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History
The Early Polynesians
Three thousand five hundred years ago some Southeast Asian explorers set out from the area of Malaysia and Indonesia on a migratory trek which would lead them to make the many islands of Polynesia their home. Great voyagers, they sailed their huge double-hulled canoes far and wide, steering with huge paddles and pandanus sails.
Perhaps the most famous alternative theory, expounded by the adventurer Thor Heyerdahl, is that Polynesians may also have migrated from South America. His theory was given at least some credence by the successful crossing of his Kon-Tiki expedition from Peru to French Polynesia in 1947.
They navigated by the sun, stars, currents, swells, winds, clouds, and birds. The first Polynesian islands settled were Tonga and Samoa; the oldest known dwelling site on Tongatapu dates from 1200 BC.
Around the time of Christ they pushed out into the eastern half of the Pacific from this primeval area remembered as Havaiki. About AD 300 they reached the Marquesas from Samoa, and somewhere around AD 500 they sailed on from the Marquesas to Hawaii and Easter Island. They were on the Society Islands by AD 800 and sailed from there to the Cooks and New Zealand around AD 1009, completing the occupation of the Polynesian triangle.
When for some reason, whether tribal warfare or overpopulation, Polynesians had to settle elsewhere, they put their families, worldly goods, plant cuttings, animals and several months worth of supplies of food into their canoes and set sail to find new homes.
Through radiocarbon dating techniques and comparative studies of artifacts, scientists pinpoint the settlement of Tahiti and its neighboring islands at around 830 AD.
The most visible (but certainly not the earliest) traces of pre-European Tahitian culture are the stone remains of open-air temples called marae. Marae are found on all the Society Islands but are most abundant on Huahine. The most important marae (a national monument) is Taputaputea on Raiatea, which was the most prominent political and religious center in the Society Islands.
From the European Explorers to This Day
What is now French Polynesia extends over such a large area that it took several explorers and many years to discover and chart all the islands.
The Spanish and the Dutch were first, making daring voyages through certain archipelagoes during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1767, English Capt. Samuel Wallis was the first European to discover Tahiti. Bougainville followed in 1768, Capt. Cook in 1769 and Capt. Bligh, of "Bounty" mutiny fame, in 1788.
Tahiti was ruled by the Pomare dynasty until 1880, when the islands became a French colony. In 1957, French Polynesia became a French Overseas Territory and has been internally autonomous since 1984.
As such, it is headed by a High Commissioner representing the French Republic, in charge of external relations, Justice, Defense and Currency. The legislative body is the Territorial Assembly, consisting of 41 members elected by popular vote. This body elects the president of the government and head of the Territory, who chooses his 10 ministers.
French Polynesia also elects one representative to the French Senate and two
representatives to the French Parliament.
"Text from Moon Handbooks: Tahiti
http://www.southpacific.org/tahiti.html
by David Stanley (used with permission)."
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