Only eight of the islands are inhabited.
Tourism is extremely important to the economy.
The Society Islands were visited in 1767 by the English navigator Samuel Wallis, who claimed them for Great Britain. A year later, however, the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville established a French claim. They were named the Society Islands in 1769 by Capt. James Cook . The group became a protectorate of France in 1843 and a colony in 1880.