French Polynesia: History - TripAdvisor Want the lowest hotel prices? You're in the right place. We check 200+ sites for you. French Polynesia: History Review a place you’ve visited JOIN Free Newsletter Interested in French Polynesia? We'll send you updates with the latest deals, reviews and articles for French Polynesia each week. French Polynesia Traveler Article: Read more about French Polynesia Topics include Transportation, Things to Do, Dining Scene, For Foreign Visitors & more! Comments (0) The Marquesas Islands are believed to have been settled in around 300 AD by Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa Islands. The western portion of French Polynesia was likely inhabited by around 800 AD. Europeans began exploring the region in 1767, when British explorer Samuel Wallis came upon what has become known as Tahiti. French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville followed soon after, and in 1769, British explorer Captain James Cook arrived. Cook gave Tahiti its name and called its surrounding islands the Society Islands after his sponsor, Britain’s Royal Society.

In 1796, the first European settlers arrived from the London Missionary Society. In 1815 Pomare II, a prominent local chief, had converted to Christianity, and the religion spread quickly through the French Polynesia. French Catholic missionaries arrived in the area in 1836, but were driven out by Christian Tahitians. The expulsion of these missionaries, along with interest in building a naval base in the South Pacific, heightened French interest. In 1842, France made the Marquesas and Tahiti a protectorate, and soon colonized other islands in the region. In 1880, King Pomare V officially ceded his kingdom of Tahiti and Moorea to France. The islands became part of French Oceania. The boundaries of French Polynesia were set in 1900 by the annexation of the Austral Islands. In the early 20th century Tahiti’s port town of Papeete became the main economic, administrative, and religious center for the region. During World War Two, the island of Bora Bora became a fueling station for United States forces.

American influence during and after the war helped inspire French Polynesian nationalism and the desire for more cultural, economic, and political freedom. In 1946 the colony became an overseas territory of France, and a territorial assembly was created to manage local affairs. In the late 1940s an independence movement emerged in the region. However, in a referendum held in 1958, island voters chose to remain a territory of France rather than become independent and lose French economic aid. Movements for greater autonomy continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in several statutes that gave the territorial government more power, though to this day it remains a French protectorate. An international airport opened in Papeete in 1963, spurring major growth in tourism. Today, the economies of French Polynesia are based almost entirely on tourism, with a decreasing portion of the population relying on traditional subsistence agriculture. Share your knowledge BBC - History - Captain James Cook z Portrait of Captain James Cook, by John Webber © Cook was an 18th century explorer and navigator whose achievements in mapping the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia radically changed western perceptions of world geography.

As one of the very few men in the 18th century navy to rise through the ranks, Cook was particularly sympathetic to the needs of ordinary sailors. James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 in a small village near Middlesbrough in Yorkshire. His father was a farm worker. At the age of 17, Cook moved to the coast, settling in Whitby and finding work with a coal merchant. In 1755, Cook enlisted in the Royal Navy, serving in North America where he learnt to survey and chart coastal waters. In 1769, the planet Venus was due to pass in front of the Sun, a rare event visible only in the southern hemisphere. The British government decided to send an expedition to observe the phenomenon. A more secret motive was to search for the fabled southern continent. Cook was chosen as commander of the Whitby-built HMS Endeavour. Those on board included astronomer Charles Green and botanist Joseph Banks. Endeavour arrived in Tahiti in April 1769 where Green was able to observe the transit of Venus.

Endeavour continued on to New Zealand, and then sailed along the length of Australia's eastern coast, which had never before been seen by Europeans. Cook claimed it for Britain and named it New South Wales. Cook and his crew then returned home, arriving in July 1771. In 1772, not satisfied by his previous exploits, Cook set out on a second voyage to look for the southern continent. His two ships sailed close to the Antarctic coast but were forced to turn back by the cold. They then visited New Zealand and Tahiti, returning to England in 1775. Cook's third voyage was to find the North-West Passage that was believed to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Unable to find the fabled route, Cook took his two ships south and explored the island of Hawaii. Relations with the islanders were soured after the theft of a ship's boat. On 14 February Cook tried to take the local leader hostage. There was a scuffle and Cook was stabbed and killed.

