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88-741: The term Polynésie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses , who originally applied it to all the islands of the Pacific . In 1831, Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a narrower definition during a lecture at the Société de Géographie of Paris. By tradition, the islands located in the southern Pacific have also often been called the South Sea Islands , and their inhabitants have been called South Sea Islanders . The Hawaiian Islands have often been considered to be part of

176-517: A Fiji heavily indebted to foreign creditors to the United Kingdom. It became independent on 10 October 1970 and a republic on 28 September 1987. Fiji is classified as Melanesian and (less commonly) Polynesian. Beginning in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Polynesians began to migrate in waves to New Zealand via their canoes , settling on both the North and South islands as well as

264-682: A Treaty of Friendship on 18 May 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs tried to oust the second king. Within the British Empire , which posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul (1901–1970), Tonga formed part of the British Western Pacific Territories (under a High Commissioner who residing in Fiji ) from 1901 until 1952. Despite being under the protectorate, Tonga retained its monarchy without interruption. On June 4, 1970,

352-669: A century later (between 1788 and 1799), would come to call the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands (Spaniards today call the Caroline islands Islas de las Hermanas , Hombres Pintados , and Los Jardines ). A Spanish royal decree, issued on 19 October 1707, authorized Spanish missionaries to make several expeditions to the Caroline Islands. However, in 1731, one such missionary, Juan Antonio Cantova,

440-700: A change in the movements of the Pacific Plate in relation to the Indo-Australian Plate . The Pacific plate had previously been subducted under the Australian Plate . When that changed, it had the effect of uplifting the portion of the continent that is modern-day New Zealand. The convergent plate boundary that runs northwards from New Zealand's North Island is called the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone . This subduction zone

528-613: A common understanding that a stone has a new owner. The Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug (1932–2010) was originally from the Carolinian island of Satawal . He learned the traditional navigation techniques of the Weriyeng school, which had been preserved after other traditional techniques had been forgotten (due partly to the remoteness of the Carolinian Islands). In the 1970s, Mau shared his knowledge with members of

616-731: A distance of approximately 3,540 kilometres (1,910 nmi), from the westernmost island, Tobi , in Palau, to the easternmost island, Kosrae , a state of the FSM . The group consists of about 500 small coral islands , east of the Philippines , in the Pacific Ocean. The distance from Yap (one of the larger Caroline islands) to Manila is 1,200 mi (1,900 km). Most of the islands are made up of low, flat coral atolls , but there are some that rise high above sea level. Some of

704-563: A non- Polynesian language . Some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga. However, in essence, Polynesia remains a cultural term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania (the others being Melanesia and Micronesia ). The following islands and island groups are either nations or overseas territories of former colonial powers. The residents are native Polynesians or contain archaeological evidence indicating Polynesian settlement in

792-513: A possibility that the early Lapita Austronesians were direct descendants of the early colonists of the Marianas (which preceded them by about 150 years), which is also supported by pottery evidence. The most eastern site for Lapita archaeological remains recovered so far is at Mulifanua on Upolu . The Mulifanua site, where 4,288 pottery shards have been found and studied, has a "true" age of c.  1000 BC based on radiocarbon dating and

880-732: A region within Polynesia and the categorization of these language groups by Green in 1966 helped to confirm that Polynesian settlement generally took place from west to east. There is a very distinct "East Polynesian" subgroup with many shared innovations not seen in other Polynesian languages. The Marquesas dialects are perhaps the source of the oldest Hawaiian speech which is overlaid by Tahitian-variety speech, as Hawaiian oral histories would suggest. The earliest varieties of New Zealand Maori speech may have had multiple sources from around central Eastern Polynesia, as Maori oral histories would suggest. The Cook Islands are made up of 15 islands comprising

968-603: A subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people . Tracing Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in Island Melanesia , Maritime Southeast Asia , and ultimately, in Taiwan . Between about 3000 and 1000 BC, speakers of Austronesian languages spread from Taiwan into Maritime Southeast Asia . There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia. These are outlined well by Kayser et al. (2000) and are as follows: In

