For centuries before any European ship arrived, the Solomon archipelago was never one place: dozens of distinct Melanesian island communities and language groups held their own land, custom, and leadership, with no single flag or crown to speak for the whole chain. A Spanish expedition passed through in 1568 and left a name, not a colony. Britain's protectorate, declared in 1893, brought the islands under a single administration for the first time — and, a half-century later, onto the front line of the Pacific War, when Guadalcanal became one of the war's costliest and most pivotal battlegrounds.
Independence came peacefully in 1978. The flag chosen that year — a golden diagonal stripe splitting blue from green, five stars standing for the country's five founding provinces — is the one still flown today.
Scope of this page: the territory of the present-day Solomon Islands, pre-1893 to present, three entries. No internal governing split exists within this territory at any point covered here, so the map below is a single-region outline, not a partition. Part of a larger atlas — see the map and linked pages at the bottom.
One archipelago, three eras
The Solomon Islands' own real coastline, traced whole — there is no internal split to draw. Press play, or drag the slider, to watch who flew a flag over the archipelago, era to era.
No internal governing split exists within this territory at any point covered here. Britain's protectorate, declared in 1893 and expanded in stages, treated the archipelago as a single administration from the start, and independence in 1978 kept that same single-territory shape — so this page shows one region, not a partition.
Real traced coastline (Natural Earth 10m); neighboring-territory labels are placed at their real geographic positions using the same projection.
How we know this. 3 of 3 eras on this page carry an evidence panel (2 attested, 1 placeholder image). Only the ones marked attested are confirmed by the sources named under them; where sources disagree or a claim could not be confirmed, the panel says so.
blue-and-green field split by a gold diagonal, five white stars
1978 – present
Independent Solomon Islands
Independent statePeter KeniloreaSecular (no state religion)
Migration & conquest:Emigration: seasonal labor to Australia & NZ (2007–)
Ruling house:House of Windsor
Who & why: the Solomon Islands gain independence from Britain on 7 July 1978, becoming a Commonwealth realm with the British monarch as head of state, represented locally by a governor-general. The new flag, adopted that same year, was chosen from a national design process ahead of independence.
What it represents: a yellow diagonal stripe runs from the lower hoist to the upper fly, dividing the field into a blue upper-hoist triangle and a green lower-fly triangle; the blue stands for the ocean surrounding the archipelago, the green for the land, and the gold stripe for the sun. Five white five-pointed stars in the blue triangle represent the country's five main island provinces at the time of independence — a number that has since grown to nine provinces, with the flag left unchanged.
Attestedhow we know this
Both sources date the current flag to 1977, before this era begins in 1978, so the flag was already in use at the start. Wikipedia's infobox gives the adoption as 18 November 1977; Flags of the World dates it November 1977.
Not established: Only the year the current flag was adopted was compared; the design and the swatch colours were not checked against a specification.
Paint guide
Proportions1:2.
LayoutGold diagonal stripe from lower hoist to upper fly; blue triangle above-hoist, green triangle below-fly; five white stars in the blue triangle.
Blue#1E2F96
Green#2E8B3D
Gold#C9A13C
White (stars)#F4EFE1
Blue Ensign, Union Jack canton, colonial badge disc on the fly
1893 – 1978
British Solomon Islands Protectorate
ProtectorateQueen VictoriaChurch of England (colonial administration)
Migration & conquest:Occupied by: Japan (1942–43)
Ruling house:House of HanoverHouse of Windsor
Who & why: Britain declares a protectorate over the southern Solomon Islands in 1893, chiefly to police labor-recruiting abuses and forestall rival German claims in the region, later expanding it in stages to cover the whole archipelago. The protectorate becomes a major and fierce Pacific War battleground: the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942–43, fought substantially on Solomon Islands soil and in the surrounding waters, ranks among the pivotal, costliest engagements of the entire Pacific War.
What it represents: Wikipedia's table gives the Union Jack for 1893 to 1906; a Blue Ensign defaced with the name of the protectorate and the Tudor Crown for 1906 to 1947; a Blue Ensign with a shield showing a turtle for 1947 to 1956; a Blue Ensign with a quarterly shield on a white disk for 1956 to 1966; and the same without the disk for 1966 to 1977. Flags of the World's historical pages agree on the succession of Blue Ensign badges (a crown with the name from about 1906, a turtle shield on a white circle from 1947, a new badge from 1956) but start at about 1906 for the ensign. The page's single design therefore stands for several badges. Wikipedia says the present flag was ratified on 18 November 1977, replacing the Blue Ensign, and does not describe a separate 1978 flag.
Attestedhow we know this
Wikipedia's table: Union Jack 1893-1906; Blue Ensign with the protectorate's name and the Tudor Crown 1906-1947; Blue Ensign with a turtle shield 1947-1956; Blue Ensign with a quarterly shield on a white disk 1956-1966 and without the disk 1966-1977; the present flag ratified 18 November 1977. FOTW's historical pages: Blue Ensign badge 'BRITISH SOLOMON ISLANDS' around a crown c.1906-1947, replaced in 1947 when arms were granted by a red shield with a turtle on a white circle (Gresham Carr 1953), replaced again in 1956, with a 1956-1966 Blue Ensign; the official title was British Solomon Islands Protectorate until 1975.
Not established: The page's single Blue Ensign with a badge disc stands for several different badges across the span, and Wikipedia's Union Jack for 1893-1906 is not in FOTW (which starts c.1906 and a Resident Commissioner's ensign c.1902); the description of the turtle badge is internally inconsistent in Wikipedia (shield vs disc) and the 1966-1977 variant is Wikipedia-only.
Paint guide
Proportions1:2.
LayoutBlue field, Union Jack canton, round colonial badge disc centered on the fly.
Blue#00247D
White#F4EFE1
Red#A4302A
Badge ring, gold#C9A13C
placeholder — pre-contact and early-contact era, no single flag
pre-1893
Indigenous Melanesian Solomon Islands communities
Indigenous nations, pre-contactNo single ruler documentedTraditional Melanesian religions (no single state faith)
Migration & conquest:Emigration: blackbirded labor to Queensland & Fiji (1870s–1904)
Who & why: for centuries before European contact, the archipelago was home to distinct Melanesian communities and language groups, each with its own land, leadership, and custom, and no single overarching polity uniting the islands. Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña sailed through in 1568 and named the islands after a rumor, taken at the time as fact, that they held the source of King Solomon's biblical gold — a rumor that drew no lasting Spanish settlement. For centuries afterward, into the colonial era, the islands remained under the control of their own communities.
What it represents: no securely documented flag survives from this era, and none is invented here to stand in for one; a passing name given by a foreign expedition is not a flag, and the archipelago's own distinct Melanesian communities used no single territorial banner of their own. Shown here honestly blank.
Placeholder imagehow we know this
This page's own caption calls the image a placeholder: «placeholder — pre-contact and early-contact era, no single flag».
Not established: Whether a flag, banner or standard existed in this period was not checked. The colour shown is not evidence of one.
Paint guide
ProportionsN/A — no attested flag.
Reading the tags
Indigenous nations, pre-contact — no single flag, no colonial rule
Protectorate — under a foreign power's protective administration
Independent state — sovereign under its own government
Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start
State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's
Find the records
Family history research for Solomon Islands lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.