European explorers - Early explorers | NZHistory, New Zealand history online Abel Tasman stamp Dutch exploration of the Pacific was essentially bound up with the Dutch East India Company's quest for a southern sea route to Chile, and the possibility that there might be treasures in 'unknown' parts of the globe. His voyage thus motivated (and financed) by business interests, in mid December 1642 Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand, anchoring a few days later at what is now called Golden Bay. By the time he left in early January 1643, Tasman's New Zealand was a ragged line on the world map, which might or might not be the coast of the unknown southern land. Another voyage was planned in 1643, but the Dutch never followed up on Tasman's discovery, probably as he had not found any land which would provide the material profit the Dutch East India Company had hoped for. Serious British interest in the Pacific is generally considered to have begun only in the mid 1760s. Following John Byron and Samuel Wallis's earlier expeditions, in 1768 James Cook set out for Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus.

The expedition was then to establish the eastern tip of Tasman's New Zealand and the Australian coastline. While the goals of the voyage were scientific, the British also wished to expand trade and empire, and Cook would be careful to include information on resources and the suitability of land for settlement. James Cook stamp Cook sailed from Plymouth in late August 1768, and sighted New Zealand on 6 October 1769. By the time he left to chart the Australian east coast at the beginning of April 1770, he mapped the entire coastline, confirming that New Zealand was not a vast southern continent. Yet there still remained unexplored ocean to the east of New Zealand, where a great continent could lie. The exploration of these areas was one of the objectives of Cook's second voyage (1772-5), which finally proved there was no such continent. Cook's discoveries also forged New Zealand's later links with Britain. Several French explorers active in the Pacific at the same time, so the Admiralty instructed Cook to annex lands he might discover.

At Mercury Bay on 15 November 1769, and at Queen Charlotte Sound on 30 January 1770, he made proclamations which helped ensure that Britain would dominate New Zealand's subsequent history. The French, also interested in trade and exploration, were the only other Europeans to play a significant part in the mapping of New Zealand's coastline. As Cook rounded the top of the North Island in December 1769, the French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville was as little as 40km to the south-west. In mid December he reached the west coast of New Zealand, spending two weeks in Doubtless Bay. On the heels of de Surville, in 1772 Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne spent more than two months in the Bay of Islands while undertaking extensive repairs. He was killed in mid June, caught in a volatile situation between Ngā Puhi and Ngāti Pou, but many of his initial encounters with Maori were friendly, and the expedition left an extensive record of Maori life. From the 1770s, New Zealand tended to be used more as a base for explorers seeking more challenging destinations.

On his way to survey the north-west coast of America for example, George Vancouver spent three weeks in Dusky Sound in November 1791. In February 1793 the Italian explorer Alessandro Malaspina also called in to Dusky Sound on his way to Australia. A quarter of a century later, the Russian explorer Fabian von Bellingshausen was sent to continue to work of Cook's later voyages in exploring the southern polar regions. He visited Queen Charlotte Sound for a week, using it as a base as Cook had. In 1824 the French explorer Louis Isidore Duperrey had a two week stop over in the Bay of Islands before continuing on his circumnavigation of the world. Duperrey's second-in-command in 1824 was Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville. The expedition that Dumont d'Urville led in 1826 is considered to be the last important voyage in the story of the European discovery of New Zealand. D'Urville intended to complete Cook's chart of New Zealand; he explored Tasman and Admiralty Bays, and much of the east coast of the North Island before leaving.

Further information: Pre-Tasman theories The 'articles' page of the Celtic New Zealand website offers a range of material for those interested in claims about an ancient Celtic presence in New Zealand. The 'radical history' page of Zealand.org summarises alternative theories of discovery. The Tamil Bell - In 1836 the missionary and explorer William Colenso found this bell, which had long been used by Maori as a cooking vessel. Theories abound, but the precise origins of the bell and how it got to New Zealand remain a mystery. Explorers Abel Janszoon Tasman (Dutch, 1602/3?-1659) - first arrival 1642 Essay on Tasman - from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Abel Tasman 1642 - a site devoted to the 370th anniversary of Tasman's visit to New Zealand James Cook (English, 1728-1779) - first arrival 1769 Captain Cook Society - a useful starting point for further research into Cook's life and work; has a strong bibliographic and links section . The Endeavour replica - detailed information on the original and replica ship.