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1056-629: A widespread Polynesian network or confederacy (or "empire") that was prehistorically ruled by the successive Tui Manuʻa dynasties. Manuan genealogies and religious oral literature also suggest that the Tui Manuʻa had long been one of the most prestigious and powerful paramount of Samoa. Oral history suggests that the Tui Manuʻa kings governed a confederacy of far-flung islands which included Fiji , Tonga as well as smaller western Pacific chiefdoms and Polynesian outliers such as Uvea , Futuna , Tokelau , and Tuvalu . Commerce and exchange routes between

1144-625: Is also remembered for his posthumously published letters: The first English translation of Du culte des dieux fétiches will be published in The Returns of Fetishism: Charles De Brosses and the Afterlives of an Idea in June 2017. Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines ) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean , to

1232-662: Is associated with the volcanism that gave rise to the Kermadec and Tongan islands. There is a transform fault that currently traverses New Zealand's South Island, known as the Alpine Fault . Zealandia's continental shelf has a total area of approximately 3,600,000 km (1,400,000 sq mi). The oldest rocks in Polynesia are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old. The oldest Polynesian rocks outside Zealandia are to be found in

1320-413: Is considered to have lasted roughly 1,000 years. The cause of this gap in voyaging is contentious among archaeologists with a number of competing theories presented including climate shifts, the need for the development of new voyaging techniques, and cultural shifts. After the long pause, dispersion of populations into central and eastern Polynesia began. Although the exact timing of when each island group

1408-407: Is derived. This is due to new population being established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population which also causes a loss of genetic variation. Atholl Anderson wrote that analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA, female) and Y chromosome (male) concluded that the ancestors of Polynesian women were Austronesians while those of Polynesian men were Papuans . Subsequently, it

1496-530: Is mostly domestic as most facilities cannot handle large aircraft. Caroline Islands Air is a chartered and the only domestic airline. Palau and Yap are the only places outside the Philippines where Callicarpa micrantha is native. Campnosperma brevipetiolatum was first named and classified by the German botanist Georg Volkens while carrying out research on Yap. He described the species in 1901 in

1584-636: Is the oldest site yet discovered in Polynesia. This is mirrored by a 2010 study also placing the beginning of the human archaeological sequences of Polynesia in Tonga at 900 BC. Within a mere three or four centuries, between 1300 and 900 BC, the Lapita archaeological culture spread 6,000 km further to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until reaching as far as Fiji , Tonga , and Samoa . A cultural divide began to develop between Fiji to

1672-912: Is thought that the Cook Islands were settled in two periods: the Tahitian Period, when the country was settled between 900 and 1300 AD, and the Maui Settlement, which occurred in 1600 AD, when a large contingent from Tahiti settled in Rarotonga, in the Takitumu district. The first contact between Europeans and the native inhabitants of the Cook Islands took place in 1595 with the arrival of Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña in Pukapuka , who called it San Bernardo (Saint Bernard). A decade later, navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós made

1760-460: The Americas . His suggestion was ignored at first, but, in 1885, a Spanish government representative called Butron signed an agreement with the tribal chiefs of Koror and Artingal establishing Spanish sovereignty over the Caroline Islands. At that point, Spain attempted to impose customs duties on commercial exchanges in the region. However, Spain's previous abandonment of the islands had allowed

1848-664: The British Crown in 1836. In 1840, Royal Navy officer William Hobson and several Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi , which transformed New Zealand into a colony of the British Empire and granting all Māori the status of British subjects. However, tensions between Pākehā settlers and the Māori over settler encroachment on Māori lands and disputes over land sales led to the New Zealand Wars (1845–1872) between

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1936-655: The Chatham Islands . Over the course of several centuries, the Polynesian settlers formed distinct cultures that became known as the Māori on the New Zealand mainland, while those who settled in the Chatham Islands became the Moriori people . Beginning the 17th century, the arrival of Europeans to New Zealand drastically impacted Māori culture. Settlers from Europe (known as " Pākehā ") began to colonize New Zealand in

