French Polynesia History and Culture: Early Settlement by Martial Moutcho

Author:Martial Moutcho [Moutcho, Martial]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: French Polynesia;French Polynesia History;French Polynesia travel;French Polynesia tourism;French Polynesia immigration;French Polynesia Culture;Pacific Ocean People
ISBN: 9781543127812
Google: eklqAQAACAAJ
Publisher: Createspace
Published: 2017-02-14T23:45:16.902914+00:00

History

This section focuses specifically on the history and development of the area and country now known as French Polynesia. For a discussion of the history of French Polynesia in its broader, regional context.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Marquesas Islands may have been settled about 200 bce from western Polynesia. In subsequent dispersions, Polynesians from the Marquesas migrated to the Hawaiian Islands about 300 ce and reached the Society Islands by about the 9th century. Large chieftainships were formed on Tahiti, Bora-Bora, and Raiatea. Teriaroa, north of Tahiti, was a royal retreat, and Taputapuatea, on Raiatea, was the most sacred shrine in the islands.

European contact with the islands of French Polynesia was gradual. The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sighted Pukapuka Atoll in the Tuamotu group in 1521. The southern Marquesas Islands were reached in 1595. The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722 discovered Makatea, Bora-Bora, and Maupiti. Capt. Samuel Wallis in 1767 reached Tahiti, Moorea, and Maiao Iti. The Society Islands were named for the Royal Society, which had sponsored the expedition under Capt. James Cook that observed from Tahiti the 1769 transit of the Sun by the planet Venus. Cook reached Tubuai on his last voyage, in 1777.

The history of the Society Island groups is virtually that of Tahiti, which was made a French protectorate in 1842 and a colony in 1880. French missionaries went to the Gambier group in 1834, and in 1844 a French protectorate was proclaimed, followed by annexation in 1881. The Tubuai Islands were also evangelized from Tahiti, and as late as 1888 Rimatara and Rurutu sought British protection, which was refused. They were placed under the French protectorate in 1889 and annexed in 1900. The Tuamotus were part of the kingdom of the Pomare family of Tahiti, which came originally from Fakarava Atoll. These islands were claimed as dependencies of Tahiti within the protectorate by France in 1847 and became part of the colony in 1880. In the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva was annexed to the United States in 1813 by Capt. David Porter of the frigate Essex, but the annexation was never ratified. French occupation of the group followed the landing of forces from a French warship, requested by the chief of Tahuata (near Hiva Oa). Soon after there was a quarrel with the French; in 1842 the chiefs ceded sovereignty to France.

The islands were administered as the French Colony of Oceania. The colony was ruled by a naval government until 1885, when an organic decree provided for a French governor and Privy Council and for a General Council, representing the islands, that had some control over fiscal policies. The powers of the General Council, however, were cut back in 1899, and in 1903 it was replaced by an advisory council, which was purely administrative in function. In 1940 the voters on the islands chose to side with the Free French government of Charles de Gaulle, and many islanders fought alongside Allied armies during World War II. French Polynesia was made an overseas territory of France in 1946.

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