HISTORY

Europeans in search of an imaginary continent

The desire to explore the unknown and find new wealth in the unexplored oceans of the world drove the great nations to launch expeditions across the Pacific from the 16th century on.  Although the atolls of the Tuamotu Islands were discovered in 1521, it was only in 1525 that the first human contacts between "Indians" and Europeans took place in that part of the ocean.

The Spaniard Alvaro de Mendana, an inexperienced navigator, had sailed west for the first time in 1567 and crossed Polynesia without discovering our islands ! 28 years later, Mendana finally managed to get approval for another expedition.  His second-in-command was the Portuguese navigator, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros.

     On 16 June, 1595, four ships left Peru with a motley collection of 400 men.  After sailing for five weeks, they caught sight of Fatu Hiva.
     For the first time in history the Marquesans made contact with both the white man and his firearms.  The Spaniards left a sad memorial of their visit: 200 dead and the ravages of syphilis.
     Of course, the conquerors never found their Eldorado.  Mendana died and with him most of the people he had led to a bitter end.  By a miracle, a single ship under the command of Quiros reached the Philippines with 50 survivors.
     In 1605, Quiros, in spite of his unhappy experiences with Mendana, set off again from Callao in Peru, trying, in his turn, to discover those famous southern continents.
     In order to do this, he took the logical path and went further south.  However, after weeks at sea with no land in sight, lack of water and food made him take the rational solution and change course for the northwest.  This unforeseen manoeuvre took him straight to the Tuamotu Islands.  After having sailed past several inhospitable atolls, he finally entered Hao's lagoon on 4 February, 1606.
     The voyagers from the three galleons were very well received by the natives, and were allowed to replenish their supplies.  They set off in a north-northwest direction, then went due west.  Over this long route, islands were few and far between, and their inhabitants were so hostile they were not even tempted to land.
     The expedition finished up in the same way as Mendana's had in the New Hebrides.  Quiros set off by himself to return to Acapulco via the north Pacific.  It was 160 years before the next Spanish ship came back to our waters.

Pirates and corsairs

During the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many were the commercial vessels to plough the Pacific Ocean.
     In 1565, Spain annexed the Philippines and galleons were to go backwards and forwards very frequently between Mexico and Manila with their cargo.  Once Acapulco was left behind, the crossing followed a straight line between 10 and 15' North of the equator.  If the wind was behind them, it took them about a hundred days to reach Manila.  On the other hand, if they were faced with the eastern trade winds, it was impossible to take the same route back. The galleons found another way keeping close to Japan and the North of the Pacific before coming back down the Californian coast.

This coming and going of vessels laden with riches must have aroused the cupidity of certain sea-goers as English pirates soon found the Pacific to be an ideal hunting-ground.
     From 1698, French ships from La Rochelle and St Malo made their presence felt in this ocean, too. They, along with the English, represented a permanent danger for Spanish shipping.  The sailors from St Malo were the fist of the French to take the route round Cape Horn rather than through the Magellan Straits. More and more often their fellow-countrymen were encouraged to set sail for the South American ports. As numbers increased, competition became so fierce that, about 1710, some ships sought to carry out their commerce on the other side of the ocean. So, after having sold their French cargo to Peru and Chile, the captains crossed the Pacific in order to buy Chinese merchandise and to bring it back for sale in America. Today, we know for sure that some captains leaving Asiatic shores preferred to return to France via Africa. This would seem to indicate that Bougainville was not the first French navigator to go round the world (1766-1769)

Because of the illicit nature of the traffic in goods that were more or less contraband, history has no record of these crews of the very early eighteenth century.

Scientific exploration

According to official records, the first people to open up a new era in the second half of the 18th century were the English with their scientific explorations of the Pacific.  There can be no doubt that very little was known about that ocean in 1760.