2024-769: The German Empire and the United States. The German-controlled Western portion of Samoa (consisting of the bulk of Samoan territory – Savaiʻi, Apolima, Manono and Upolu) was occupied by New Zealand in WWI, and administered by it under a Class C League of Nations mandate . After repeated efforts by the Samoan independence movement, the New Zealand Western Samoa Act of 24 November 1961 granted Samoa independence, effective on January 1, 1962, upon which

2112-561: The Kingdom of Tonga became independent from the British Empire. The reef islands and atolls of Tuvalu are identified as being part of West Polynesia. During pre-European-contact times there was frequent canoe voyaging between the islands as Polynesian navigation skills are recognised to have allowed deliberate journeys on double-hull sailing canoes or outrigger canoes . Eight of the nine islands of Tuvalu were inhabited; thus

2200-609: The Moluccas (by way of Celebes ). They ended up reaching several of the Caroline islands and staying there for several months, until 20 January 1526. Soon after, on 22 August 1526, the Spanish explorers Toribio Alonso de Salazar and Diego de Saavedra arrived in the area and recorded sighting the Island of San Bartolomé ( Taongui ). About 8 months later, on 1 January 1528, the explorer Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón claimed possession of

2288-516: The Polynesian Voyaging Society . This led to a revival of the practices of traditional Polynesian navigation techniques, and provided anthropologists with a greater understanding of the history of the Polynesian and Micronesian peoples . In 1985, a study was published that examined the origin of the sidereal compass used in the Caroline Islands. Different islands in the Carolines have passed down different legends about

2376-593: The Solomon Islands . The Tongan influence brought Polynesian customs and language throughout most of Polynesia. The empire began to decline in the 13th century. After a bloody civil war, political power in Tonga eventually fell under the Tuʻi Kanokupolu dynasty in the 16th century. In 1845, the ambitious young warrior, strategist, and orator Tāufaʻāhau united Tonga into a more Western-style kingdom. He held

2464-458: The Tovata confederacy of Fiji. This is where most Fijian-Polynesian linguistic interactions occurred. In the chronology of the exploration and first populating of Polynesia, there is a gap commonly referred to as the long pause between the first populating of Fiji ( Melanesia ), Western Polynesia of Tonga and Samoa among others and the settlement of the rest of the region. In general this gap

2552-538: The Western Caroline islands (Yap and Palau [and from 1907 Saipan]) In the Eastern Caroline islands ( Ponape , and including the Marshall Islands from 1911) Two Jesuits , Juan Antonio Cantova (also known as John Anthony Cantova) and Victor Walter, attempted missionary work there in 1731; the former was soon murdered and the latter obliged to flee. Two other Jesuits were killed later. In 1767,

2640-545: The Western Malayo-Polynesian languages of Palauan and Chamorro ; and the unclassified language Yapese (possibly one of the Admiralty Islands languages ). There are also a significant number of inhabitants who belong to non-indigenous ethnic groups and speak other languages, including Filipinos and Japanese . The lingua franca used for trade and commerce among islanders who do not speak

2728-524: The colonial government and the Māori. In response to the conflict, the colonial government initiated a series of land confiscations from the Māori. This social upheaval, combined with epidemics of infectious diseases from Europe, devastated both the Māori population and their social standing in New Zealand. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the Maori population began to recover, and efforts were made to redress social, economic, political and economic issues facing

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2816-451: The ' Australo-Papuans ' of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands . The preliminary analysis of skulls found at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites is that they lack Australian or Papuan affinities and instead have affinities to mainland Asian populations. A 2017 DNA analysis of modern Polynesians indicates that there has been intermarriage resulting in a mixed Austronesian-Papuan ancestry of

2904-525: The 19th century, leading to tension with the indigenous Māori. On October 28, 1835, a group of Māori tribesmen issued a declaration of independence (drafted by Scottish businessman James Busby ) as the " United Tribes of New Zealand ", in order to resist potential efforts at colonizing New Zealand by the French and prevent merchant ships and their cargo which belonged to Māori merchants from being seized at foreign ports. The new state received recognition from

