History · Tokelau
Tokelau: Three Atolls and a Choice
Three tiny coral atolls in the South Pacific with no airstrip and no capital — a Polynesian society devastated by 19th-century slavers, administered by New Zealand, and twice offered self-government, which it has twice narrowly declined
By Worldlore Editorial · 30 September 2026
The smallest economy in the world
Tokelau is three coral atolls — Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo — roughly midway between New Zealand and Hawaii, with about 1,500 residents at the 2016 census and no airport: the only way in is a long boat trip from Samoa. It is a non-self-governing territory of New Zealand. It has, by most measures, the smallest economy of any country or territory on Earth, and it is one of the few places to run entirely on solar power. Twice in the 2000s Tokelauans were asked whether they wanted self-government in free association with New Zealand, and twice they came within a few dozen votes of saying yes — and did not.
A short history
- c. 1000 CE onward
Settlement
Polynesians settle the three atolls; each develops its own polity.
- 1765
European sighting
Commodore John Byron sights Atafu; other European ships follow.
- 1845–1863
Missionaries and raiders
Christianity arrives; Peruvian slavers devastate the population.
- 1889
British protectorate
The atolls (then the "Union Islands") come under British protection.
- 1916
Attached to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands
Administered as part of that colony.
- 1926
New Zealand takes over administration
Transferred from the Gilbert and Ellice colony.
- 1948–49
New Zealand sovereignty
Tokelau formally becomes part of New Zealand on 1 January 1949.
- 2006 & 2007
Referendums
Free association narrowly fails to reach the two-thirds threshold.
Atolls and slavers
Polynesians settled the atolls around a thousand years ago, arriving from Samoa, and each atoll developed as a separate community governed by a council of elders (the taupulega) — a structure that still holds almost all local authority. Life was precarious: no fresh surface water, thin sandy soil supporting little beyond coconut and pandanus and breadfruit, and frequent cyclones. In 1863 Peruvian ships engaged in "blackbirding" — labour raiding for the guano islands and plantations of South America — carried off most of the able-bodied men of Fakaofo, Nukunonu and Atafu, around 250 people, almost none of whom returned; most died of dysentery and smallpox. The population collapsed, and the atolls were partly repopulated over the following decades by Polynesian immigrants and by European and American beachcombers who married local women.
Under Britain, then New Zealand
Britain declared a protectorate over the atolls — then called the Union Islands — in 1889 and annexed them in 1916, administering them from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. In 1926 administrative responsibility passed to New Zealand, and a 1948 act of the New Zealand parliament incorporated Tokelau into New Zealand from 1 January 1949, when Tokelauans also became New Zealand citizens. New Zealand governs through an administrator, but has progressively devolved power to the three atoll councils and to the General Fono, a national assembly whose members are elected on each atoll. There has never been a capital: the seat of government rotates annually among the three atolls.
The referendums
Because Tokelau is on the UN list of non-self-governing territories, New Zealand and the territory have jointly explored options for decolonisation. In February 2006 and again in October 2007, Tokelauans voted in UN-observed referendums on becoming a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand — a status like that of Niue and the Cook Islands. Both times a clear majority voted yes (60 per cent in 2006, 64.4 per cent in 2007), but both fell just short of the two-thirds supermajority required to pass; in 2007 the margin was 16 votes. Tokelau therefore remains a New Zealand territory, and no third vote has been held.
Tokelau now
Tokelau's economy is minute: subsistence fishing and farming, copra, handicrafts, postage stamps and the ".tk" internet domain, and — decisively — budget support and services from New Zealand, plus remittances from the much larger Tokelauan community there. In 2012 the territory switched almost entirely to solar electricity. Its existential threat is climate change: with its highest points only a few metres above the sea, Tokelau is among the places most exposed to rising oceans, storm surge and the salinisation of its groundwater.
What Tokelau carries
Tokelau's history is shaped by its size and isolation: a Polynesian society nearly wiped out by slavers in a single year, then rebuilt; administered from ever-changing distant capitals; and finally given a choice about its status that it has twice declined to take, preferring the security of remaining part of New Zealand. The atoll councils still run almost everything, much as they did before any outsider arrived, on three specks of coral that the sea is now rising to meet.