Tokelau Travel Guide

1000

Polynesians reach Tokelau from Samoa

1765

Captain Byron sights Atafu

1841

US Exploring Expedition at Fakaofo

1845

First Christian missionaries arrive

1856

American whaler colonizes Olohega

1863

Peruvian slavers raid Tokelau Islands

1879

Tokelau becomes a British protectorate

1889

Formal British protectorate declared

1916

Tokelau annexed to Gilberts colony

1925

Tokelau transferred to New Zealand

1925

US annexes Olohega to American Samoa

1948

New Zealand assumes full sovereignty

1974

NZ Foreign Affairs assumes authority

1980

US renounces claims to three atolls

1993

Council of Faipule created

1994

Tokelau becomes internally self-governing

2001

Faipule given control of the public service

2005

Independence rejected in first referendum

2007

Independence rejected in second referendum

2009

Tokelau's new flag has a sail and the Southern Cross