Vanuatu is formally named the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and also west of Fiji.

Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The very first Europeans to go to the islands were a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós, that arrived on the largest island, Espíritu Santo, in 1606. Queirós claimed the archipelago for Spain, as part of the colonial Spanish East Indies, and called it La Austrialia del Espíritu Santo.

In the 1880s, France as well as the UK claimed parts of the archipelago, as well as in 1906, they agreed on a structure for collectively taking care of the island chain as the New Hebrides with an Anglo-French condominium.

A freedom activity occurred in the 1970s, and also the Republic of Vanuatu was founded in 1980. Because self-reliance, the nation has ended up being a member of the United Nations, Republic of Nations, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as well as the Pacific Islands Forum.