History of French Polynesia
3000 BC: Peoples of the South Pacific from Southeast Asia and confirmation of occupation of territory from the presence of plants, pig and dog.
2000 BC: Beginning of the colonization of Polynesia and maohi use as a common language.
1300 BC: Introduction of Lapita pottery in Western Polynesia (Tonga and Samoa)
Discovery of part of the Tuamotu by Magellan :Discovery of the Marquesas Islands by the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana of Neira
Real connection takes place between Europeans and Polynesians and caused a disruption of political, economic and social populations. Christianisation by the Protestant and Catholic missionaries led to the abandonment of traditional religious practices and ceremonial places called "marae".
1722: Discovery of Society Islands (This is James Cook who, in 1769, explores the islands around Tahiti and baptizes all Archipelago of the Society "in tribute to the Royal Society of London, which financed the shipment) by the Dutch .
Discover Maupiti by Jacob Roggeveen.
1765: Discover the latest Tuamotu islands by the British John Byron
1767: Exploring Tahiti by the Englishman Samuel Wallis on the "Dolphin"
1768: Taking possession of the island of Tahiti (then named New Cythera) in Bougainville on behalf of France.
1769: Exploring Tahiti by Cook on his first voyage aboard the "Endeavor"
1773 and 1777: Second and last voyage of Cook in Polynesia:
1789: Mutiny of the Bounty "
1790: Installation of whalers and traders in the Australian islands: presence of prostitution and alcohol;
Conquest of the island by Pomare 1st (1745-1803);
1797: Establishment of the dynasty "Pomare" by the head HaPayis (Tu-Vaira'atoa) and arrival of the missionaries of the London Missionary Society (LMS)
1791: discovery of the northern Marquesas by the American Joseph Ingraham.
1800: End of Lapita pottery
1815: Victory of Pomare II (1774-1821), converted to Christianity, the Polynesian chiefs at the Battle of Fe'i Pi
1818: Foundation by Cook in Papeete
1819: Promulgation of the Code of Pomare, a code of laws of Christian influence by Pomare II
1821: Death of Pomare II and the reign of Pomare 111 from 1821 to 1827.
1827-1877: Reign of Queen Pomare IV
1836: Expulsion of French Catholic missionaries from Tahiti by the English Protestants
1842: Signing of recognition of the Treaty of French Protectorate by the heads of Tahiti in French king Louis-Philippe on the initiative of Dupetit Thouars
1844-1847: French-Tahitian war.
29/06/1880: Annexation of Tahiti (now a French colony) and dependence in France during the reign of King Pomare V (1839-1891)
1903: 500 deaths caused by a cyclone in the Tuamotus;
Change in status of the 5 archipelagos now identified as the French Establishments in Oceania (EFO).
22/12/1914: Bombing of Papeete by two German cruisers.
1918: Spanish Flu Epidemic of the Islands of the Company.
1946: Polynesia becomes a French Overseas Territory-Mer
.
1957: French Polynesia, new name of EFO (French Establishments in Oceania)
1958: Polynesia, now a French territory overseas, membership confirmed by 65% of the population.
20/10/1959: Trials of autonomist leader Pouvanaa.
15/10/1960: Inauguration of the International Airport Faa'a (Tahiti)
1963: Installation of Nuclear Experimentation Center of the Pacific.
28/11/1980: The Tahitian, the official language of French Polynesia.
1984: Status of internal autonomy.
27/01/1993: Agreement Pact Progress.
1996: End of French nuclear testing;
12 April 1996: Statute of Autonomy of French Polynesia;
1997: El Nino causes hurricanes that devastated several islands.
1998: Creation of Air Tahiti Nui, an international airline
1999: Elections of representatives to Parliament.
2001: Advancing the independence elections.
2004: The territory, the first overseas countries French;
Gaston Flosse defeated by a coalition of independence and autonomy, led by Oscar Temaru and return to power in October Flosse.
2005: New Gaston Flosse defeat and return to PresidentC of Polynesia Oscar Temaru.
2006: Removal of Oscar Temaru and election on 27 December, Gaston Tong Sang as president of French Polynesia.
2007: Coalition between Flosse and Temaru for a motion involving the collapse of Tong Sang, 31 August 2007, which established on 1 October, his own party: O Porinetia To Tatou Ai'a or Polynesia, our homeland.
7 December 2007: Act makes French Polynesia communities overseas (COM) with broad political autonomy.
2008: Rebound, political prevarication and return to the Presidency (April 15) with a relative majority of Gaston Tong Sang to the presidency.