Yet, in 1700, Louis XIV had already sponsored an expedition under the command of Jacques de Beauchesne who crossed the Magellan straits from East to West.  Perhaps his mission was inspired by the success of St Malo merchants because his main task was to search for markets, and also collect information. Duplessis, a hydrographer, was on board ship to take soundings of the waters and surveys of the lands encountered on the way.  This scientist was fascinated by his discoveries and turned out to be a gifted if somewhat naive painter.

Beauchesne's expedition followed the coast of South America.  From the commercial point of view, it was a failure.  But thanks to Duplessis, this abortive mission was transformed into a resounding success.  By painting the natural surroundings and giving a detailed account of the straits, bays and ports, his work reflected a new conception of exploration.  Other governments began to understand the importance of scientific studies and astronomers, naturalists, ethnologists and painters figured in future expeditions.  The secrets of the Pacific began to be studied in earnest.

The first Englishman sent round the world by the king of England was Commodore John Byron.  In 1765, he sailed past the Tuamotu Islands without being able to drop anchor.

Wallis

The most important historical event of the era was the discovery of Tahiti by Samuel Wallis on 17 June 1767.  The English captain anchored the Dolphin at Taiarapu in the southern part of the island.  The islanders were so hostile he was obliged to intimidate them by firing cannons.  The next day the ship moved to the North of the island looking for a more pleasant anchorage, and on 23 June, he landed in Matavai Bay.

At first, the "Dolphin" was surrounded by thousands of people in canoes, fascinated by the prospect of participating in the barter organized by the English.  Suddenly, they began throwing stones at the frigate, and Wallis fired his cannons once again.

The next day, he sent armed men on shore to take official possession of the island to which he gave the name of "King George III’s Island", but as the Tahitians continued to attack him, both on sea and land, Wallis decided to reveal his superiority once and for all.  He fired at the canoes and the crowd gathered on shore to watch the combat.  While the numerous victims were being lamented over, the Englishman sent saboteurs with orders to destroy all the canoes.

Now more submissive, the islanders helped the crew to refurbish their supplies in exchange for nails.  Purea's arrival at Matavai could have influenced the attitude of the natives towards the voyagers, because they suddenly became very cooperative.  This woman was a very powerful chieftain, often incorrectly called a queen, and the wife of Amo, chief of the great tribe of Teva, whose fleet had been destroyed by Wallis.  This ari’i rahi was to be killed by the bullets of Pomare's European mercenaries in 1793.
Purea took charge of the English until they set sail and wept when they departed.

Bougainville

On 2 April, 1768, that is to say, a few months after the Dolphin's visit, two French ships arrived in Tahiti, the Etoile and the Boudeuse, under the command of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville.  He spent ten days at anchor on the east coast in the Hitiaa lagoon.  His ships had set out from Nantes on 16 November l766, stopped in Brazil and gone round Cape Horn before crossing the Pacific.  Bougainville set up a camp at Hitiaa for the thirty or so members of his crew suffering from scurvy.  The use of local medicinal plants alleviated their sufferings.  Apparently, this stay in Tahiti was far too short to allow the scientists on board, an astronomer and a naturalist, to do much work.  Although Bougainville was considered to be a far more cultured man than Wallis or Cook, he was more attracted by the charms of everyday life than the prospect of analyzing the characteristics of Polynesian civilization.  Once back in France, he promoted Tahiti's idyllic image, giving her the name of the New Cythera, and at the same time proclaiming the island to be a French possession.

"This is the flrst time my reading has tempted me to visit a country other than my own", said Denis Diderot.

The book "Voyage", published in 1771, had a resounding and long lasting success.  Though Bougainville may have left to Cook the honor of piercing the mystery of the Pacific, he gave men a vision of a new paradise and an endless source of dreams.

Cook

Chronology

The Bounty's mercenaries

Cook’s companion, Joseph Banks, once he became President of the London Royal Society, chose a gardener, David Nelson, to accompany William Bligh on his overseas mission.  The aim of the expedition was to collect breadfruit-tree cuttings and transplant them in the British West Indies.  These men had already been to Tahiti in 1777 with Captain Cook.

