In the late 19th century, Great Britain claimed control over the Ellice Islands, designating them as within their sphere of influence as the result of a treaty between Great Britain and Germany that demarcated their respective spheres of influence in the Pacific Ocean.

Later, after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay, the name Ellice began to be applied to the whole nine-island group. The island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island in 1819. In 1568, Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña became the first European to sail through the archipelago, sighting the island of Nui during an expedition he was making in search of Terra Australis. Scholars believe that the Polynesians spread out from Samoa and Tonga into the Tuvaluan atolls, which then served as a stepping stone for further migration into the Polynesian outliers in Melanesia and Micronesia. Polynesian navigation skills enabled them to make elaborately planned journeys in either double-hulled sailing canoes or outrigger canoes.

Long before European contact with the Pacific islands, Polynesians frequently voyaged by canoe between the islands. The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesians, according to well-established theories regarding a migration of Polynesians into the Pacific that began about three thousand years ago.