More about the French Polynesia’s history
Tahiti was discovered on 17 June 1767 by the English navigator Samuel Wallis. The excessive interest Tahitians for metal parts of the Dolphin (ship Wallis) forced the crew to use its guns.
In April 1768, the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville "rediscovered" Tahiti which he named New Cythera in tribute to the tremendous reception he received. It was the time of the myth of the "noble savage" dear Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Between 1769 and 1779 the famous English explorer James Cook landed three times the shores of Tahiti. Assisted by botanists (including Banks will play a role in the history of the Bounty), astronomers, designers ... Captain Cook was on a mission of exploration of the Pacific. The aura Cook with Tahitian was immense. William Bligh and Fletcher Christian, knew this play will influence the Tahitian ...
In 1789, 22 years after its discovery, the sailors of the Bounty in turn discover the charms of the South Seas ... At that time the company had a Tahitian social and political organization very complex: different families to share power and territory, relations were based on reports from parents and the use of weapons. Pomare knew the advantage of the crossing of Cook and the presence on their land sailors of the Bounty to take the ascendancy over the other clans and impose their laws.
Thereafter Protestant missionaries, captains of vessels, merchants, imposed a Western presence growing on the island. Their presence brought a series of plagues on the local epidemics, alcohol, tribal wars, prostitution ... The people in Tahiti who had 70 000 people from the time of Cook, had no more than 8 568 in the census of 1848. It was not until the late nineteenth as medical doctors from the navy managed to restore a positive population growth.
Under the influence of the chief Pomare II the early nineteenth century witnessed the rise of evangelism, under the leadership of Protestant pastors English. After the death of Pomare II, a movement grew to trace ancestral customs. In 1842, Pomare IV accepted a French protectorate. Tahiti becomes a French colony in 1881 under Pomare V. During the nineteenth century Chinese immigration to offset the
shortage of labor for the plantations grew.
During the First World War more than 1000 tahitiens were mobilized, and Tahiti had to defend against the German fleet in the Pacific. The first half of the twentieth century was marked by the trade in copra, pearl and especially of phosphates. Again the Tahitians participated in the Second World War.
Tahiti in 1946 received the status of Overseas Territories. The years 1950-1970 saw the decline of the mining of phosphates and the installation of the CEP (Center for Experimentation du Pacifique) in Mururoa. The nuclear tests were abolished in 1992, on a cultural revival led by the youth Tahitian anxious to return to its sources (culture, language, folklore, tattoos ...).
Consequences of the mutiny on TAHITI
The long presence (6 months) from the crew of the Bounty during transplanting breadfruit trees, and then forced the stay (more than 1 year) of seafarers by the escaped mutineers on Pitcairn will guide the future political and social the island of Tahiti.
As in the passage of Cook, the head Tahitian Tu-Tina-Mate (Head of Pare-Arue) takes advantage of the excellent wetting Matavai to keep the English on its territory. Thus it can use the presence of these men and their firearms, to assert its authority over the other clans of the island and increase its sphere of influence. Bligh provides even Tu-Tina-Mate of firearms and ammunition.
During the second period of the presence of sailors on the Bounty, after having first paid their weapons, the men of the Bounty finally took part in the struggles between clans supporting the brother of Chief Tu-Tina-Mate.
Thus began the Pomare dynasty, followed by Pomare II, son of Tu-Tina-Mate, which allowed the introduction of Christianity on the island.
What happen after?
The act of annexation was signed on 29 June 1880 by King Pomare V of the Society Islands a French colony that forms with the Marquesas Islands and the Tuamotu French Establishments in Oceania.
In 1946 these islands take the status of overseas territories and French Polynesia in 1958 was born in 2004 to become a Country of Outremer French.
The beginnings of settlement of French Polynesia
The most recent data from archeology, combined with research in linguistic and genetic evidence that human migration from Asia to Oceania were conducted on 50 000 years.
First of all, 40 000 years ago, Australia which hosts its first inhabitants - the Aborigines today - while it is still welded to the current New Guinea. Sea level is lower today because of the glacial period, many portions of land then permitted the mass movement of human populations, as well as animals and plants.
The ancestors of the current Oceanians island have in the past four millennia, is strain on the various islands of the Pacific, still free from any human presence. These newer immigrants have established their civilization from Indonesia to Easter Island and up to Hawaii. They belong to the same linguistic family and cultural, of Austronesian, which is now divided into three major geographical groups in the Pacific: the Polynesians to the east, the Micronesians to the north-west and further south, the Melanesians .
The Origins of the history of Polynesia
The origin of the Polynesians has long allowed free rein to contradictory theories. Some have tried to demonstrate an American, but the hypothesis remains the most likely today is that of an Asian roots dating back more than 6 000 years.
