Choiseul Island

The island of Choiseul, traditionally called Lauru, located in the homonymous province north of the Pacific island nation of the Solomon Islands. It is bordered on the south by the Solomon Island Santa Isabel, in the north of the island of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea).

Choiseul is one of the largest of the Solomon Islands. The elongated island has a land area of ​​3294 km ²; highest point is 1,067 m, Mount Maetambe in the densely forested interior of the island.

By the Samoan Treaty ( 1899), the Germans gave up their rights to parts of the southern Solomon Islands and Choiseul fell to Great Britain.

1999 Choiseul had around 20,000 inhabitants. They usually live in small villages on the east and west coasts; Capital is Malevangga in the north.

History

1568 sighted the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra northwest before Santa Isabel a large island, which he called San Marcos. However, he did not land on the island, which is probably were Choiseul. Due to a mapping error, this was only rediscovered in 1768 by the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville for Europe. He named it after the then French Foreign Minister Étienne- François de Choiseul.

Choiseul, together with the islands of taro, Vaghena and Rob Roy a province of the independent State since 1978 Solomon Islands.