Efate

Efate (French: Éfaté), originally named Sandwich Island and also known as Île Vate (French: [il vat]) or just Vate, is an island in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu, and the capital city, Port Vila, is located on the island.

Captain James Cook named the island Sandwich Island in honour of his patron, the Earl of Sandwich, on his 1774 voyage on HMS Resolution.

The island was referred to by its French name, Île Vate, or simply Vate, in newspaper reports in 1950 and 1951, when it was visited by the Royal Navy vessel HMS Havannah

Coconut trees were planted on large plantations by European settlers in the islands in the late 1800s, owing to the growing demand for copra, the dried flesh of the coconut that contains the oil. The first of these coconut plantations was on Efate, planted in 1877.

During the 19th century, Australian, British, French, and German settlers settled in the territory of the New Hebrides. In 1878, the United Kingdom and France declared all of the New Hebrides to be neutral territory. In 1887, the Anglo-French Joint Naval Commission took charge of the territory. On 9 August 1889, Franceville, an area around present-day Port Vila, declared itself an independent commune under the leadership of elected mayor/president Ferdinand-Albert Chevillard, and with its own red, white and blue flag with five stars. It became one of the first self-governing nations in recorded history to practice universal suffrage without distinction of sex or race. However, the new government was soon suppressed, and by June 1890, Franceville as a commune was reported to have been "practically broken up", with the Naval Commission resuming control.

Between 1903 and 1905, one of the first major geological works of Melanesia was produced by Australian geologist Sir Douglas Mawson (later renowned for his expeditions to Antarctica). After spending from April to September 1903 exploring the islands with W.T. Quaife, Mawson produced a report which included geological maps of the islands of Efate and Santo. This was his first major independent geological work. The men travelled to the islands aboard the Ysabel, under the auspices of the British Deputy Commissioner of the New Hebrides, Captain Ernest Rason. HMS Archer was also used on the trip. Mawson's detailed report, "The Geology of the New Hebrides", was published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in December 1905.

In 1906, the naval commission was replaced by a more structured British-French Condominium.

During World War II, Efate served an important role as a United States military base.