Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars (3 August 1793 – 16 March 1864) was a French naval officer important in France's annexation of French Polynesia .
41-586: Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars , Armand Joseph Bruat , Louis Adolphe Bonard Minor chiefly allies: The Franco-Tahitian War ( French : Guerre franco-tahitienne ) or French–Tahitian War (1844–1847) was a conflict between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Tahiti and its allies in the South Pacific archipelago of the Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia . Tahiti
82-544: A treaty of friendship with France respecting the rights of French subjects in the islands including any future Catholic missionaries. Four years later, claiming the Tahitians had violated the treaty, Dupetit Thouars returned and forced the Tahitian chiefs and the queen to sign a request for French protection which he sent back to Europe for ratification. Pritchard had been away on a diplomatic mission to Great Britain during
123-483: Is estimated that by the first contact with Europeans in 1767 the population of Tahiti was most probably around 110,000 or even reached 180,000. Other Society Islands held probably 15,000-20,000 people. Tahitians divided the day into the periods of daylight ( ao ) and darkness ( pō ). There was also a concept of irrational fear called mehameha , translated as uncanny feelings. The healers, familiar with herbal remedies, were called taʼata rāʼau or taʼata rapaʼau . In
164-536: Is unclear which is the first European ship to arrive at the island of Tahiti but it is often recognised as being HMS Dolphin captained by British Captain Samuel Wallis on 18 June 1767. He met a welcoming party of Tahitians who traded with him. Cultural differences leading to grave communication errors that resulted in a battle in Matavai Bay between three hundred war canoes and HMS Dolphin which fired on
205-632: Is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name . His grand-uncles: His nephew and adopted son: Tahitians The Tahitians ( Tahitian : Māʼohi ; French : Tahitiens ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of Tahiti and thirteen other Society Islands in French Polynesia . The numbers may also include the modern population in these islands of mixed Polynesian and French ancestry ( French : demis ). Indigenous Tahitians are one of
246-593: The European theatre of World War II with the Free French Forces . In the late 1960s and early 1970s Tahitian poets Henri Hiro, Charles Manutahi, Vaitiare and Turo Raapoto spearheaded the anticolonial writing in Tahiti. Hiro's God of Culture implores Oihanu , the Tahitian god of culture and husbandry, to empower the "new generation". Three women writers - Michou Chaze, Chantal Spitz and Vaitiare explore
287-717: The Kingdom of Tahiti comprised all the Windward Islands except Maiao. It also held nominal sovereignty over the more distant Tuamotus archipelago and a few of the Austral Islands . By the mid-19th century the Leeward Islands was made up of three kingdoms: the Kingdom of Huahine and its dependency of Maiao (geographically part of the Windward Islands); the Kingdom of Raiatea - Tahaa ; and
328-420: The 1820s Protestantism became the main religion on Tahiti. The European ships brought such diseases for which Tahitians had little or no acquired immunity , such as dysentery , smallpox , scarlet fever , typhoid fever , venereal disease and tuberculosis . As a result of these changes by 1830 the population of Tahiti decreased to 15,300 from estimated 110,000 in 1767, when the ship HMS Dolphin touched on
369-668: The 19th century Tahitians added the European medicine to their practice. The most famous Tahitian healer Tiurai, of ariʼi , died at age 83 during the influenza outbreak on Tahiti in 1918. The colonization of Tahiti occurred in a time of rivalry for resources of the Pacific by colonizing European nations including the French and the British. It was also a time of rivalry and fighting between the people of Tahiti and neighbouring islands. It
410-557: The British had the French not formally apologized for the seizure of the British consul. The incident became known as the Pritchard Affair . In the absence of their queen, the Tahitian populace began an armed resistance on 13 March 1844. The loyalist forces were led initially by a chief named Fanaue , but he was later replaced by Utami (who switched sides after being allied initially to the French takeover) and his second-in-command Maiʻo along with other chiefs sympathetic to