2992-515: The Bismarck Archipelago. The modern Polynesians still show human genetic results of a Melanesian culture which allowed indigenous men, but not women, to "marry in" – useful evidence for matrilocality. Although matrilocality and matrilineality receded at some early time, Polynesians and most other Austronesian speakers in the Pacific Islands were and are still highly "matricentric" in their traditional jurisprudence. The Lapita pottery for which

3080-601: The Capuchin Father Callistus as its director. The station was able to identify that the East-Asiatic typhoons were originating in the Carolines. The station still makes weather observations twice a day, and sends advance notice of severe weather to Manila. During the period of German control, Germany issued postage stamps for the islands. Transportation within the islands is either by boat or air (if in close proximity of an airfield). Air travel

3168-637: The Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain and are 80 million years old. Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle , although some islands inhabited by Polynesians are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii , New Zealand , and Easter Island . The other main island groups located within

3256-671: The Jesuits were suppressed in the Spanish dominions, and for the next 120 years there was no trace of a missionary in the islands. After the 1886 dispute between Germany and Spain over possession of the Carolines was settled by Pope Leo XIII in favour of Spain, the king of Spain directed Spanish Capuchins to go to the islands. The royal order was issued on 15 March 1886, and the Propaganda Fide officially established that mission on 15 May 1886, dividing it into two sections, named

3344-800: The Kingdom of Fiji by 1871. In around 1855 a Tongan prince, Enele Ma'afu , proclaimed the Lau islands as his kingdom, and took the title Tui Lau . Fiji had been ruled by numerous divided chieftains until Cakobau unified the landmass. The Lapita culture, the ancestors of the Polynesians, existed in Fiji from about 3500 BC until they were displaced by the Melanesians about a thousand years later. (Both Samoans and subsequent Polynesian cultures adopted Melanesian painting and tattoo methods.) In 1873, Cakobau ceded

3432-585: The Māori in wider New Zealand society. Beginning in the 1960s, a protest movement emerged seeking redress for historical grievances . In the 2013 New Zealand census , roughly 600,000 people in New Zealand identified as being Māori. In the 9th century, the Tui Manuʻa controlled a vast maritime empire comprising most of the settled islands of Polynesia. The Tui Manuʻa is one of the oldest Samoan titles in Samoa. Traditional oral literature of Samoa and Manu'a talks of

3520-584: The Northern and Southern groups. The islands are spread out across many kilometers of a vast ocean. The largest of these islands is called Rarotonga, which is also the political and economic capital of the nation. The Cook Islands were formerly known as the Hervey Islands, but this name refers only to the Northern Groups. It is unknown when this name was changed to reflect the current name. It

3608-471: The Pelew Islands, 200 miles to the south, and must have been brought by native vessels or on rafts; later they were transferred on European vessels. The stones, which are rather tokens than money, do not circulate, but are piled up round about the chief's treasure-house, and appear to be regarded as public property. Some may not have been seen for some years, but the transfer of wealth is facilitated by

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3696-649: The Polynesian Triangle are Samoa , Tonga , the Cook Islands , Tuvalu , Tokelau , Niue , Wallis and Futuna , and French Polynesia . Also, small Polynesian settlements are in Papua New Guinea , the Solomon Islands , the Caroline Islands , and Vanuatu . An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this great triangle is Rotuma , situated north of Fiji . The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits, but speak

3784-416: The Polynesians (as with other modern Austronesians, with the exception of Taiwanese aborigines ). Research at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites implies that the migration and intermarriage, which resulted in the mixed Austronesian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians, occurred after the first initial migration to Vanuatu and Tonga. A complete mtDNA and genome-wide SNP comparison (Pugach et al. , 2021) of

3872-479: The Saudeleur dynasty ended when another foreigner, called Isokelekel , invaded the islands, overthrew the Saudeleurs, and instituted the more decentralized nahnmwarki (tribal chief) system (which was maintained even during the later Colonial period, and still exists today). The first contact that European explorers had with the Caroline islands was in 1525, when a summer storm carried the Portuguese navigators Diogo da Rocha and Gomes de Sequeira eastward from

