[21] In 1606, Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandes de Queirós sighted some of the islands in an archipelago he named La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo after Austria and in honor of the Hapsburg monarch, including Espiritu Santo, Gaua, Maewo, Merelava, Merig, Ureparapara, Vanua Lava.
[22][23] He claimed the land for Spain and established a colony on Espiritu Santo on the bay he named Bahía de San Felipe y Santiago, but abandoned the settlement after one month.
[22][25] In 1774, the British navigator and explorer, James Cook made extensive investigations of the area, identifying islands in the north, south, and center of the chain he named New Hebrides.
[32] Discovery of gold in the region and a cotton boom, fueled settlement by British and French subjects, who made private arrangements with the traditional communities to settle in the 1860s.
[35][36] His vigorous efforts to colonise, as well as German expansionism in the Pacific Islands, led to British intervention to halt French annexation in 1882 and 1884, before finally reaching an Anglo-French agreement in 1887 for establishing a joint naval commission to administrate affairs in the Hebrides.
[30][35] The 1887 agreement was designed to protect British and French subjects and their property and did not give authority for intervention in affairs of the indigenous people.
[33] It became evident that without a legal foundation for administrative and judicial functionaries to operate within, disputes could not be settled and tensions would continue.
[47] Parliamentary elections followed in November of that year, and despite political unrest, independence went forward on 30 July 1980, changing the name of the New Hebrides to Vanuatu.
[51] The uniform law, which went into effect on 1 January 1915, required a married woman to derive her nationality from her spouse, meaning if he was British, she was also, and if he was foreign, so was she.
[54] The statute reiterated common law provisions for natural-born persons born within the realm on or after the effective date.
[55] For those born abroad on or after the effective date, legitimacy was still required, and could only be derived by a child from a British father (one generation), who was natural-born or naturalised.
[58] Because of a rise in statelessness, a woman who did not automatically acquire her husband's nationality upon marriage or upon his naturalisation in another country, did not lose their British status after 1933.
[59] The 1943 revision allowed a child born abroad at any time to be a British national by descent if the Secretary of State agreed to register the birth.
[67] The law was extended to the colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion, as well as to Algeria (except to the native population), but not other French possessions.
[68] French nationality law from 1889, remained stable with minor changes to eliminate inequalities between colonial subjects and genders.
[72] Because legal marriage between natives and Europeans was rare in the New Hebrides, or unrecognized by British and French authorities, few wives, or legitimate children were able to claim nationality through their husbands or fathers.
[48] Under the constitution, ni-Vanuatu were defined as anyone who had four grandparents who belonged to an indigenous group of the New Hebrides or persons who had New Hebridean ancestry and were stateless.
[75] Some mixed-race persons remained stateless as they did not have ni-Vanuatu ancestry, though they (or other foreigners) could apply for naturalisation if they had resided in the territory for ten years.
[79] Changes that year to the Citizenship Act were amendments to Section 10, which removed gender distinctions for acquiring nationality through marriage.
[18][84] Each of the programs has provided honorary citizenship to investors, their spouse, and children who contribute to the development of the country.