Place:Tonga

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NameTonga
Alt namesFriendly Islandssource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 1219
Kingdom of Tongasource: NIMA, GEOnet Names Server (1996-1998)
Pule 'Anga Tongasource: Canby, Historic Places (1984) II, 940
Pule'anga Fakatu'i 'o Tongasource: Britannica Book of the Year (1991) p 714; Britannica Book of the Year (1993) p 730
Tonga Islandssource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 1219
TypeCountry
Coordinates20°S 175°W
Contained Places
National district
'Eua
Ha'apai
Niuas
Tongatapu
Vava'u
Unknown
Niuafo'ou
Niuatoputapu
Nuku'alofa
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Tonga (; Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a sovereign state and an archipelago comprising 176 islands scattered over of the southern Pacific Ocean. Fifty-two of these islands are inhabited.

Lengthwise, the Kingdom stretches over a distance of about in a north-south line located about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii.

Tonga also became known as the Friendly Islands because of the friendly reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit there in 1773. He happened to arrive at the time of the inasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the (the islands' paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, the chiefs had wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but could not agree on a plan.

Tonga is the only island nation in the region to have avoided formal colonisation. In 2010, it took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections.

Contents

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How places in Tonga are organized

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All places in Tonga

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Further information on historical place organization in Tonga

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