When used referring to another with personhood, it is generally understood to mean "with ." The original version was designed by Australian artist Rick Frazer in 1980. Since this Vanuatu national symbol does not conform to the rules of heraldry for a traditional coat of arms, then it could be considered a national emblem instead.
The French Republic and the Republic of Vanuatu have long-standing bilateral relations which have varied over the years between tense and amicable. Vanuatu, then known as the New Hebrides, was a Franco-British condominium from 1906 to 1980, and maintained formal relations with both of its former colonial masters after gaining independence. Franco–Vanuatuan relations were rocked by a series of crises in the 1980s, and broke down completely on several occasions, with Vanuatu expelling the French ambassador in 1981, in 1984 and in 1987. Relations improved from the 1990s onwards and, today, France provides development aid to Vanuatu. The two countries also share amicable economic and cultural relations; both are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
The Republic of Vanuatu and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established official diplomatic relations on June 30, 1986 - three months to the day before Vanuatu established diplomatic relations with the United States. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian Federation emerged as its successor state in 1991.
The prime minister of Vanuatu is the head of government of the Republic of Vanuatu.
Squatting in the Republic of Vanuatu is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. After independence in 1980, informal settlements developed in cities such as Luganville and the capital Port Vila. Land in Vanuatu is either custom land owned by indigenous peoples or public land owned by the republic.
Ni-Vanuatu nationality law is regulated by the 1980 Constitution of Vanuatu, as amended; the 1980 Citizenship Act, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Vanuatu. Ni-Vanuatu nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Vanuatu or abroad to parents with ni-Vanuatu nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalisation. Vanuatu has had several programs that grant honorary citizenship by investment. Nationality establishes one's international legal identity as a member of a sovereign nation. Though it is not synonymous with citizenship, for rights granted under domestic law for domestic purposes, the United Kingdom, and thus the commonwealth, have traditionally used the words interchangeably.
