The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago compromised of 177 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres scattered over 700,000 square kilometres across the southern Pacific Ocean. The Kingdom of Tonga has a population of 108,000 people, of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu.

Tonga stretches across approximately 800 kilometres in a north-south line direction. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east (which is the nearest foreign territory), Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west. It is roughly 1,800 kilometres from New Zealand's North Island.

Between 1900 and 1970, Tonga had a British protected state status, with the United Kingdom looking after its foreign affairs under a Treaty of Friendship. The country has never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step away from its traditional absolute monarchy and towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections.