[6][2] The Protectorate was administered as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT) until the Solomon Islands became independent in 1978.

A new constitution was introduced in 1974 which established a standard Westminster form of government and gave the Islanders both Chief Ministerial and Cabinet responsibilities.

[2] The formalities in its establishment were carried out by Captain Herbert Gibson of HMS Curacoa, who hoisted the British flag and read Proclamations on twenty-one islands.

[2] In April 1896, Charles Morris Woodford was appointed as an Acting Deputy Commissioner of the British Western Pacific Territories.

[6][2] On 18 August 1898 and 1 October 1898, the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific issued Proclamations which declared (apparently superfluously) that all those islands should "henceforth" form part of the Protectorate.

[2][6] From the establishment of British colonial rule until approximately 1902, Solomon Islanders continued to launch headhunting raids and murder European traders and colonists.

The British responded by dispatching Royal Navy warships to launch punitive expeditions against the villages responsible in an effort to curb such activities.

[6][12][13] In September 1891, several Kalikoqu tribesmen killed a European trader operating on Uki Island named Fred Howard.

[14] In March 1897, the Royal Navy warship HMS Rapid launched a punitive expedition, targeting villages which had been responsible for the murders of European traders and colonists on the islands of Rendova, New Georgia, Nggatokae and Vella Lavella.

[16] The first target of this force was chief Ingava of the Roviana Lagoon of New Georgia who had been raiding Choiseul and Isabel and killing or enslaves hundreds of people.

[19] Malaita was a difficult island to administer as Mahaffy believed that 80 per cent of Malaitan males possessed firearms in the 1900s.

[21] From about 1900, Burns Philp had a dominant role in trade in the region distributing general merchandise and collecting copra.

[22][23] The policy of the colonial officials was to attempt to make the protectorate self-supporting through taxes imposed on copra and other products exported from the Islands.

The long-term interests of the islanders was relegated to a secondary priority as the colonial officials focused on encouraging investment by British and Australian corporate trading companies and individual plantation owners.

However, it was unable to raise sufficient capital to establish plantations because Regulation 3 of 1900 only permitted the issue of ‘Certificates of Occupation’ of the land and not a formal lease.

The Malayta Company operated 7 plantations, and was controlled by the Young family who were associated with the South Seas Evangelical Church.

Tulagi, the seat of the British administration on the island of Nggela Sule in Central Province was destroyed in the heavy fighting following landings by the US Marines.

They became famous when they were noted by National Geographic for being the first men to find the shipwrecked John F. Kennedy and his crew of the PT-109 using a traditional dugout canoe.

[34] Ambassador Caroline Kennedy met John Koloni, the son of Kumana, and Nelma Ane, daughter of Gasa at a ceremony in August 2023 in Honiara to mark the 80th anniversary of the battle of Guadalcanal.

The destruction caused by the fighting and the longer-term consequences of the introduction of modern materials, machinery and western cultural artifacts, transformed traditional isolated island ways of life.

Significantly, the Solomon Islanders' experience as labourers with the Allies led some to a new appreciation of the importance of economic organisation and trade as the basis for material advancement.

Some of these ideas were put into practice in the early post-war political movement "Maasina Ruru"—often redacted to "Marching Rule".

[39][40] In the 1950s, British and Australian government officials contemplated transferring sovereignty of the Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom to Australia.

As a result, a new constitution was introduced in 1974 which established a standard Westminster form of government and gave the Islanders both Chief Ministerial and Cabinet responsibilities.

Solomon Mamaloni became the country's first Chief Minister in July 1974 and the Governing Council was transformed into the Legislative Assembly.