451-589: The Kingdom of Bora Bora with its dependencies of Maupiti , Tupai , Maupihaa , Motu One , and Manuae . Tahiti was converted to Protestant Christianity by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the early 19th century. The Pōmare Dynasty , patrons of the British Protestant missionaries, established their rule over Tahiti and Moorea as part of the Kingdom of Tahiti. Western concepts of kingdoms and nation states were foreign to
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#1732773082809492-487: The Marguesas Islands, which continues as of 2018. He was initially denounced for his actions by the French government, which feared a conflict with Great Britain . Relations between France and Great Britain soured considerably during the reign of Louis-Philippe , due to this so-called "Pritchard Affair". Du Petit-Thouars became a Vice-Admiral ( French : Vice-amiral ) in 1846. Du Petit-Thouars retired from
533-587: The Pōmare family which the French interpreted as actual jurisdiction. A naval blockade of Raiatea by French captain Louis Adolphe Bonard was lifted when the warriors of Huahine under Queen Teriitaria "massacred" the French forces at the Battle of Maeva where eighteen French marines were killed and forty-three were wounded. Great Britain remained officially neutral and never intervened militarily. However,
574-625: The book contained maps of the ports visited. He was made Rear- Admiral ( French : Contre-amiral ) on 12 July 1841, in charge of the Pacific Naval Division. His mission was to take possession of the Marquesas Islands . In Tahiti , he confronted Queen Pōmare IV , and the English missionary and Consul George Pritchard (1796–1883). He managed to expel Pritchard and established a French protectorate over Tahiti, and
615-592: The conquest of Algiers , where he developed the attack plans. During the battle, he commanded the 20-gun Griffon . He was later put in charge of the Southern Seas command, in the Pacific Ocean . In 1834 he played a key role in protecting French shipping interests against the Peruvians. He became "Capitaine de vaisseau" on 6 January 1834, and accomplished a circumnavigation between 1836 and 1839 on
656-573: The defeat of the French against the forces of Queen Teriitaria II of Huahine in 1846. The British never intervened directly in the conflict but there was significant diplomatic pressure and tension between the two European powers. The war ended when Queen Pōmare agreed to return and rule under the French protectorate. France and Great Britain, signed the Jarnac Convention or the Anglo-French Convention of 1847, in which
697-415: The fertile volcanic soils and built fishing canoes . The tools of the Tahitians when first discovered were made of stone, bone, shell or wood. The Tahitians were divided into three major classes (or castes ): ariʼ , raʼatira and manahune . Ariʼi were relatively few in number while manahune constituted the bulk of population and included some members who played essential roles in the society. It
738-613: The frigate Vénus . Also on board were the hydrographer Urbain Dortet of Tessan , the doctor-naturalist Adolphe Simon Neboux , and the surgeon Charles René Augustin Léclancher . During this voyage the Marquesas were explored. He published an account in 1840 with the title Voyage around the world on the frigate Venus during the years 1836-1839 (French: Voyage autour du monde sur la frégate "la Vénus" pendant les années 1836-1839 );
779-524: The incident with Dupetit Thouars and returned to find the islands under French control. Encouraged by Pritchard, Queen Pōmare resisted in vain against French intervention, writing to Queen Victoria , asking for British intervention, and to King Louis Philippe I of France. She refused to fly the flag of the protectorate with the French tricolour at its canton and continued to fly the Tahitian flag at her residence. In November 1843, Dupetit Thouars deposed
820-544: The independence of Queen Pōmare's allies in Huahine, Raiatea, and Bora Bora. The French continued the guise of protection on Tahiti until the 1880s when they formally annexed Tahiti and the Leeward Islands (through the Leewards War which ended in 1897), forming French Polynesia . Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars He was born at the castle of La Fessardière, near Saumur . His uncle Aristide Aubert du Petit-Thouars
861-465: The island. The 1881 census enumerated about 5,960 indigenous Tahitians. The recovery continued in spite of a few more epidemics. The Pōmare Dynasty rose to prominence in the early 1790s from a ruling Tahitian family aided by protection from British mercenaries from the mutineers off the Bounty . On 29 June 1880 King Pōmare V agreed to a treaty of annexation with the French. On 9 September 1842 there
