This article details thehistory of the Marquesas. TheMarquesas Islands are a group of volcanic islands inFrench Polynesia, an overseas collectivity ofFrance in the southernPacific Ocean. The Marquesas Islands comprise one of the fiveadministrative divisions of French Polynesia.
The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas werePolynesians. Based on a variety of archæological evidence, researchers at one time believed they arrived between 100-600 A.D. This is well documented on the creation myth legend of Hawaiiloa, Ki and Kanaloa. Ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that a second wave likely arrived from the western region of Tonga.[citation needed]
A 2010 study using revised, high-precision radiocarbon dating suggested that the period of eastern Polynesian colonization took place much later, in a shorter time frame of two waves: the "earliest in the Society Islands A.D. ~1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed; then after 70–265 y, dispersal continued in one major pulse to all remaining islands A.D. ~1190–1290."[1] This rapid colonization is believed to account for the "remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language."[1] As of 2014, the initial settlement date for the islands has been pushed back slightly to around 900–1000 A.D.[2][3]
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The islands were given their name by theSpanish explorerÁlvaro de Mendaña de Neira who reached them on 21 July 1595. He named them after his patron,García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete, who wasViceroy of Peru at the time. Mendaña visited firstFatu Hiva and thenTahuata before continuing on to theSolomon Islands. De Neira also discovered an ancient cross on one of the islands. Historians have speculated that this may have marked the grave of a sailor fromSan Lesmes, a Spanish vessel which disappeared in a storm duringGarcía Jofre de Loaísa's expedition through the region in 1526.[4]
TheAmerican navigator Capt.Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brigHope in 1791, giving them the nameWashington Islands.[5] In 1813,CommodoreDavid Porter claimedNuku Hiva for the United States, but theUnited States Congress never ratified that claim.
Asperm whale on 20 November 1820 rammed and sank the United StateswhalerEssex near the Marquesas Islands. Forced to take refuge in three small boats, the crew avoided the Marquesas because of having heard reports ofcannibalism among the island's inhabitants. Instead the crew turned east towardSouth America, much farther away. Many died, and the survivors resorted to cannibalism to reach the end of their three-month-long voyage.[6]
In 1842,France, following a successful military operation on behalf of a native chief (namedIotete) who claimed to be king of the whole of the island of Tahuata, took possession of the whole group, establishing a settlement (abandoned in 1859) on Nuku Hiva. French re-established control over the group in 1870, and later incorporated into the territory ofFrench Polynesia.Paul Gauguin and other French artists traveled to the Marquesas Islands and other areas of Polynesia in the 19th century to live and work at his art. The islands were regularly visited by whaling and trading ships of various nations.
Of all the major island groups of thePacific, the Marquesas Islands suffered the greatest population decline as a result of Eurasian endemic diseases carried by European explorers, which resulted in epidemics, particularly ofsmallpox, to which they had no acquiredimmunity. The estimated 16th-century population of over 100,000 inhabitants, was reduced to about 20,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century, and to just over 2,000 by the beginning of the 1900s. During the course of the twentieth century, the population began to revive, increasing to about 8,500 by 2002, not including the Marquesan community residing on Tahiti. It has continued to increase since then.