A Revolutionary Covenant of God-Willed Freedom and Unified Sovereignty
By Tevita Motulalo
As Tonga marks the 150th anniversary of its Constitution, the ideas and anxieties that inspired its creation remain as urgent as ever.
In the turbulent 19th century, Europe’s empires carved up the Pacific through conquest and colonial charters. Against this tide, the promulgation of Tonga’s Constitution on November 4, 1875, by King George Tupou I (Taufa‘ahau) stood as a revolutionary act of defiance and self-determination. For a Polynesian kingdom long fractured by internal strife and exposed to foreign gunboat diplomacy, its unification under a single law was a bold assertion of sovereignty amid global imperial predation.
Unlike neighbouring islands annexed or puppeted into colonial rule, Tonga codified its rights and preserved its independence. It earned recognition as a modern state through treaties with Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Decades earlier, Tupou had signed a treaty of passage with Napoleon III’s France, followed by a Treaty of Amity with the United States in 1886. Tonga drew lessons from the constitutions of Hawaii, the United States, and Britain—but crafted something distinctly its own.
The key instrument in all this: a Constitution—and a nation built on rules and order, not barbarity.
The Birth of a Nation of Codified Laws
The Constitution transformed a fragmented archipelago of warring clans into a constitutional monarchy grounded in divine freedom and secular justice. Its core themes—individual liberty, national sovereignty, and the inalienability of Tongan land—echo throughout the document.
It begins with a Bill of Rights (Clauses 1–20) grounding freedom in divine intent. Clause 1 declares:
“Since it appears to be the will of God that man should be free as He has made all men of one blood, therefore shall the people of Tonga and all that live in it be free in accordance with the laws of this Constitution.”
This reflects Enlightenment ideals of natural rights but is deeply infused with Wesleyan Christian theology—Taufa‘ahau’s adopted faith—portraying liberty as a divine, pre-political endowment.
John Wesley’s Methodism, born amid Britain’s Industrial Revolution, condemned the excesses of unrestrained private ownership: slavery, usury, and the exploitation of the poor. His maxim—“Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can”—endorsed enterprise but subordinated it to moral duty. Missionaries like Shirley Baker brought this ethos to Tonga, shaping a constitutional vision that rejected imperial-style exploitation while encouraging ethical development.
The Constitution enshrined freedoms of speech and press (Clause 5), religion (Clause 6), assembly, and protection from arbitrary arrest or slavery (Clause 2 explicitly bans it). These established both negative rights—freedom from coercion—and positive rights, such as equality before the law (Clause 4) and access to justice. Together, they fostered individual agency in a society once bound by feudal tribute.
After the Bill of Rights, the Constitution defines a form of government designed to protect these freedoms and secure national sovereignty. A hereditary monarchy—tempered by a Legislative Assembly of nobles, ministers, and elected commoners—balances royal authority with representation. The King swears to uphold the Constitution (Clause 21), while land tenure provisions (Clauses 108–113) ensure that Tongan lands (tofi‘a) remain inalienable to Tongans, preserving communal ties to the soil.
This structure—rights first, institutions second—mirrors Lockean priorities adapted to Tongan hierarchy, preventing absolutism while uniting disparate estates under one crown.
Freedom—From What?
Such emphasis on liberty invites the question: freedom from what?
In Tupou’s era, the world’s great evils were the excesses of ownership and empire. European powers claimed dominion over nations, as Britain did in India or Belgium in the Congo, and individuals traded in human lives for profit. Even today, former empires maintain “possessions” in the Pacific.
Tonga’s Constitution rejected this order. It prohibited slavery and foreign land grabs yet still encouraged enterprise. Chiefs and commoners alike could develop their holdings, fostering economic liberty without surrendering sovereignty—a pragmatic safeguard against the voracious capitalism of the age, guided by Wesleyan restraint.
This codification built upon Tupou’s earlier edicts. The Emancipation Edict of 1862, issued amid civil wars, dissolved the absolute powers of the Eiki (nobles) over their semi-autonomous tofi‘a territories. Declaring that “The people of Tonga shall be free from all forced labor to the chiefs,” Tupou advanced equality under royal law. Yet this was also a strategic act of consolidation: by centralising authority, he prevented renewed inter-clan warfare and foreign exploitation of division—much as tribal conflicts in Africa had invited European intervention.
Thus, liberty in Tonga meant not only personal freedom but protection from external domination—the Constitution’s enduring refrain of unified freedom and sovereignty.