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#1732773082809902-487: The islands to maintain the dominance of Protestantism in the island kingdom. Seeing this as an affront to the honor of France and the Catholic religion, Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout , the French consul in Tahiti, filed a formal complaint with the French. In 1838, the French naval commander Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars responded to Moerenhout's complaints. The commander forced the native government to pay an indemnity and sign
943-613: The largest Polynesian ethnic groups , behind the Māori , Samoans and Hawaiians . The first Polynesian settlers arrived in Tahiti around 400 AD by way of Samoan navigators and settlers via the Cook Islands . Over the period of half a century there was much inter-island relations with trade, marriages and Polynesian expansion with the Islands of Hawaii and through to Rapanui . The original Tahitians cleared land for cultivation on
984-511: The main island of Tahiti. The technologically inferior Tahitians were no match for the French marines in the field and so relied on their superior knowledge of the island's mountainous interior to wage guerilla warfare . The last native stronghold was captured in late 1846. On the second front, the French attempted to assert control over the three neighboring island kingdoms in the Leeward Islands . However, their efforts were thwarted by
1025-519: The native Tahitians or Maohi people who were divided into loosely defined tribal units and districts before European contact. The first Christian king, Pōmare II , headed the hau pahu rahi ("government of the great drum") or hau feti'i (“family government"), a traditional alliance of the inter-related chiefly families of the Society Islands. Christianity spread to the remaining islands after his conversion. He held nominal suzerainty over
1066-565: The navy in 1858. He died in Paris in 1864. He had no children, but adopted the son of his sister, known as Abel-Nicolas Bergasse du Petit-Thouars , who also became an Admiral, and played an important role during the Boshin War in Japan . Admiral du Petit-Thouars was a significant enough botanist to have his name given an official abbreviation. The standard author abbreviation A.Thouars
1107-547: The other Society Islands as a loose alliance. This was later misinterpreted by Europeans as sovereignty or subjugation of the other islands to Tahiti. In the 1830s, tensions between French naval interests, the British settlers and pro-British native chieftains on Tahiti led to conflict. In 1836, the Protestant Queen Pōmare IV of Tahiti, under the influence of British consul and former LMS missionary George Pritchard , evicted two French Catholic missionaries from
1148-607: The pain of seeing the Pet Lamb she has fostered and brought snatched from her protection by unprincipled Frenchmen". In 1846, Admiral George Seymour , the British commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station , visited Raiatea and "declared all French enactments there null and void" and had a private audience with Queen Pomare. From 1846 to 1847, the British Navy officer Henry Byam Martin and commander of HMS Grampus ,
1189-499: The presence of more than a dozen British naval warships in the waters of the Society Islands was a constant concern for the French. Many British officers were sympathetic to the Tahitian cause and were either openly hostile or stubbornly ambivalent to the French administration. Captain Andrew Snape Hamond, of HMS Salamander , wrote that if the British had actively forestalled the French, "England might have been spared
1230-687: The problems of Tahitian identification in contemporary French Polynesia . Tahitian peasants and workers call themselves the "true Tahitians" ( Taʼata Tahiti Mau ) to distinguish from part-Europeans ( Taʼata ʼafa Popaʼa ). At the same time demis quite frequently identify themselves as indigenous people in terms of culture and political affiliation. Such Tahitian activists as Pouvanaa a Oopa , Francis Sanford and Charlie Ching and Catholic bishops Michel-Gaspard Coppenrath and Hubert Coppenrath are of demi ancestry. Many natives were painted from life by Paul Gauguin , who gave Tahitian titles to his works. In Ea haere ia oe ( Where Are You Going? ), for example,
1271-422: The protectorate. Although victorious, the French were unable to annex the islands outright because of diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, so Tahiti and its dependency Moorea continued to be ruled under the French protectorate. A clause to the war settlement, known as the Jarnac Convention or the Anglo-French Convention of 1847, was signed by France and Great Britain, in which the two powers agreed to respect
