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Futuna and Alofi were sighted in 1617 by two Dutch navigators. Wallis was visited 100 years later by the British explorer Samuel Wallis. French Roman Catholic missions were established in the islands in 1837, and the indigenous people were converted to Christianity. In 1887 at the request of the kings of the islands a French protectorate was established. The people voted overwhelmingly, in December 1959, for French citizenship and status as an overseas territory, which was granted two years later.

The two island groups in the South Pacific between Fiji and Samoa were settled by French missionaries at the beginning of the 19th century. A protectorate was established in the 1880s. There is a French-appointed high administrator, a 20-member Territorial Assembly, and a deputy and a senator to the French national Parliament. The three traditional Polynesian kings also help decide internal policy matters. Following a referendum by the Polynesian inhabitants, the status was changed to that of an Overseas Territory in 1961.

Archaeological excavations in Wallis have uncovered sites dating back to 1400 BC. The Tongans arrived in the 15th century and took possession of the island after battles which have become legendary.

On 16th August 1767 the English navigator, Samuel Wallis, discovered the island of Uvea which was christened Wallis. In the 19th century many ships called at Wallis to take on fresh supplies. The first Marist missionaries, among whom was Father Bataillon (Wallis island) and Father Chanel (Futuna island), arrived in 1837. On 5th April 1842, the authorities in Wallis requested French protection. During the Second World War a regiment of American soldiers arrived in the archipelago in May 1942, followed by the Free French forces some months later. The Allies thus disposed of a strategic air base in the South Pacific.

Since the archipelago measures only 270 sq Km, many inhabitants of Wallis and Futuna were, in the 1950s, and for economic and demographic reasons, attracted to the plantations and mines of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides (rebaptised Vanuatu). There is therefore a community of Wallisian's in Noumea and over all the Caledonian territory, made up of approximately 17,000 people.

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