Tokelau is a non-self-governing colonial territory of New Zealand that comprises a group of three tropical coral atolls in the South Pacific Ocean. The islands are occasionally referred to by Westerners by an older colonial name, The Union Islands. Until 1976, the official name was Tokelau Islands. Tokelau lies near ► Kiribati, ► Samoa, ► American Samoa, ► Tuvalu and the ► Cook Islands.
Short name
Tokelau
Official name
Tokelau
Status
► New Zealand overseas territory, New Zealandian since 1926.
Location
Pacific Ocean
Capital
None, each atoll has its own administrative centre
Population
1,499 inhabitants
Area
12 km²
Major language(s)
English and Tokelauan (both official)
Major religion(s)
Congregational Christian Church, Roman Catholicism
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day Tokelau, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day Tokelau.
Before 1600 an independent state of Fakaofo is formed in the archipelago that is now Tokelau. Beside Fakaofo also Nukunonu and Atafu become later independent. The British explorer John Byron discovers the Tokelau Islands in 1765. When Peruvian slave traders target the islands, this leads in 1877 to a British protectorate of Tokelau. In 1916 Tokelau becomes as Union Group part of the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. The islands come under New Zealand administration in 1926 and are incorporated into Western Samoa in 1948. In 1962 the Union Group becomes a separate New Zealand dependency and in 1976 the islands are renamed Tokelau.
Satellite maps
Satellite map of Tokelau
Notes and references
General remarks:
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.