The Asian origin is confirmed by evidence botanical, zoological and linguistic. In the case of plants, it appears that the plant food (taro, nonos) cultivated by the ancient Polynesians were introduced by them in the Pacific Islands. They are from Southeast Asia. Of plants, other than interest, were also carried in the Pacific Islands.
The linguistic data also confirm the Asian origin of these populations. Some 1 800 different languages spoken in Oceania are three completely different major groups: those of Australian languages, Papuan and Austronesian. They derive mainly spoken by men who migrated from Asia 40 000 years ago or so, began to populate the area.
Apparently, according to the most accepted theory that the peoples of the Pacific by the Polynesian people is, there are nearly 4000 years, as a result of widespread migration in Southeast Asia. The colonization of the archipelagos took place between 1000 BC and 1000 AD by daring mariners traveling on double canoes (windsurfing) and wood from South East Asia. These migrations were truly epic with more than 200 people with animals and plants on their boats. Their companies are then differentiated according to their adaptation to the environment while keeping the characteristics common to all: religion, daily practices, material culture, forms of artistic expression.
Thus was born around the year 850 of our era the "Polynesian triangle" composed of the Hawaiian Islands to the north, Easter Island in the south-east and New Zealand in the south-west where people employed language from the language ma'ohi. The Marquesas Islands were inhabited around the year 300 followed much later by the Society Islands in 600. In the meantime, Easter Island was discovered in 400 AD when the qu'Hawaii will be a century later.
Before the arrival of Europeans, Polynesians were often at war because of the presence of several local chiefs. Engaged in cannibalism, they killed the leaders captured after a battle or a war to eat a piece of the flesh of the rival to take the "mana", a so-called power held by the nobility and giving universal supernatural force.
In the sixteenth century, Magellan and Alvaro Mendana respectively visited the archipelago of Tuamotu and the Marquesas. Pedro Fernandes de Queiros made the discovery of the islands in 1595, leaving few traces of his passage. His next voyage in 1605 and in 1606 he was able to make some observations on the islands of the Tuamotu archipelago that explored the Dutch in 1616 and whose English John Byron discovered the latest patches.
Three major browsers: Wallis, Bougainville and Cook
Three sailors deserve to be tied to the history of Tahiti: Samuel Wallis (1728-1795), Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811) and James Cook (1728-1779). They helped make the myth around these islands. The conversations revolved around the sex was not taboo for Polynesians: women were naked and danced naked. However, trade in nails for the manufacture of hooks in exchange for sexual favors of women began to turn to prostitution.
On board the ship Dolphin, Samuel Wallis discovered Tahiti on 17 June 1767. The following week, he decided to take the place of force which he named "the island of King George." Barter practiced among members of the crew and the local population was composed of nails against provisions and Polynesian sexual favors, favors which were so enjoyable that the sailors had begun to pull nails the ship.
As for Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, he headed to Tahiti aboard two ships named the Star and Boudeuse. The area visited in 1768 it seemed a paradise on earth. He made an idyllic vision in his diary while describing women inviting foreign mariners to love.
James Cook is the most important browsers. His ship named "Endeavor" cast anchor in the bay of Matavai, 13 April 1769. His three voyages he was able to establish fairly detailed maps of the region. During his second voyage (1772-1775) in Tahiti in which he blamed the "New Cythera" he embark Omai, a young Polynesian for England and returned home the following year.
The mutiny on the Bounty
On 26 October 1788, the Bounty, English ship, which Captain William Bligh entered Matavai Bay. The frigate HMS Bounty is chartered by the Admiralty to join french Tahiti in order to reap plans breadfruit tree, a plant that wanted to acclimate in the English colonies of the West Indies (more specifically in Jamaica) to to feed the slaves. After a stay of five months in Tahiti, the crew did not want to leave. Deal with bullying and reprimands often used by the master, a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, broke on 28 April 1789. Captain William Bligh was abandoned at sea in a boat with 18 loyal men. They managed to reach the coast of Timor, Indonesia.
The rebels split into two distinct groups: one group remained in Tahiti, while Fletcher and his companions left with their Tahitian women on a deserted island called Pitcairn. The Navy came to try members of the group from Tahiti to bring them back to England. Today, the descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty still live on Pitcairn Island, the only British colony in the Pacific Ocean and the political entity the least populous of the world if one refers to the fifty people in the island.