Bligh, the captain of the Bounty, was victim of the most famous mutiny in history, but we are not going to repeat the story here.  However, though authors and film-directors have not always treated that energetic leader of men very kindly, they were strangely silent about how crucial this episode was for Tahitian history.

We now know that the crew had had a very strong influence on the Tahitian people during their five month stay in 1789 and before the mutiny.

After Bligh and his faithful had been abandoned at sea, Fletcher Christian and 24 sailors, some of whom had been forced to stay on board because of their professional qualifications, tried to settle on Tubuai, in the Austral Islands.  However, this settlement proved impossible because of the opposition of the local inhabitants.  So Christian decided to set out to discover another island after having returned to Tahiti to disembark those who had chosen to stay there in spite of the obvious risk of being easily discovered by the British authorities.  With a mere eight companions and a few Tahitians, Christian founded the population of Pitcairn.

The sixteen sailors who stayed in Tahiti, plus one man who had been left on land in the meantime by an English captain passing through Polynesia, changed the course of Tahitian history, thanks to their weapons and their willingness to take military action in local wars.

When Cook was on his last voyage ten years before, he had already lent his support to a young chief Tu, at logger-heads with other tribes.  This manoeuvre was so successful that the future Pomare became Tahiti's number one at the time of the mutiny.  Because they had been received on board the Bounty by Bligh, and covered \with gifts, Tu, whose married name became Tina, and his wife Itia, were envied by all the,/ other chiefs for the favours they enjoyed.  Bligh's departure, of course, left the royal couple in despair as they feared their rivals' vengeance.  So it was obvious why Tina, who had changed his name again, this time to Mate, betrayed so much interest in the

return of the English and their muskets.  It had not taken him long to realize that if he had a few European mercenaries he could gain universal respect and the control of the whole island.  However, apart from two or three brutish fellows who ended up by kflling one another, the mutineers preferred to set about building a schooner without further ado, rather than get involved in a war at Mate's request.  In April, 1790, they limited their action to furnishing muskets.  This allowed Tu to conquer Moorea.  The first time they took direct action was against the people of Faaa, who, terrified by their presence in the battle, withdrew in great confusion.  Realizing then that they had made many enemies, and fearing for their lives if, by chance, their adversaries should \Win, the mercenaries took sides with Ari'ipaea, Mate's brother.  After several more battles, from which Mate emerged victor \without ever having had to take part in them, a truce was granted to the vanquished provided that they recognized the sovereignty of the one who would be the first-Pomare, and that they invested him with the maro ura.  This royal belt was used to consecrate the young Tu, Mate's son, and confer on him the supreme anthority.  The ceremonies for his investiture were to take place on the marae in the presence of the defeated ari'i.

For the men of the Bounty, this end to hostilities coincided with the unexpected arrival of an English ship, the Pandora, which had come to collect them.  The mercenaries panicked and some fled to the mountains to hide, whiletheotherstooktotheopenseaonboardtheirschooner.Theywereallto be captured and taken on board to await trial in England.

The Pomare line and the end of an ancient society

Early English and French interference in Tahitian affairs is, historically speaking, as important as the name POMARE, as these two powers were vying for the possession of new colonies.

In fact, the political position held by the first Pomare could have been due to the arms agreement concluded between foreigners and a local chief.

Before the Europeans arrived, the Teva lineage were gathered at the feet of the great chief of Papara, and exerted absolute power. Recently, the name Teva, originally belonging to a kind of federation, has been used to designate the former dynasty, as they had no real patronym at that time.

But it would seem that the Teva, weakened by wars with other powerful chiefs, were finally dominated by the Pomare who were equipped with European arms.

Leaving aside this debate as to which of the two great royal families had the most right to govern, let us note that Tu, the future Pomare 1, was only a local chief whose rank was inferior to that of the Papara chiefs when Cook first arrived in Tahiti.  Furthermore, he tries to hide the fact that he comes from the Tuamotu Islands as he considers it a blot on his escutcheon, the Paumotu being considered inferior to the Tahibans.

