The Northern Solomons were the more northerly group of islands in the Solomon Islands archipelago over which Germany declared a protectorate in 1885. Initially the German Solomon Islands Protectorate included Choiseul, Santa Isabel, the Shortlands and Ontong Java Islands, but in 1900 these islands were transferred to the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (1899-1978). The largest of the Solomon Islands, Bougainville, continued under German administration until the first world war when it fell to the Australians, and after the war, it formally passed to Australian jurisdiction under a League of Nations mandate.