As for William Bligh, he returned to England to be paid while the fate of the mutineers remained in Tahiti was less happy: one died the following year in the sinking of the "Pandora" frigate of the Navy to charter find and bring back the rebels. As survivors, they were judged while the other fugitives from Tahiti were never found.
Dynasty "POMAR"
Given the belief in various gods, the island gradually evangelized by missionaries Protestants and Catholics. Divided into several kingdoms, the islands of Polynesia will see one of these heads to prevail in 1797 to establish its supremacy with the support of the British and create "Pomare dynasty.
The crisis of succession
King Pomare V was the country's history by signing on 29 June 1880, the act of assembly of his kingdom to France. He put "completely and forever in the hands of France, the government and administration" of its states. It is promised in return that France must continue to "govern our people, taking into account the laws and customs Tahitian.
France and Polynesia
The Polynesian islands were annexed and colonized by France during the nineteenth century, following the signing of the contract between the son of Queen Pomare (Pomare V) and France. It was until 1958 called the "French Establishments in Oceania."
After decades of Franco-British rivalry, France established its influence gradually from 1842 to lead in 1880 to the surrender of the country to France.
Despite the Franco-Tahitian Polynesians kept the essential elements of their culture (common origin, belonging to a civilization, attachment to land, land reminding the individual to which community he belongs) and especially their language.
From 1843 to 1900, the French have become militarily to the annexation of the Marquesas Islands, the Channel Islands Under-the-Wind, the Gambier Islands and Austral
These territories were unified in 1903 under the name of EFO (French Establishments of Oceania). On 22 September 1914, the Germans attacked Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, with two cruisers. The market of Papeete was destroyed and there were two deaths.
In the twentieth century it was a powerful economic, Tahitian vanilla, cotton, copra, fruit, etc).
With vaccination campaigns and the mass treatment, the demographic decline of the population ceased around 1930, notably through the exploitation of phosphates Makatea, atoll located 210 km from Tahiti.
during the Second World War, there are still guns on the spot.
During the two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945), Tahiti and many island will join France to support the troops thereof. The first Battalion of the Pacific "was formed in 1916 when thousands of soldiers were sent on Polynesian fronts of the East as well as the Battle of the Marne. During the second world war, a military base was established in Bora Bora (the visitor can still see the guns)
In 1958, the EFO (French Establishments in Oceania) became French Polynesia before starting the road to modernity: Inauguration of Faa'a International Airport in 1960, implementation of the Center for Experimentation du Pacifique (CEP) in 1963, arrival of the inhabitants of islands to Tahiti, increased living standards, beginning of a consumer society, development of the tertiary sector and local businesses.. Between 1960 and 1970, money flowed like water in Tahiti. it was during this period that moved. the "myth" of vahinés (women), sun, floral shirts and islands.
Polynesian civilization and its decline
Polynesians were not protected against diseases of explorers and other sailors as pirates and whalers. Traders exchanged against alcohol and weapons for food and sex. There had been a development of "love" as well as refineries alcohol. A climate of violence.
Contemporary History
The first European visitors were in the sixteenth century, the Spanish
Mendana (1595), which called the Marquesas Islands in the name of his wife, and Quiros (1605), which crosses the archipelago of Tuamotu.
However, it was during the eighteenth century that shipments are increasing. Indeed Wallis arrived in Tahiti in 1767, followed by Bougainville in 1768, giving it the name idyllic "New Cythera". Dispatches and stories that have facts provoke a renewed interest in the South Pacific islands.
James Cook, the most prestigious of French explorers, will, in turn, to Tahiti in 1769 on board his vessel Endeavor. This renowned cartographer will later two other trips to Tahiti.
Admiral Dealer conquered the Marquesas on behalf of the king of France in 1791 in the colonial struggle between the French and English in the Pacific. The power struggle of their respective ends missionaries in Tahiti where the local Pomare dynasty itself in 1793, and then reign over all the islands-of-sale of 1797. France needed to Tahiti in 1842 by establishing a protectorate which includes the Iles-du-Vent, the Iles-sous-le-Vent, the Tuamotu and Austral. Queen Pomare IV died in 1877, and his successor, Pomare V provides the ratification of the treaty of annexation on 30 December 1880. Once Tahitian royalty past, these islands will be the French Establishments in Oceania.
Papeete was bombed by the German navy during the First World War, and during the Second World War, Polynesia supported the Free French with sending a battalion of the Pacific ".
In 1946, French Polynesia became an overseas territory and has a Territorial Assembly on 25 October 1946. The current result of the Organic Law n ° 96-312 of 12 April 1996 on the autonomy status of French Polynesia and the Law No 96-313 of 12 April 1996 supplementing the Statute of Autonomy
