Colo Wars

Colo Wars

Three Kai Colo men in 1873
Date1871–1873, 1876
Location
Highlands of Viti Levu, Fiji
Result Fijian and British victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Fiji
British Empire
Kai Colo people
Commanders and leaders
The Little War:
Arthur Hamilton Gordon
Louis Knollys
Ratu Luke Nakulanikoro
The Little War:
Mudu, chief of Naicobocobo
Nabisiki, chief of Driodrio
Strength
The Little War:
2,000 soldiers, mostly natives
The Little War:
≥1,200

The Colo Wars (Colo pronounced /ˈθl/) were a pair of wars fought in the interior of the Kingdom of Fiji and later Colonial Fiji between authorities and the Kai Colo in the 1870s. The violence occurred in two waves: one comprised a punitive expedition and related violence in 1871 and 1873 against the Kai Colo for murdering two planters, and the second in 1876 comprised a war called the Little War or The Church War (Fijian: Na Valu ni Lotu) fought in response to growing British control of the Viti Levu interior.