page_title: Annexation of the Leeward Islands
section_title: Bora Bora
hierarchical_section_title: Annexation of the Leeward Islands / Annexation of the Leeward Islands / Bora Bora
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La milice, de Borabora.
context_page_description: The annexation of the Leeward Islands or the Leewards War was a series of diplomatic and armed conflicts between the French Third Republic and the native kingdoms of Raiatea-Tahaa, Huahine and Bora Bora, which resulted in the conquest of the Leeward Islands, in the South Pacific archipelago of the Society Islands in modern-day French Polynesia.
  This conflict was the last phase of armed indigenous resistance against French rule in the Society Islands, which began in 1843 with the forcible imposition of a protectorate over the Kingdom of Tahiti in the Franco-Tahitian War. The three Leeward Islands kingdoms were ensured independence by the Jarnac Convention, a joint agreement signed between France and Great Britain in 1847. Continual instability in the native regimes and the growing threat of the nascent German colonial empire in the Pacific prompted France to declare the islands under a provisional protectorate in 1880, in violation of the 1847 Convention. In 1888, France and Britain agreed to abrogate their previous treaty and allow the French to annex the Leeward Islands.
context_section_description: Bora Bora and its dependencies were nominally annexed on 19 March 1888 by Governor Lacascade. Traditionally, Boraborans were regarded as the most warlike people of the archipelago. LMS missionary William Edward Richards wrote in 1888 that the Boraborans "were strongly opposed to the [French] flag, and it was feared that blood would be shed" but that they wisely appreciated their weakness and lack of "mountain strongholds", and "gradually settl[ed] down with bad grace into the inevitable". The islands were also recovering from a recent civil war between Bora Bora and secessionist forces in Maupiti in 1876. Toullelan noted that Bora Bora did not lay down its arms until 1894 but provided no details.
  Bora Bora remained neutral during the conflicts of Raiatea which prevented the French from administering their new acquisition until September 1895. Through the persuasion of her ex-husband Prince Hinoi, Queen Teriimaevarua III accepted French administration and formally abdicated on 21 September 1895. Retaining her honor as queen, she was allowed to collect tributes from the outlying northern islands and was provided with a pension by the colonial government. A French vice-resident and later a gendarme was placed in charge of the islands, but they retained native laws and government for a few more years. In an ironic gesture of defiance, the islanders appointed a blind man to the office of French flag raiser. In 1898 the former queen, Teriimaevarua III, attempted to incite a new resistance movement in the islands and was exiled to Tahaa by the order Governor Gallet on 27 October 1898.
caption: The militia of Bora Bora, 1895
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