Q 01/05

Before independence, what was Vanuatu called?

A) The New Hebrides

B) The Gilbert Islands

C) The Ellice Islands

D) The Loyalty Islands

Answer · why

A) The New Hebrides

The new name combines vanua ('land') and tu ('to stand'), which the first prime minister glossed as 'a country that has stood alone and will continue ...

Q 02/05

Which explorer named the islands in 1774 after an archipelago off Scotland?

A) William Bligh

B) James Cook

C) Louis Antoine de Bougainville

D) Abel Tasman

Answer · why

B) James Cook

On the same voyage he named New Caledonia after the Latin name for Scotland; Bougainville had called the group the Great Cyclades six years earlier.

Q 03/05

Which navigator reached Vanuatu in 1606 and named its largest island La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo?

A) Ferdinand Magellan

B) Luís Vaz de Torres

C) Pedro Fernandes de Queirós

D) Álvaro de Mendaña

Answer · why

C) Pedro Fernandes de Queirós

The Portuguese captain, sailing for Spain, thought he had found the great southern continent; his colony of New Jerusalem lasted about a month.

Q 04/05

In which year did Vanuatu become independent?

A) 1975

B) 1970

C) 1962

D) 1980

Answer · why

D) 1980

Independence day was 30 July; the country joined the Commonwealth, the Francophonie and the UN soon after.

Q 05/05

From 1906 the islands were run as a 'condominium', an unusual joint colony of which two powers?

A) France and Germany

B) Britain and France

C) Britain and Australia

D) France and Spain

Answer · why

B) Britain and France

There were two police forces, two legal systems and two currencies; locals nicknamed it the 'Pandemonium'.