Colonial expansion gave European (and some other) monarchs vast new domains – Queen Victoria, Empress of India, ruled over a fifth of humankind.  But colonial monarchs often displaced indigenous ones.  The leaders to whom colonial invaders were led were frequently emperors, kings, sultans and other hereditary rulers. 

Some were killed in warfare while resisting the foreigners, others remained on their thrones as puppet ‘protected’ rulers, and still others were dethroned and forced into exile.  In this episode of our series, joined by Dr Lorenz Gonschor of the University of the South Pacific, we focus on the islands of Oceania. 

Hereditary monarchs reigned in many islands, especially in Polynesia, before the European incursions, but only one reigning indigenous monarchy survives in the South Pacific today.

Image - Portrait of Queen Pomare IV of Tahiti, Charles Giraud, 1851. (Creative Commons)

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