Page 15 - French Polynesia

History of French Polynesia

French Polynesia as we know it today was one number of expeditions to Tahiti under the com-
of the last places on Earth to be settled by mand of Domingo de Bonechea who was the

humans. Scientists believe the Great Polynesian first European to explore all of the main islands

Migration happened around 1500 BC as Taiwan- beyond Tahiti. Christian missions began with

ese or Southeast Asian people went on a journey Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year.

using celestial navigation to find islands in the Protestants from the London Missionary Society

South Pacific Ocean. The first islands of French settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797.

Polynesia to be settled were the Marquesas King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to
Islands in about 200 BC. Indigenous Polynesians Mo’orea in 1803; he and his subjects were
later ventured southwest and discovered the

Society Islands around AD 300. converted to Protestantism in 1812. French

European communication began in 1521 when Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834;
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sail- their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send
a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and Tahuata

ing in the service of the Spanish Crown, sighted were declared a French protectorate, to allow

Puka-Puka in the Tuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The

In 1772, Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen came capital of Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880,

across Bora Bora in the Society Islands. British France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from

explorer Samuel Wallis visited Tahiti in 1767. The that of a protectorate to that of a colony. The

French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville island groups were not officially united until

visited Tahiti in 1768, while the British explorer the establishment of the French protectorate in

James Cook visited in 1769. In 1772 The Spanish 1889.

Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a