However, during that epoch, genealogy was of prime importance and Pomare managed to vindicate his claim to greater powers because of the number of relatives he had throughout the Society Islands.

His son, Pomare 11, known for his intelligence and outgoing personality, became King in 1815.  He realized how important the influence of the missionaries and British commerce was to be for him.  He asked to be baptized in 1812, thus abandoning his traditional Gods.  Before his despotic reign began, a religious war had broken out, but it was terminated by the victory of the Christian converts in the battle of Fei pi in 1815.

This defeat marked the theoretical end of the traditionalists and of the ancient r6gime.  From now on, popaa and the Pomare family became dominant.  In this way, the Arii, sages and priests, were to disappear along with idols and primitive tools.  

The French-Tahitian war  

During the reign of Pomare Vahine IV, one man was to play a very important role in the unfolding history of Tahiti.  At this time, the setting up of the Catholic church in Tahiti had developed into a power-struggle between the English and the French.  A Protestant missionary, George Pritchard, of the London Missionary Society, arrived in 1824, and was acting English consul from 1837.  Pritchard who had a geat influence over the Queen, encouraged Pomare Vahine IV, moreover a faithful Protestant, to request the English to make Tahiti a protectorate from 1838.

In 1842, Admiral Dupetit-Thouars arrived in Tahiti, having previously annexed the Marquesas for France. Pritchard was in London to plead the cause of Tahiti's becoming a protectorate, and the Queen had withdrawn to Moorea.

In her absence, the admiral, along vath the French consul, Moerenhout, organised the leading pro-French chiefs into signing a demand for French protection.  Diverse threats eventually persuaded the queen to sign the contract, and the country was proclaimed a protectorate on 9 September 1842.

In 1843, Papeete received confirmation that the protectorate treaty had been ratified by Louis-Philippe and Armand Bruat was appointed Governor of the Marquesas.  In actual fact, he took up residence in Tahiti, as it was more convenient.

Unfortunately, after Dupetit-Thouars'departure, the first governor was left with an explosive and difficult situation because of a ridiculous little accident: the admiral had forbidden the queen to fly her personal flag from her palace, and had had the official protectorate flag reinstated by armed force.  Queen Pomare was outraged by this attack on her sovereignty and complained to the king of France.  Pritchard, of course, hoped for some reaction from England.  Furthermore, he took advantage of the presence of an English ship in Papeete to persuade the queen and her people that other warships were coming to their aid.

However, when another English ship, the Basilisk, dropped anchor in Tahitian waters at the beginning of 1844, it was not bringing war, but messages for Pritchard and for the captain of the ship which had arrived before French annexation.  The English government asked them to take no action against the establishment and continuation of the French protectorate.  Whereas the captain had orders to leave Tahiti immediately, Pritchard was requested to treat the French authorities with the utmost respect and to advise the queen to act prudently. He considered it was no use informing Pomare of the contents of the dispatch, but the situation was reversed because a letter signed by the queen began to circulate throughout the tribal areas.   She assured her subjects that England would never desert them and that the English vessel had gone for reinforcements, leaving behind one ship for their protection.  She insisted on the fact that they should patiently bear \with the French and refrain from maltreating them until further news came to hand.

Of course, the letter had the opposite effect, and Queen Pomare, fearing for her life, took refuge, with her family, on the Basilisk. The first sign of revolt broke out on the peninsula.

While Bruat was having a small fort built at Taravao, the Taiarapu chiefs
were gathering 2,000 men together.

During this tense period of confrontation, Pritchard was arrested in Papeete and then expelled on 13 March, 1844.

The first skirmishes took place in Taravao a few days later, and the following month, the governor engaged 400 men who disembarked to carry out a bloody encounter on the east coast.This battle, on Mahaena Beach, was the beginning of guerilla warfare which was to last three years.  That day, the Tahitians lost 102 men, and the French, 15.