3960-404: The South Sea Islands because of their relative proximity to the southern Pacific islands, even though they are in fact located in the North Pacific . Another term in use, which avoids this inconsistency, is "the Polynesian Triangle " (from the shape created by the layout of the islands in the Pacific Ocean). This term makes clear that the grouping includes the Hawaiian Islands, which are located at

4048-443: The Teouma Lapita site ( Efate Island , Vanuatu ) and the Talasiu Lapita site (near Nuku'alofa , Tonga ) published in 2016 supports the Express Train model; although with the qualification that the migration bypassed New Guinea and Island Melanesia . The conclusion from research published in 2016 is that the initial population of those two sites appears to come directly from Taiwan or the northern Philippines and did not mix with

4136-427: The Trusteeship Agreement terminated. The new Independent State of Samoa was not a monarchy, though the Malietoa titleholder remained very influential. It effectively ended however with the death of Malietoa Tanumafili II , the country's head of state, on May 11, 2007. In the 10th century, the Tuʻi Tonga Empire was established in Tonga, and most of the Western Pacific came within its sphere of influence, up to parts of

4224-399: The Ulithi Islands on behalf of the king of Spain . He named them the Islands of the Kings ( Spanish : Islas de los Reyes ; French : Îles des Rois ) after his patron and the Three Wise Men honored in the approaching Catholic feast of Epiphany . Spanish explorers visited the archipelago again in 1542 (Matelotes Islands), 1543, and 1545. In 1565, the islands were briefly visited by

4312-406: The West Caroline's and the East Carolines. Until that time, the islands had belonged ecclesiastically to the Vicariate Apostolic of Micronesia . The Spanish Capuchins caused a catechism and prayer book to be printed in the Ponape language, and Father Anthony of Valentia wrote a small grammar and dictionary of the Yap language in 1890. In 1899, after the Spanish priests had laid the foundations of

4400-828: The archaeological record, there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with some certainty. It is thought that by roughly 1400 BC, " Lapita peoples", so-named after their pottery tradition, appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago of northwest Melanesia . This culture is seen as having adapted and evolved through time and space since its emergence "Out of Taiwan ". They had given up rice production, for instance, which required paddy field agriculture unsuitable for small islands. However, they still cultivated other ancestral Austronesian staple cultigens like Dioscorea yams and taro (the latter are still grown with smaller-scale paddy field technology), as well as adopting new ones like breadfruit and sweet potato . The results of research at

4488-439: The article 'Die Vegetation der Karolinen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der von Yap' in the periodical Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie (Leipzig). Crinum bakeri is endemic to the Caroline and Marshall Islands, and was first described by Karl Moritz Schumann in 1887. Psychotria hombroniana is endemic to the Caroline and Mariana Islands, with five subspecies being found on

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4576-426: The chiefly title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu, but had been baptised with the name Jiaoji ("George") in 1831. In 1875, with the help of the missionary Shirley Waldemar Baker , he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, formally adopted the western royal style, emancipated the "serfs", enshrined a code of law, land tenure, and freedom of the press, and limited the power of the chiefs. Tonga became a British protectorate under

4664-401: The decline of the Tui Manuʻa's power, with the western isles of Savaiʻi and Upolu rising to prominence in the post-Tongan occupation period and the establishment of the tafaʻifa system that dominated Samoan politics well into the 20th century. This was disrupted in the early 1900s due to colonial intervention, with east–west division by Tripartite Convention (1899) and subsequent annexation by

4752-422: The east. This model presents consistencies and inconsistencies with models of Polynesian migration that are based on archaeology and linguistic analysis. The 2021 genomic model presents a migration pathway from Samoa to the Cook Islands (Rarotonga), then to the Society Islands (Tōtaiete mā) in the 11th century AD, the western Austral Islands (Tuha'a Pae) and the Tuāmotu Archipelago in the 12th century AD, with

4840-414: The establishment of German and British missions on the islands, and Germany and the United Kingdom disputed Spain's right to collect customs revenue . The European powers called on Pope Leo XIII to arbitrate this dispute. He decided that Spain would have these rights on the islands west of the 164th meridian east , and Germany would have these rights on the Marshall Islands . (He also assigned Germany

