Episode 2 of 2

Official Cession to Great Britain

When: 13 May 1881
Where: Rotuma Island
Part of: Rotuma cedes to Great Britain, becoming a dependency of the Colony of Fiji

Rotuma was officially ceded to the United Kingdom on 13 May 1881, becoming a dependency of the Colony of Fiji.

The British flag was hoisted by Hugh Romilly on 13 May 1881, marking the formal transfer. This followed the chiefs' 1879 request for annexation due to internal conflicts. The event established Rotuma's political status within the Colony of Fiji, which existed from 1874 to 1970.

Sources

Rotuma Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23
Colony of Fiji Wikipedia, revision of 2025-11-25

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.