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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Tuvalu: Tuvalu (formerly known as the Ellice Islands) – sovereign Polynesian island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Samoa and Fiji. Comprising three reef islands and six true atolls with a gross land area of just 26 square kilometers (10 sq mi) it is the third-least populated independent country in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. It is also the second-smallest member by population of the United Nations. In terms of physical land size, Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City—0.44 km²; Monaco—1.95 km² and Nauru—21 km². Tuvalu’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an oceanic area of approximately 900,000 km2. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians. Therefore, the origins of the people of Tuvalu are addressed in the theories regarding the spread of humans out of Southeast Asia, from Taiwan, via Melanesia and across the Pacific islands to create Polynesia. Tuvalu was first sighted by Europeans on 16 January 1568 during the voyage of Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira from Spain who is understood to have sighted the island of Nui. Mendaña made contact with the islanders but was unable to land. During Mendaña's second voyage across the Pacific he passed Niulakita on 29 August 1595.〔 Captain John Byron passed through the islands of Tuvalu in 1764 during his circumnavigation of the globe as captain of HMS ''Dolphin''. Keith S. Chambers and Doug Munro (1980) identify Niutao as the island that Francisco Mourelle de la Rúa sailed past on 5 May 1781, thus solving what Europeans had called ''The Mystery of Gran Cocal''.〔 Mourelle's map and journal named the island ''El Gran Cocal'' ('The Great Coconut Plantation'); however, the latitude and longitude was uncertain.〔 Longitude could only be reckoned crudely as accurate chronometers were available until the late 18th century. Visits to the islands became more frequent in the 19th century. The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century. The Ellice Islands were administered by Britain as a protectorate as part of the British Western Pacific Territories from 1892 to 1916 and as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony from 1916 to 1974. In 1974 the Ellice Islanders voted for separate British dependency status for Tuvalu, separating from the Gilbert Islands which became Kiribati upon independence. Tuvalu became fully independent within The Commonwealth in 1978. On 17 September 2000 Tuvalu became the 189th member of the United Nations. == General reference == * Pronunciation: * Common English country name: Tuvalu * Official English country name: Tuvalu * Common endonym(s): * Official endonym(s): * Adjectival(s): Tuvaluan * Demonym(s): Tuvaluan * Etymology: From first settlement, eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus the name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan (compare to '' *walo'' meaning "eight" in Proto-Austronesian).. * ISO country codes: TV, TUV, 798 * ISO region codes: See ISO 3166-2:TV * Internet country code top-level domain: .tv 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Outline of Tuvalu」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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