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The Solomon Islands Were Once Considered The Most Dangerous Place On Earth
And it had nothing to do with WWII
The first European to land on the Solomon Islands was Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. The Spaniard reached the remote land in 1568 via Peru. With a healthy dose of religious occultism and on-the-spot myth-making, de Neira convinced himself that these islands produced the gold that adorned Solomon’s Temple. And thus the name, Solomon’s Islands.
He explored the islands in 1568 and returned to Peru with his tale. He would not return until 1595 when he sought to establish a Spanish colony in the islands but the endeavor failed. Poor relations with the natives and a host of endemic tropical diseases quickly snuffed out the colony.
After the Spanish failed to secure a colony in the Solomons European contact with the remote island chain was scarce. Save for a few desperate stops and a few possible sightings no measurable European presence materialized until 1767 — nearly 200 years after initial contact was made.
That is how the history of the Solomon Islands has gone since 1568. Sparse attention is given to the inhospitable island chain punctuated by periods of exploitation and violence before the attention again fades away.