4928-406: The famous philosopher, who barred his entry in the Académie française in 1770. Because he opposed the absolute power of the king, he was exiled twice, in 1744 and 1771. He wrote numerous academic papers on topics concerning ancient history and language, some of which were used by Denis Diderot and D'Alembert in the Encyclopédie (1751-1765). De Brosses published five books: De Brosses

5016-399: The first governor-general of the Philippines , Miguel Lopez de Legazpi (in office from 1565 to 1572). Europeans did not visit the island again until 1686, when Francisco de Lezcano arrived in Yap. He called the islands Las Carolinas , in honor of Charles II of Spain . This name was later extended to include the Palau Islands and the archipelagos that British explorers, visiting them

5104-422: The first European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling it Gente Hermosa (Beautiful People). Cook Islanders are ethnically Polynesians or Eastern Polynesia. They are culturally associated with Tahiti, Eastern Islands, NZ Maori and Hawaii. The Lau Islands were subject to periods of Tongan rulership and then Fijian control until their eventual conquest by Seru Epenisa Cakobau of

5192-432: The general archaeological complex of the earliest "Oceanic" Austronesian speakers in the Pacific Islands are named also lapsed in Western Polynesia. Language, social life and material culture were very distinctly "Polynesian" by 1000 BC. Early European observers detected theocratic elements in traditional Polynesian government. Linguistically, there are five sub-groups of the Polynesian language group . Each represents

5280-502: The indigenous people adhere to the traditional belief in a supreme being called "Yalafar" and an evil spirit called "Can." For the most part, however, they do not engage in traditional religious rites. The inhabitants of Yap are noted for possessing an unusual currency. Besides the ordinary shell money , there is a sort of stone coinage, consisting of huge calcite or limestone discs or wheels from 6 inches to 12 feet in diameter, and weighing up to nearly 5 tons. These are all quarried in

5368-455: The individual islands which make up the Carolines include - Yap , Truk (Chuuk), Pohnpei , Kosrae , Palau , Takatik , Satawal , Kapingamarangi , Nukuoro , Fairchuk , Namonuito , Hall Island , Nomoi Islands , Weno , Rumung , Maap , Kanifay , Ngulu , Nett , Pingelap , and Lelu . The indigenous inhabitants speak a variety of languages, including: the Micronesian languages of Pohnpeian , Chuukese , Carolinian , and Kosraean ;

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5456-426: The initial settlement of individual islands; although Professor Matisoo-Smith of the Otago study said that the founding Māori population of New Zealand must have been in the hundreds, much larger than previously thought. The Polynesian population experienced a founder effect and genetic drift. The Polynesian may be distinctively different both genotypically and phenotypically from the parent population from which it

5544-428: The islands). According to Pohnpeian legend: the Saudeleur rulers originally came from beyond the islands; they were the first to bring government to Pohnpei; they imposed absolute, centralized rule on the islanders, which became increasingly oppressive over the centuries; and their arbitrary and onerous demands, along with their offenses against Pohnpeian deities, sowed resentment among Pohnpeians . Legend has it that

5632-428: The latter years of that war, during the Japanese withdrawal to the Japanese home islands, the Allies effectively neutralized Truk in Operation Hailstone . After the war, the islands (together with the Marshall Islands) became trust territories of the United States . The Federated States of Micronesia gained independence in 1986, followed by Palau in 1994. District officers (from 1889, styled Bezirksamtleute ): In

5720-403: The marker of Austronesian expansions. The high frequencies of mtDNA Haplogroup B in the Polynesians are the result of founder effect and represents the descendants of a few Austronesian females who intermixed with Papuan males. A genomic analysis of modern populations in Polynesia, published in 2021, provides a model of the direction and timing of Polynesian migrations from Samoa to the islands to

