page_title: Monarch
section_title: Monarchs in Oceania
hierarchical_section_title: Monarch / History / Monarchs in Oceania
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of King Kamehameha IV painted by William Cogswell, Bishop Museum
context_page_description: A monarch is the head of state in a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the state, or others may wield that power on behalf of the monarch. Usually a monarch either personally inherits the lawful right to exercise the state's sovereign rights or is selected by an established process from a family or cohort eligible to provide the nation's monarch. Alternatively, an individual may become monarch by right of conquest, acclamation or a combination of means. A monarch usually reigns for life or until abdication.
  If a young child is crowned the monarch, a regent is often appointed to govern until the monarch reaches the requisite adult age to rule. Monarchs' actual powers vary from one monarchy to another and in different eras; on one extreme, they may be autocrats wielding genuine sovereignty; on the other they may be ceremonial heads of state who exercise little or no direct power or only reserve powers, with actual authority vested in a parliament or other body.
  A monarch can reign in multiple monarchies simultaneously.
context_section_description: Polynesian societies were ruled by an ariki from ancient times. The title is variously translated as "supreme chief", "paramount chief" or "king".
  The Kingdom of Tahiti was founded in 1788. Sovereignty was ceded to France in 1880 although descendants of the Pōmare Dynasty claim the title of King of Tahiti.
  The Kingdom of Hawaii was established in 1795 and overthrown in 1893.
  An independent Kingdom of Rarotonga was established in 1858. It became a protectorate of the United Kingdom at its own request in 1893.
  Seru Epenisa Cakobau ruled the short-lived Kingdom of Fiji, a constitutional monarchy, from 1871 to 1874 when he voluntarily ceded sovereignty of the islands to the United Kingdom. After independence in 1970, the Dominion of Fiji retained the British monarch as head of state until it became a republic following a military coup in 1987.
  Australia, New Zealand (including the Cook Islands and Niue), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu are sovereign states within the Commonwealth of Nations that currently have Elizabeth II as their reigning constitutional monarch.
  The Pitcairn Islands are part of the British Overseas Territories with Elizabeth II as the reigning constitutional monarch.
  Tonga is the only remaining sovereign kingdom in Oceania. It has had a monarch since the 10th century and became a constitutional monarchy in 1875. In 2008, King George Tupou V relinquished most of the powers of the monarchy and the position is now largely ceremonial.
  In New Zealand the position of Māori King was established in 1858. The role is largely cultural and ceremonial and has no legal power.
  Uvea, Alo and Sigave in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna have non-sovereign elective monarchs.
caption: Kamehameha IV, King of Hawaii
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