A maritime Polynesian empire centered on Tongatapu and ruled by a sacred lineage of paramount chiefs (Tuʻi Tonga), which exercised tributary influence across much of western Polynesia for nearly a millennium.
The Tuʻi Tonga paramount title declined progressively from c. 1470 CE when secular power was delegated to the Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua line, and later to the Tuʻi Kanokupolu (created c. 1600), which held effective political power by the 18th century; the last Tuʻi Tonga, Laufilitoga (Sanualio Fatafehi Laufilitoga, the 39th holder), died in 1865, after which his nephew surrendered the title's privileges to King George Tupou I, who consolidated it with the Tuʻi Kanokupolu and other titles to establish the modern Tongan Crown, ending the Tuʻi Tonga succession.
The canonical scholarly treatment of how Polynesian chiefly systems like the Tuʻi Tonga developed from Ancestral Polynesian Society.
A comprehensive prehistory of the Pacific Islands, covering Tongan archaeology and the rise of the Tuʻi Tonga maritime sphere.
The standard single-volume English history of Tonga from its origins through the modern kingdom, covering both the Tu'i Tonga era and the constitutional monarchy.
Sweeping archaeological history of the Pacific; synthesises Lapita scholarship within full Pacific prehistory context; revised edition 2017