5808-420: The migrant pathway branching to the north to the Marquesas (Te Henua 'Enana), to Raivavae in the south, and to the easternmost destination on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), which was settled in approximately 1200 AD via Mangareva . The Polynesians were matrilineal and matrilocal Stone Age societies upon their arrival in Tonga , Samoa and the surrounding islands, after having spent at least some time in

5896-531: The mission's fortunes suffered. In response, the Propaganda Fide decided on 7 November 1904 to replace the Spanish Capuchins with German missionaries, and on 18 December 1905 to erect a single Apostolic prefecture in place of the two separate missions. The Very Reverend Father Venantius of Prechtal , Germany, was appointed first prefect Apostolic at that time. In 1906, 24 missionaries (12 Fathers and 12 Brothers) were working in thirteen stations, and several Sisters of St. Francis left Luxembourg to take charge of

5984-404: The mission, the islands passed by purchase into the hands of Germany. Spain had contributed more than $ 5000 a year towards the mission, but Germany contributed no support. Spain had compelled the indigenous people to send their children to school; Germany allowed people to choose to send their children or not. As a result, many people stopped attending church and sending their children to school, and

6072-532: The name, Tuvalu, means "eight standing together" in Tuvaluan . The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from Samoa and Tonga into the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone for migration into the Polynesian outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia . Charles de Brosses Charles de Brosses ( French: [də bʁɔs] ), comte de Tournay, baron de Montfalcon, seigneur de Vezins et de Prevessin (7 February 1709 – 7 May 1777),

6160-421: The north of New Guinea . Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the central and eastern parts of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end. Historically, this area was also called Nuevas Filipinas or New Philippines , because they were part of the Spanish East Indies and were governed from Manila in the Philippines . The Carolines are scattered across

6248-424: The northern vertex of the referenced "triangle". Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over a very large portion of the mid- and southern Pacific Ocean . It comprises approximately 300,000 to 310,000 square kilometres (117,000 to 118,000 sq mi) of land, of which more than 270,000 km (103,000 sq mi) are within New Zealand . The Hawaiian archipelago comprises about half

6336-742: The origins and early histories of their peoples. For example, on Pohnpei , the islanders describe their history before colonial times as divided into three eras: the Mwehin Kawa or Mwehin Aramas (era of building or peopling, before 1100); the Mwehin Sau Deleur (era of the reigns of the Saudeleur , from 1100 to around 1628); and the Mwehin Nahnmwarki (era of the tribal chiefs, from around 1628 to 1885, when Spain colonized

6424-683: The past. Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the general triangle that geographically defines the region. The Line Islands and the Phoenix Islands , most of which are parts of Kiribati , had no permanent settlements until European colonization, but are often considered to be parts of the Polynesian Triangle . Polynesians once inhabited the Auckland Islands , the Kermadec Islands , and Norfolk Island in pre-colonial times, but these islands were uninhabited by

6512-567: The remainder. Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos , including the Hawaiian Islands and Samoa , are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspots (volcanoes). The other land masses in Polynesia — New Zealand , Norfolk Island , and Ouvéa , the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia — are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of Zealandia . Zealandia is believed to have mostly sunk below sea level 23 million years ago, and recently partially resurfaced due to

6600-495: The remains of early settlers of the Mariana Islands and early Lapita individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga also suggest that both migrations originated directly from the same ancient Austronesian source population from the Philippines . The complete absence of "Papuan" admixture in the early samples indicates that these early voyages bypassed eastern Indonesia and the rest of New Guinea . The authors have also suggested

6688-680: The right to establish a coal mine in the area. Germany governed the archipelago as the Karolinen , and administratively associated it with German New Guinea . The islands were a popular resort for whaling ships in the 19th century. The first such vessel known to have visited was the London whaler Britannia , which called at Ngatik in December 1793. Such vessels—from Britain, the United States, Australia and elsewhere—came for water, wood, and food and, sometimes, for men willing to serve as crewmen on

6776-597: The right to maintain a naval station in one of the Caroline Islands, but Germany never exercised that right.) After the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain sold the Carolines and the Northern Marianas to the German Empire in the German–Spanish Treaty (1899) for 25 million pesetas (the equivalent of 17 million goldmarks or nearly one million pounds sterling ), while reserving to itself