James Cook - covers almost every conceivable aspect of Cook's life and work. Also contains material on the scientific side of Cook's Pacific voyages, and his interactions with indigenous peoples. South Seas - focuses on cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific between 1760 and 1800. Cook Memorial Museum - dedicated to Cook's early years near the English village of Whitby. It offers a tour of one of Cook's early residences, now a memorial museum. John Cawte Beaglehole - a brief biography of the New Zealand historian best known for his work on James Cook's journals. Biography on Cook from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Jean François Marie de Surville (French, 1717-1770) - first arrival 1769 Biography on Surville from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Summary of Surville's voyages to New Zealand. The French Akaroa page from Te Ara: the encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand in History web-page, outlining French colonists in New Zealand, the Akaroa settlement , and the conflicting French and British interests.

Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne (French, 1724?-1772) - first arrival 1772 Summary of du Fresne's voyages to the Pacific and New Zealand . Biography of du Fresne from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. George Vancouver (English, 1757-1798) - first arrival 1791 Vancouver's Pacific voyages - On his third expedition, Cook had been looking for the Northwest Passage (a sea route through or around North America). In 1791 Vancouver was sent to complete this search. Alessandro Malaspina (Spanish, 1754-1810) - first arrival 1793 Biographical information and summary of voyages. Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen (1778-1852) -first arrival 1820 Biography of von Bellingshausen from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.

Cyrille-Pierre-Théodore Laplace (1793-1875) - first arrival 1830 Laplace's 1831 visit to New Zealand caused a stir when it was rumoured that he had taken New Zealand for France. Te Ara entry on the French explorers of New Zealand. Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) -first arrival 1824 Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) - lots of good information - Antarctic philately site! d'Urville's visits to New Zealand between 1824 and 1840. Biography of d'Urville from the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Others Joseph Banks' journal of a voyage on HMS Endeavour, August 1768 - July 1771 and other information relating to Banks held at the State Library of New South Wales. See also a biography of Banks on the Australian National Botanic Gardens site.

Daniel Charles Solander (1733-1782) , 'Botanist and Nature's Argonaut' on the Endeavour, 1768-1771. A biography of Solander from the Australian National Botanic Gardens site. Early explorers Captain James Cook | British Navigator and Explorer Home: Library: Cook, James “I now once more hoisted English Coulers and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third, took possession of the whole Eastern Coast [of New Holland] from the above Latitude down to this place by the name of New South Wales.” - JAMES COOK James Cook British Navigator and Explorer, 1728 - 1779 James Cook was born on October 27, 1728 in Marton, (near modern Middlesborough), Yorkshire, Britain. Cook commanded three voyages of discovery for Great Britain, and sailed around the world twice. He was the first British ship commander to circumnavigate the globe in a lone ship. Cook was also the first British commander to prevent the outbreak of scurvy by regulating his crew’s diet, serving them citrus fruit and sauerkraut to prevent the disease.

He is considered one of the world’s greatest explorers. Cook was an apprentice to a shipping company at age 15, and joined the British Navy in 1755 at the age of 27. In 1768, the British Admiralty appointed Cook, then a Lieutenant, to lead a scientific expedition that would sail to the island of Tahiti in the south Pacific to establish an astronomical observatory. Their mission was to measure an eclipse of the sun by Venus . The Admiralty selected Cook because of his proven skills as a navigator, and for his interest in astronomy. He set out on August 12, 1768 in His Majesty’s Bark Endeavour , arriving in Tahiti on April 13, 1769. On June 3, 1769, Cook successfully measured the time it took Venus to transit the sun, and by doing so obtained data that would help scientists to accurately determine the size of the solar system. Cook was also issued secret orders to seek the great southern continent (“Terres Australes Incognita” or unknown lands in the south) that geographers long believed kept the world in balance.