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1312-422: The queen and the Tahitian chiefs to sign over Tahiti as a protectorate. Pritchard and Pōmare IV attempted to resist French rule and to convince the British to intervene in favor of the Tahitians. These efforts were unsuccessful and led to the imprisonment of Pritchard and the deposition and voluntary exile of Pōmare IV to her relatives in neighboring Raiatea . From 1844 to 1847, the French fought Tahitian forces on
1353-406: The queen for her continued resistance and formally annexed the islands, placing Armand Joseph Bruat in charge as colonial governor. Pōmare IV and her family took refuge in the British consulate and later fled into exile on the neighboring island of Raiatea aboard the British ship HMS Basilisk . Pritchard was imprisoned and deported by the French, an action which nearly sparked conflict with
1394-411: The rebel cause. They fought against the French forces, which also included a few pro-French Tahitian chiefs including Paraita , Tati and Hitoti . At the Battle of Mahaena , on 17 April 1844, a force of 441 French soldiers defeated an under-equipped native force twice its size. A total of fifteen French soldiers and 102 Tahitians died in this battle. Following the defeat of the native forces at Mahaena,
1435-425: The two powers agreed to respect the independence of Queen Pōmare's allies in the Leeward Islands. These actions ultimately forestalled the end of Tahitian independence until the 1880s. The Society Islands are subdivided into the Leeward Islands in the northwest and Windward Islands or Georgian Islands in the southeast. The Windward Islands include: Tahiti , Moorea , Mehetia , Tetiaroa and Maiao . Politically,
1476-453: The two sides engaged in guerrilla warfare in the fortified valleys of the Tahitian countryside. On the second front, the French attempted to conquer and annex the three neighboring island kingdoms in the Leeward Islands . These were Raiatea under King Tamatoa IV (where Pōmare had sought refuge), Huahine under Queen Teriitaria II , and Bora Bora under King Tapoa II . These islands had traditionally owed formal allegiance to
1517-511: The war canoes with muskets, quarterdeck guns and then cannons. The Tahitian chief Obera (Purea) ordered peace offerings from her people after this battle and Wallis and the Tahitians departed on amicable terms when he left on 27 July 1767. A few months later the French arrived on 2 April 1768 with the ships Boudeuse and Etoile captained by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville . In the 1790s European whalers arrived bringing with them alcohol and prostitution and missionaries with their religion. In
1558-518: Was a protectorate treaty signed between Tahitians and the French. The agreement was for the "protection of indigenous property and the maintenance of a traditional judicial system". In 1958 the islands in the area including Tahiti were "reconstituted as a French Overseas Territory and renamed French Polynesia". In 2013 the United Nations relisted French Polynesia as a territory to be decolonised. Three hundred Tahitian volunteers fought in
1599-510: Was converted to Protestant Christianity by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the early 19th century with the patronage of the Pōmare Dynasty . Influenced by British missionary George Pritchard , Queen Pōmare IV expelled French Catholic missionaries from her kingdom in 1836 and incurred the ire of France. Between 1838 and 1842, French naval commander Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars responded to French complaints of mistreatment and forced
1640-689: Was one of the heroes of the Battle of the Nile . He joined the French Navy in 1804, where he was a cabin boy in the Boulogne fleet. He was the captain of the Inconstant from 1823 to 1825. He sailed her to Brazil, and remained her captain on station in Brazil. He was promoted to Commander ( Capitaine de frégate ) in 1824. Du Petit-Thouars frequently travelled to Algeria , and had a decisive role in
1681-720: Was sent to the Society Islands to spy on the conflict. He was charged with investigating Queen Pōmare's suzerainty claims to the other islands. His account of the closing months of the conflict are recorded in The Polynesian Journal of Captain Henry Byam Martin, R.N . The guerrilla conflict came to an end with the defeat of the Tahitians at the Battle of Punaruu in May 1846 and the capture of Fort Fautaua on 17 December 1846. In February 1847, Queen Pōmare IV returned from her exile and acquiesced to rule under