The Tahitians, realizing the risk they were taking with such encounters, set up several entrenched camps high up in the valleys of the island and from there launched sporadic attacks against French positions.

When the Queen left for Raiatea, the fighting had extended to the Leeward
Islands. At last, on 17 December, 1846, the French took the Fautaua fort and peace was declared once more.

Pomare IV ended up by joining the cause, and on 7 January, 1847, they celebrated the signing of the agreement between the local chiefs and the French government. However, Bruat did not manage to get the Leeward Islands included in the treaty, and they were declared independent in June, 1847. The successor to the queen, her son, Pomare V, finally gave his territories to France on 29 June, 1880.

The Gambier archipelago, under French protection since 1844, was annexed in 1881, Huahine in 1897 and the Austral lslands'archipelago, under French protection since 1889, became a colony in 1900.

In 1885, Tahiti and her archipelago were given the official title of the official title of the"Etablissements Francais de l'Oceanie".  Papeete adapted to the colonial administration but in the outlying islands and the country areas, people carried on living as they had done for centuries.

The "Etablissements Francais de I'Oceanie"

At the time of the French protectorate, the central structure of Tahitian administration was composed of the royal court, the Assembly and the district councils. French authority was represented by the governor, assisted by diverse officers and civil servants.

In 1866, the Tahitian legislative assembly voted for the French legislation proposed by the governor.  For Tahiti, a country with a population reduced to 8,000 by the ravages of tuberculosis, this decision made by local chiefs was certainly the most important event of the epoch before the abdication of the last king on 29 June, 1880.

If up until 1880 France had only exercised her sovereignty over the Marquesas Islands, by the beginning of the twentieth century, her empire included all the archipelagos. French rule was not accepted in the Leeward Islands, however, without a long struggle from 1889 to 1897.

Papeete was a mere village at that time, lulled into a state of torpor by the weight of its administration.  The capital, buried in its rampant tropical vegetation, was a static, melancholy place with houses scattered here and there and a population of 4,000 including 95% of the French settlers.

Isolation and the tropical climate bred ennui and the idle civil servants spent their time at the Colonial Club where tongues wagged freely. Completely separated from the Tahitians and scorning the community of "poor whites",  these hundred or so settlers struggled with insurmountable financial difficulties. These French colonists, who had mostly come from the army or navy, had no income once they chose to remain on the spot after they had been demobilized. A few of them tackled agriculture thanks to their Tahitian concubines'lands, but even then they only managed to keep body and soul together.

The English, Americans and Germans, who were not so numerous, came from a more wealthy background and often had considerable capital behind them.  Some of them married into Polynesian aristocracy and this brought them land and labour. In this way, the first families to take control of local commerce were the Salmons, Laharragues, Branders and Horts.

France realized that the "French Colonisation Societv was far from being efficient", even though their aims were to promote colonial settlement without their guaranteeing land, and she authorized the recruiting of Pacific labour.

Small groups of people from Melanesia, the Gilbert Islands, Atiu and Easter Island joined the Chinese community.

The Chinese, who had fled the grinding poverty of southern China, arrived for the first time in Tahiti in 1856, a small group who were employed in the cotton plantations of the Marquesas.  But in 1865, Chinese immigration became more pronounced.The Agricultural Company of Tahiti did, in fact, have recourse to coolies to counteract the colony’s lack of labour.

These workers were engaged for 7 years by the managers of the "great plantation" of Atimaono which produced cotton and coffee.

Though William Stewart's plantation prospered during the United States' War of Secession, when it was over, cotton prices slumped and Atimaono was headed for ruin. The authorities then began to worry about the disorder that could arise if the unemployed Chinese spread throughout the country.In actual fact, not many coolies settled in Tahiti, as the majority preferred to go back to China, or around the Pacific coast.Immigration from mainland China was not to begin again until after 1907.

The Chinese who came from this second wave of migration, and later in the twenties, were the ones to make their name in business.

Between 1964 and 1973, metropolitan France gradually granted French nationality to all these Chinese citizens.