In Cook’s day, the discovery of new lands often lead to great wealth for the nation claiming those lands. His orders were secret because the Admiralty did not want Britain’s international competitors to know about this aspect of Cook’s expedition. Cook searched for Terres Australes to no avail, determining that no such great continent existed. In October 1769, he was the first European to land on New Zealand. The Islands were sighted previously by Dutch Captain Able Tasman in 1642, 127 years before Cook’s landing. New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeelandt (meaning Sea Land). In 1770, Cook conducted a comprehensive survey of the eastern coast of New Holland (now Australia), the part of the continent the Dutch had not technically mapped. On August 22, 1770, he claimed those lands for Great Britain. The name “Australia” was not used until the early 1800s. On Cook’s second journey he sailed farther south than any other European. He circled Antarctica in his famous ship Resolution , but the ice surrounding the continent prevented the sighting of land. The existence of the Antarctica remained unproved until 1840.

Upon his return to England in 1775, Cook was promoted to Captain and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. In July of 1776, Cook set sail on his third voyage, again in Resolution . His mission was to look for a possible northern sea route between Europe and Asia. In 1778, Cook became the first know European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. Later in 1778, he sailed up the northwest coast of North America, and was the first European to land on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. He continued up the coast through the Bering Strait, and entered the Arctic Ocean. Great walls of ice blocked the expedition, so Cook headed back for the Hawaiian Islands. On February 14, 1779, Cook was stabbed to death by Hawaiian natives while investigating a theft of a boat by an islander. The expedition arrived back in England in October of 1780. If you are aware of books, movies, databases, web sites or other information sources about James Cook or related subjects, or if you would like to comment, please contact us .

Resource Menu History - French Polynesia - Oceania: economy subsistence, bora bora, 1900 early, employment military, christianity religion home :: Oceania :: French Polynesia :: History French Polynesia, History Archaeological evidence suggests that the Marquesas Islands were settled by ad 300 by Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa Islands. The western portion of the Society Islands was probably inhabited by ad 800. Significant European contact in the region began in 1767, when British explorer Samuel Wallis came upon what is now Tahiti. French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville followed soon after, and British explorer Captain James Cook arrived in 1769. Cook named Tahiti and called its surrounding islands the Society Islands after his sponsor, Britain's Royal Society. The first European settlers in the area were members of the London Missionary Society who arrived in 1796. By 1815 Pomare II, a prominent local chief, had converted to Christianity, and the religion spread quickly through the Society Islands, the Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago.

In 1836 French Catholic missionaries arrived in the area but were driven out by Christian Tahitians. The expulsion of these missionaries, along with the desire to develop a naval base in the Pacific, heightened French interest in the region. In 1842 France made the Marquesas and Tahiti a protectorate. French colonization of the other islands followed. In 1880 King Pomare V, the last of the Pomare lineage, officially ceded his kingdom of Tahiti and Moorea to France. Beginning at this time, the islands were administered as part of French Oceania. The boundaries of French Polynesia became fixed with the annexation of the Austral Islands in 1900. In the early 20th century the port town of Papeete grew as the main economic, administrative, and religious center for the region. During World War II (1939-1945) the island of Bora Bora, in the Society Islands, became a refueling station for United States forces. American influence helped inspire French Polynesian nationalism among Tahiti residents and the desire for more cultural, economic, and political freedom.

In 1946 the colony became an overseas territory of France, and a territorial assembly was created to manage local affairs. In the late 1940s an independence movement emerged in the region, led by a carpenter and war veteran named Pouvanaa Oopa. Oopa's pro-autonomy party gained the majority of seats in the territorial assembly in 1953 and 1957. In a referendum held in 1958, island voters chose to remain a territory of France rather than become independent and lose French economic aid.. In 1963 an international airport opened in Papeete, spurring growth in tourism. Three years later, France began a nuclear testing program on uninhabited islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago, establishing a large support facility in Papeete. The growth of tourism and nuclear testing transformed the basis of French Polynesia's economy from subsistence agriculture to services and increased the territory's foreign dependency. Movements for greater autonomy continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s, resulting in several statutes that gave the territorial government more power.

