湯加,又譯東加,全名湯加王國(The Kingdom of Tonga),一個位於太平洋西南部赤道附近、由172個大小不等的島嶼組成島嶼國傢,西距斐濟650公裏,西南距新西蘭1770公裏,面積約有699平方公裏,人口為100673人(2001),人口密度相當高。1845年,湯加王國由多個島嶼聯合而成,在1875年行君主立憲製至今,1900年開始成為英國的保護地,最後於1970年6月4日獨立,為聯合國第188個成員國。湯加是現今在南太平洋衆島國中唯一維持君主製的國傢。2008年7月29日,湯加國王圖普五世表示會將權力交給國會,放棄權力,走嚮民主。
Tonga (pronounced /toŋa/), officially the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprises 169 islands, 36 of them inhabited, and stretches over a distance of about 800 kilometres (500 miles) in a north-south line. The islands that constitute the archipelago lie south of Samoa, about one-third of the way from New Zealand to Hawaiʻi.
Tonga also became known to geographers as the Friendly Islands because of the friendly reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He happened to arrive at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga, the islands' paramount chief, and received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, in reality the chiefs had wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but were unable to agree on a plan.
Tonga, the only sovereign monarchy among the island nations of the Pacific Ocean, has a unique history as the only island nation in the region to have avoided formal colonisation.