Tuvalu, historically known as the Ellice Islands, is an island republic in the Pacific Ocean's Polynesian subregion of Oceania. Its islands are around halfway between Hawaii and Australia. They are located east-northeast of the Solomon Islands' Santa Cruz Islands, northeast of Vanuatu, southeast of Nauru, south of Kiribati, west of Tokelau, northwest of Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, and north of Fiji. Tuvalu is made up of three coral reef islands and six atolls. They are located between latitudes of 5° and 10° south and longitudes of 176° and 180°. They are located to the west of the International Date Line. Tuvalu's population is 10,507 people (2017 census). Tuvalu's islands have a total land area of 26 square kilometers (10 sq mi).
According to well-established views, the initial residents of Tuvalu were Polynesians who migrated into the Pacific some three thousand years ago. Polynesians routinely traveled by canoe across the Pacific islands long before European contact. Polynesian navigation abilities allowed them to arrange sophisticated voyages in double-hulled sailing canoes or outrigger canoes. Polynesians, according to scholars, moved out from Samoa and Tonga into the Tuvaluan atolls, which subsequently acted as a stepping stone for further migration into Polynesian outliers in Melanesia and Micronesia.
During an attempt to find Terra Australis, Spanish sailor lvaro de Mendaa became the first European to sail through the archipelago in 1568, seeing the island of Nui. In 1819, Funafuti was renamed Ellice's Island. English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay later called the whole group Ellice Islands. In the late nineteenth century, the United Kingdom claimed possession of the Ellice Islands, claiming them as part of their area of influence. Captain Gibson of HMS Curacoa proclaimed each of the Ellice Islands a British protectorate between October 9 and 16, 1892. As part of the British Western Pacific Territories, Britain appointed a resident commissioner to manage the Ellice Islands (BWPT). They were controlled as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 until 1975.
In 1974, a vote was conducted to decide if the Gilbert and Ellice Islands should have their own governance. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony legally ceased to exist on 1 October 1975, and the old government was formally dissolved on 1 January 1976, resulting in the formation of two independent British colonies, Kiribati and Tuvalu. Tuvalu gained complete independence as a sovereign state within the Commonwealth on October 1, 1978, with Elizabeth II as Queen of Tuvalu. Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations on September 5, 2000.
Because the islands lack soil, they depend primarily on imports and fishing for food, with fishing and tourism being the mainstays of the economy. Because it is a tiny, low-lying island nation, the country is especially susceptible to climate change-related sea level rise. As a member of the Alliance of Small Island States, it participates in international climate discussions.