In the early 1990s Tahiti's high prices and international antinuclear sentiment caused a serious decline in French Polynesia's tourism industry. The industry experienced some recovery in 1993, when France suspended nuclear testing in response to international and local criticism. However, this action resulted in a sizable loss of employment in the military and in services related to the military. Nuclear testing resumed in September 1995, sparking full-scale riots that destroyed much of Papeete's business district and airport tourist facilities and resulted in a further decline in tourism. Although some participants may have been sincerely voicing concern over the environmental dangers of nuclear testing, many of the rioters were unemployed and disillusioned young men who were using the nuclear issue as a pretext to vent their frustrations. Nuclear testing was halted again in early 1996, shortly after the French government confirmed scientific reports that radioactive isotopes had leaked into the waters surrounding islands where testing had occurred. Although France denied that the isotopes posed a threat to the environment, in March 1996 the French government signed the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty, which banned nuclear testing in the region.

The halting of testing caused widespread unemployment in French Polynesia, and France promised to contribute substantial economic aid over a period of years to help the territory diversify its economy. [ad >] Are you lazy student? The smallest wireless audio headset will help you out! 6mm diameter (0.24 inch) - it hides inside ear completely and has no wires. Go to to read about it.

[< ad] Louis-Antoine de Bougainville Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, 1729–1811 Expedition (1766–1769): Two ships (Boudeuse and Etoile), 330 men Charge (by King Louis XV of France): To transfer French settlements in the Falklands to the Spanish, then to proceed to the East Indies by crossing the Pacific, taking possession of any new or empty land, and to seek an island near China for a trading post for the French East India Company Accomplishments: First French circumnavigation of the world, some island discoveries in the Tuamotu Archipelago, carried the first woman (Jeanne Baré) to circle the world Legacy of Bougainville’s name: Bougainvillea (plant), Bougainville (largest of the Solomon Islands), Bougainville Strait [Click on the images below for high resolution versions.] Portrait of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville. From vol. 1 of Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville’s Voyage pittoresque autour du monde . . . (Paris, 1834-1835).

[Rare Books Division] Born in Paris during the Age of Enlightenment, Bougainville enjoyed the advantages of an upper-middle-class life: a boarding school education, access to aristocratic salons, influential acquaintances through his father’s elected position in Paris’s municipal council. Deciding against following his father into a legal career, Bougainville entered the army in 1753. In London, on a diplomatic appointment, he published two volumes on integral calculus, for which he was elected to the Royal Society, Britain’s prestigious scientific organization. Later, he participated in the French defense of Quebec when it was besieged by the British and fell in September 1759. (Coincidentally, James Cook, then only a ship’s master, had supplied the British Navy with more accurate maps of the St. Lawrence River in that area, allowing General Wolfe safer amphibious access to the city.) On returning to France at the end of 1760, Bougainville embarked on a plan to colonize the Falkland Islands.

But the settlement there that he established and helped finance in 1763 irked Spain and Great Britain, who already had claims on the islands; as a result, in December 1766, Bougainville was sent back to transfer ownership to Spain. From the Falklands, he continued westward on a circumnavigation of the world. French King Louis XV supported Bougainville’s expedition, for its success would add prestige to a country still absorbing its defeats in the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763)—the North American part is usually referred to as the French and Indian War—including the loss of much of its colonial territory in the New World. Bougainville commanded the frigate Boudeuse; the Etoile joined him in Rio de Janeiro in June 1767. After negotiating the sale of the Spanish takeover of the Falklands, Bougainville sailed into the Strait of Magellan but needed fifty-two days to complete the transit, owing to rough seas and winds. He found evidence of a prior passage by the British ships commanded by Samuel Wallis and Philip Carteret.

(For more on their voyages, see Wallis/Carteret in the Explorers section.) The hard lives of the inhabitants of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego that he observed both impressed and distressed him. Bits of glass given as a present to a child were innocently ingested (with expected dire results), causing the natives to distrust the French. Books: Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de, comte, 1729–1811. Voyage autour du monde: Par la frégate du roi La Boudeuse, et la flûte L’Étoile: en 1776, 1767, 1768, & 1769. Paris, 1771. First French edition. [Rare Books Division] Though favorably reviewed, Bougainville’s account of his voyage was not a runaway best-seller. The first edition consisted probably of only a thousand copies; the second edition, in two volumes, was published the next year, as was the first English edition, in a translation by J. R. Forster.

