During our NYE celebrations I jotted down a quick note mid-conversation; something to look up at a later time: New Hebrides Island.
TIL modern day Vanuatu was named New Hebrides, after the Hebrides in Scotland, by Captain James Cook in 1774. Although the Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in 1606, followed by the French in 1768.
Interestingly, before independence in 1980, and becoming the Republic of Vanuatu, New Hebrides was a colonial territory administered under a condominium of three separate governments: Britain, France and a joint administration that was partially elected after 1975. This meant that there were two bureaucracies and two legislations (including police force, laws, currency, etc.) and that inhabitants could select which government and laws they wished to observe.
