The Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and 900 smaller islands located in the Pacific Ocean. Lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu, the islands were granted independence from the United Kingdom on 7 July 1978 after they were previously occupied by Japan during World War II from 1941 to 1945. From 1998 to 2003, violence broke out between ethnic groups led by warlords, but in July 2003 Australian and Pacific Islander troops arrived in the islands to restore peace. In 2009, the islands had a population of 523,000, with 94.5% being Melanesians, 3% Polynesians, 1.2% Micronesians, and 1.3% others.
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Map of the Solomon Islands