But the book continued to stay in print—in abridged versions, new impressions, additional translations—into the twentieth century. Taitbout, d. 1799. Essai sur l’isle d’Otahiti, située dans la mer du Sud; et sur l’esprit et les mœurs de ses habitans. Avignon and Paris, 1779. [Rare Books Division] The first extensive work specifically on Tahiti. After its successive discoveries by Wallis, Bougainville, and Cook, Tahiti came to symbolize a living social and political experiment in the minds of many European philosophers: a primitive paradise that became spoiled and tainted by Western decadence. In this little work, often attributed to Bougainville—perhaps because it borrows extensively from his narrative and the earlier accounts of Cook and his accompanying naturalists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander—Taitbout speculates on the fundamental differences between the “homme sauvage” and the “homme civilize,” drawing from the example of Tahiti. He suggests that societies like Tahiti, that evolved in isolation, could offer political lessons to European nations, but acknowledges that the arrival of Europeans on their shores will deal them a death blow.

Taitbout’s purpose, in his own words (translated), is revolutionary: “to assist in bringing about the much-desired general revolution, to which the human spirit will one day owe the free, complete, and perfect union of all men.” “Monsieur Bougainville Hoisting the French Colours on a Small Rock Near Cape Forward in the Streights of Magellan.” From vol. 4 of David Henry’s An Historical Account of All the Voyages Round the World, Performed by English Navigators . . . (London, 1773). [Cotsen Collection] Mons. Bougainville and his party landed on a small rock, which barely afforded room for four persons to stand on, and here they hoisted the colours of the boat, and repeatedly shouted Vive le Roi. . . . A Striking instance of the vanity by which the French nation is distinguished! [vol. 4, p. 194] Upon entering the Pacific Ocean, strong southeasterly winds forced Bougainville to abandon plans to seek Juan Fernández Island; instead, the expedition headed north to the Tropic of Capricorn, then west.

Unable to land on any of the Tuamotu Islands because of threatening reefs, Bougainville called them the Dangerous Archipelago. In early April they encountered Tahiti, and after seeking a port for several days finally moored on April 6, 1768, less than a year after Wallis had arrived. Out walking in the interior parts of the island, Bougainville thought he was transported into the Garden of Eden: everywhere he found hospitality, people at ease, bountiful fruit trees, a refreshing climate. (However, there were some shootings and deaths, but these incidents created, it seemed, only temporary conflicts.) He claimed the island for France, naming it New Cythera after the Greek island where, according to the classical myth, Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love, had arisen full-born from the sea. His glowing reports of the island, echoing Wallis’s, would add credence, in the minds of European philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to the idea of the noble savage who lives in a state of nature, unencumbered by civilization and divine revelation.

After nine days, and the loss of six anchors because of his poor anchorage, Bougainville took advantage of the easterly winds and departed. A friend of the chief, named Ahutoru, accompanied the expedition. (On his arrival in France, Ahutoru was introduced to the royal court and Parisian lifestyle; he stayed in the country for more than a year, enjoying such new experiences as opera, shopping, and entertaining. In 1771, on his way back to Tahiti, Ahutoru caught smallpox and died in Madagascar.) During the stay on Tahiti, the true gender of the valet of Bougainville’s botanist, Philibert Commerçon, was revealed to the crew: “he” was a woman, Jeanne Baré—in fact, she was his mistress. (Commerçon had discovered the bougainvillea in Brazil earlier in the trip.) It also appeared that a number of Bougainville’s men had contracted syphilis, suggesting that Wallis’s crew had brought venereal disease to the island.

Illustration of three different Pacific “canoe” styles observed by Bougainville: at Tahiti, Choiseul (one of the Solomon Islands), and Navigators Islands (Samoa). From Bougainville’s A Voyage Round the World . . . (Dublin, 1772). [Rare Books Division] Sailing westward from Tahiti, Bougainville reached the islands of Samoa, which he named the Navigators Islands. Like the Spaniard Pedro Fernandes de Queirós before him, he found the natives of the New Hebrides (today’s Vanuatu), which he called the Great Cyclades, to be ferocious and inhospitable. Bougainville sailed west near the Great Barrier Reef, then north through the Solomons, and then northwest to New Britain in July. There he found a plaque left by British explorer Philip Carteret in August 1767. (For more on Carteret, see Wallis/Carteret in the Explorers section.) Eventually, the voyage around the northern coast of New Guinea ended, and the expedition reached Ceram in the Moluccas in September.