6864-448: The same language is English. The indigenous people of these islands live mainly on horticultural products, fish, many different varieties of bananas, and taro (either the "swamp" or the "purple" variety). On some islands, housing is still built using local materials such as coconut-palm thatch. As a result of missionary work over the centuries, Christianity is the religion most commonly practiced in this region of Micronesia . Many of

6952-476: The squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Matsumura Tatsuo (1868–1932); while the Eastern Carolines were controlled by Vice-Admiral Yamaya Tanin (1866–1940). In 1920, after World War I, Japan received a League of Nations mandate to control the Caroline and Marshall Islands. During World War II , Japan operated a large base at Truk Lagoon which it used for expansion into the southeastern Pacific. In

7040-542: The ten primary schools, in which a total of 262 children were enrolled. The missionaries boasted 90 adult converts that year, and reported that there were 1900 Catholics, a few Protestants, and 11,600 inhabitants who had not converted to Christianity. On 1 July 1905, the United States sent a Jesuit from the Manila Observatory to the island of Yap to erect a meteorological station there, and appointed

7128-668: The time European explorers arrived. The oceanic islands to the east of Easter Island, such as Clipperton Island , the Galápagos Islands , and the Juan Fernández Islands , were in the past formerly categorized on rare occasion as part of Polynesia. No evidence of prehistoric contact with either Polynesians or the indigenous peoples of the Americas has been found. The Polynesian people are considered, by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence,

7216-454: The vessels. These ships stimulated commerce and were significant vectors for change (both good and ill). The islands most commonly visited were Kosrae , Mokil , Ngatik , Pingelap and Pohnpei . Japan invaded and occupied the islands in 1914 during World War I , as part of their campaign to take and occupy German colonial possessions . They installed two naval squadrons as part of this occupation. The Western Carolines were controlled by

7304-489: The west, and the distinctive Polynesian language and culture emerging on Tonga and Samoa to the east. Where there was once faint evidence of uniquely shared developments in Fijian and Polynesian speech, most of this is now called "borrowing" and is thought to have occurred in those and later years more than as a result of continuing unity of their earliest dialects on those far-flung lands. Contacts were mediated especially through

7392-467: The western Polynesian societies are well documented and it is speculated that the Tui Manuʻa dynasty grew through its success in obtaining control over the oceanic trade of currency goods such as finely woven ceremonial mats, whale ivory " tabua ", obsidian and basalt tools, chiefly red feathers, and seashells reserved for royalty (such as polished nautilus and the egg cowry ). Samoa's long history of various ruling families continued until well after

7480-601: Was a French scholar of the 18th century. He was president of the parliament of his hometown Dijon from 1741, a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres from 1746, and a member of the Académie des Sciences, Arts et Belles-Lettres de Dijon from 1761. He was a close friend of Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon , the naturalist who wrote the Histoire Naturelle , and a personal enemy of Voltaire ,

7568-460: Was found that 96% (or 93.8%) of Polynesian mtDNA has an Asian origin, as does one-third of Polynesian Y chromosomes; the remaining two-thirds from New Guinea and nearby islands; this is consistent with matrilocal residence patterns. Polynesians existed from the intermixing of few ancient Austronesian-Melanesian founders, genetically they belong almost entirely to the Haplogroup B (mtDNA), which is

7656-401: Was killed. As a result, Spain ceased relations with the Caroline Islands. When they resumed relations in 1787, their emphasis was on trade and commerce. In 1852, a Spanish colonel named Coello suggested to the Spanish government that effective Spanish occupation of the Caroline Islands would help the Spanish engage in trade and commerce with the Philippines , Australia , New Guinea , and

7744-405: Was settled is debated, it is widely accepted that the island groups in the geographic center of the region (i.e. the Cook Islands , Society Islands , Marquesas Islands , etc.) were settled initially between 1000 and 1150 AD, and ending with more far flung island groups such as Hawaii , New Zealand , and Easter Island settled between 1200 and 1300 AD. Tiny populations may have been involved in

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