Fiji
/ˈfiːdʒi
/
A country in the South Pacific consisting of a group of some 840 islands, of which about a hundred are inhabited; population 944,700 (est. 2009); languages, English (official), Fijian, Hindi; capital, Suva.
First visited by Abel Tasman in 1643, the Fiji Islands became a British Crown Colony in 1874 and an independent Commonwealth state in 1970. In 1987, following a coup, Fiji became a republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth, rejoining in 1997