Bougainville’s crew received welcome succor from the Dutch in Buru and needed supplies and medical care in Batavia (today’s Jakarta, Indonesia), from which they departed on October 17, 1768. Though much impressed with the Dutch control and operation of the spice trade, Bougainville felt that a “mortal stroke” was coming, from revolts within the islands and from pressures from without, particularly as more European countries learned the geography of the area. He returned to France via Mauritius (where Commerçon and Baré were deposited) and the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in Saint-Malo on March 16, 1769. Over the course of twenty-eight months, Bougainville had lost fewer than a dozen men, a real credit to his leadership and marine abilities. Both ships had survived. More important, in one successful voyage, he had jettisoned France into the forefront of Pacific naval exploration, despite failing to claim any land near China.

Bougainville continued to serve France in naval operations against the British in the American Revolution; he barely escaped the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and was made a count of the empire by Napoleon I in 1808. Bougainville died in Paris in 1811. “Dévelopement de la route des vaissaux du roy La Boudeuse et L’Étoile autour du monde.” From Bougainville’s Voyage autour du monde . . . (Paris, 1771). [Rare Books Division] Bougainville’s route around the world. A note accompanying the mid-ocean placement of the Solomon Islands states that both their existence and location are in doubt. The map’s longitude is measured from Paris, France, emphasizing the national nature of mapmaking at this time. (Greenwich, England, was not internationally adopted as the prime meridian until 1884.) Content 300: Polynesians reach the Marquesas Islands First settlers arrive in Hawai'i from Polynesia, possibly the Marquesas, navigating across the Pacific by the stars, sun, clouds, ocean swells and currents. They sought Havaiti, the ancestral home in the sun.

800: Polynesians reach the Society Islands. 1521: Magellan sights the Pukapuka Atoll in the Tuamotus. 1595: The explorer Mendaï¿½a from Spain visits the Marquesas Islands. 1722: Dutch explorer Roggeveen sights Bora Bora. 1767: English explorer Samuel Wallis lands on Tahiti. 1768: French explorer Bougainville stops at Tahiti. 1769: Captain Cook arrives on Tahiti and observes the transit of Venus. 1774: Priests from Spain spend a year on Tahti. 1778: On his third voyage into the Pacific, British Capt. James Cook lands his ships Resolution and Discovery at Waimea, Kaua'i; the first Caucasian to make a documented landing in Hawai'i. He was welcomed as Lono, the god prophesied to return on a "floating island." Although he may have been preceded by Spanish galleons on their voyages between Mexico and the Philippines, Cook was the first Pacific explorer to leave a record of reaching Hawai'i.

He returned a year later to discover the rest of the main islands, dropping anchor in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island. He named the group of islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of the Earl of Sandwich. 1788: The HMS BOUNTY arrives on Tahiti. 1797: First Protestant missionaries arrive in Tahiti-Polynesia. 1803: King Pomare II flees Tahiti for Moorea. 1812: Pomare's subjects are converted to Protestantism. 1819: Whaling ships arrive in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, starting the whaling industry in Hawai'i, an industry that flourished for several decades. 1827: The 50-year reign of Queen Pomare IV begins. 1834: French Catholic missionaries arrive on the island of Mangareva. 1836: French Catholic priests are expelled from Tahiti by the Polynesians. 1838: France sends a gunboat to Tahiti and demands compensation for the expulsion. 1842: France declares Tahiti and the Marquesas as a protectorate.

1842: Herman Melville visits Tahiti-Polynesia. 1843: The capitol city of Papeete is founded. 1844: Mormon missionaries arrive on Tubuai in the Austral Islands. 1844- 1847: Tahitian War of Independence. 1847: Queen Pomare accepts the French protectorate status. 1850: Foreigners permitted to purchase land. Private estates were established by the foreigners (haole) or the children of haole and native Hawaiians. The Legislature approves hiring of foreign laborers to work in island fields, opening the doors to workers from China, Japan, Portugal and other countries who immigrate to Hawai'i over the next half century as sugar and pineapple industries prosper. 1880: France changes the status from protectorate to colony. 1884: A great fire burns most of the city of Papeete. 1887: France annexes the Leeward Islands. 1888: Robert Louis Stevenson visits Tahiti. 1891: Paul Gauguin arrives on Tahiti.

