Tonga

Tonga is an island country in Polynesia in Oceania, comprising 171 islands scattered across roughly 700,000 square kilometers of the South Pacific with a total land area of about 750 square kilometers, stretching about 800 kilometers north to south some 1,800 kilometers from New Zealand's North Island, and bordered by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the west, and Niue to the east. Nuku'alofa is its capital and largest city, and the population as of 2021 was roughly 100,000 to 104,000, about 70 percent concentrated on the main island, Tongatapu. Lapita peoples first settled Tonga around 2,500 years ago; it became a British protected state in 1900 and gained independence on 4 June 1970, notably never having ceded sovereignty to any foreign power, making it the only Pacific nation to retain its indigenous monarchy throughout the colonial and post-colonial periods. Tonga transitioned from an absolute to a semi-constitutional monarchy in 2010, and is governed today by King Tupou VI and Prime Minister Fatafehi Fakafanua.