1893: To counter sluggish Hawaiian sugar sales to the U.S., which were severely restricted by a hefty tariff imposed by Congress, sugar planters plotted to end the monarchy with a U.S. takeover. Annexationists overthrow Queen Lili'uokalani. At the time, U.S. President Grover Cleveland called the coup "not merely wrong, but a disgrace." Nonetheless, a Provisional Government was established and was later replaced by the Republic of Hawai'i. 1903: Paul Gauguin dies on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. 1914: German cruisers shell Papeete during World War I. 1918: An influenza epidemic kills about 20% of the polynesian population. 1942: The U.S. establishes a military base on the island of Bora Bora during WWII. 1945: Tahitians become French citizens. 1958: Tahitian independence leader Pouvanaa a Oopa is arrested by the French. 1958: France changes the status from colony to overseas territory. 1959: Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the United States.

1961: The international airport at Faa'a opens. 1962: France discontinues nuclear testing in Algeria, North Africa. 1963: France moves its nuclear testing facility to the Tuamotus Islands. 1966: The first atmospheric nuclear test explosion occurs. 1970: Tourism begins to overtake the military as Hawai'i's largest industry. Native Hawaiians and local activism gain recognition through events such as a protest of the military's bombing practices on Kaho'olawe, voyage by the canoe Hokule'a from Hawai'i to Tahiti and the state Constitutional Convention, which made concessions to Native Hawaiian concerns. 1974: France discontinues atmospheric testing and moves testing underground. 1977: France grants partial internal autonomy to French Polynesia. 1984: Increased internal autonomy is granted. 1987: The Universitï¿½ franï¿½aise du Pacifique is established. 1992: French President Mitterrand suspends nuclear testing. 1995: French President Chirac resumes underground nuclear testing. 1996: France concludes nuclear testing and begins closing the testing facilities in the Tuamotus. Capt.

Cook sketched historic transit of Venus - Technology & science - Science - OurAmazingPlanet | NBC News Watch a 'ring of fire' solar eclipse online The drawings were originally published in 1771 as part of "Observations Made, by Appointment of the Royal Society, at King George's Island in the South Sea; By Mr. Charles Green, Formerly Assistant at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and Lieut. James Cook, of His Majesty's Ship the Endeavour," in the journal Philosophical Transactions. Transits of Venus are some of the rarest planetary alignments and skywatching sights, because they only occur in pairs eight years apart, once every 100 years or so. In fact, Venus has only crossed in front of the sun seven times since the invention of the telescope. [ Venus Transit of 2004: 51 Amazing Photos ] Today's transit is paired with a previous one that happened on June 8, 2004. After today, however, the next pair of Venus transits will not occur again until the years 2117 and 2125.

As Venus crosses the solar disk , it will appear as a small, black blemish on the face of the sun. The transit will begin when Venus first touches the outer edge of the sun, at around 6:03 p.m. EDT (3:03 p.m. PDT). The entire event will last roughly seven hours. Advertise Much of the world will be able to see the transit of Venus, and at least one group of scientists are mimicking the historic 18th-century expeditions by watching the event unfold from different reaches of the planet. Members of the Venus Twilight Experiment are equipped with solar telescopes in Arizona, Australia, California, Hawaii, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Arctic and the South Pacific to watch as Venus crosses the sun. Several satellites in orbit will also be monitoring the event and collecting data on the sun and the atmosphere of Venus. NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is now living and working aboard the International Space Station, is aiming to be the first person to photograph the Venus transit from space . Pettit, who is partway through a months-long stay at the orbiting outpost, will take pictures of the scene from the station's seven-windowed Cupola observatory.

WARNING:If you plan to observe the transit of Venus in person, it is very important to exercise caution and protect your eyes. It is very dangerous to stare directly at the sun. Special eclipse glasses or solar filters for telescopes are needed to avoid permanently damaging your eyes. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet and on Facebook .

Question: Which British explorer arrived in Tahiti in 1769?
Answer: Captain James Cook