French Polynesia History

France Polynesia

In this section we focus specifically on the history and evolution of the area and land now known as French Polynesia. To discuss the history of French Polynesia in its wider geographical area, see Pacific Islands. Archeological proofs suggest that the Marquesas Islands could be populated from West Polynesia around 200 BC.

Later, 300 years later, the Polynesians emigrated from the Marquesas to the hawaiian archipelago and arrived in the Society Isles in the ninth world war. In Tahiti, Bora-Bora and Raiatea, great chieftains were born. Theriaroa, just off Tahiti, was a regal refuge, and Taputapuatea, on Raiatea, was the holiest sanctuary of the isles.

Contacts with the French Polynesian archipelago have been slow. South Marquesas Island was arrived in 1595. Captain Samuel Wallis arrived in Tahiti, Moorea and Maiao Iti in 1767. These Society Isles were called after the Royal Society, which supported the mission of Captain James Cook, who watched from Tahiti the sun's passage through the Venusite in 1769.

In 1777 Cook arrived in Tubuai on his last journey. Tahiti was declared a French patronage in 1842 and a settlement in 1880. In 1834 French coordinators joined the Gambier Group, in 1844 a French patronage was declared and annexed in 1881.

Also the Tubuai Islands were evangelised from Tahiti, and it was not until 1888 that Rimatara and Rurutu took Britain's refuge, which was rejected. In 1889 they were placed under the French patronage and were annihilated in 1900. Tuamotus belonged to the Pomareans of Tahiti, who originated from the Fakarava atoll.

In 1847 these French invaded these archipelagos as Tahiti's dependences within the protected area and became part of the settlement in 1880. The French occupying of the group followed the landings of armed troops from a French battleship ordered by the head of Tahuata (near Hiva Oa). A dispute with the French soon followed; in 1842 the chieftains handed over independence to France.

They were managed as a French Oceania/Colonies. Until 1885, the settlement was governed by a navy administration, when an organical order provided for a French Council of Governors and Secrets and a General Council to represent the island, which had some degree of power over tax policy. During 1940, the island electorate voted for the side of the free French Charles de Gaulle administration, and many of the island' s inhabitants struggled alongside the Allied army during the Second World War.

France-Polynesia was declared an French-American region in 1946. They were given a regional meeting and were able to vote for a member of the French National Convention and a member of the French Senate. The French authorities expanded the authority of the French Autonomous Community in 1957. Pouvanaa a Oopa, Vice-President of the Council of Governors, in 1958 proclaimed a split from France and the establishment of an autonomous Tahiti state.

In 1977 France passed new laws giving more freedom locally, but the pro-independent and pro-autonomous political groups still demanded a people' s vote by the presidency and either more freedom or complete origin. In 1984 the area became independent. France amended the French Polynesia classifications from French Polynesia to French territories in March 2003.

France-Polynesia self-government was strengthened by an organically enacted law in 2004. During the next ten years, the French Polynesian president alternated between several leaders, among them Temaru, Flosse and Gaston Tong Sang, who each represented several different views on the French -Polynesian vision of France's growth. The French goverment began to test Mururoa's atomic arms in 1963, which were transferred to France the following year together with the neighboring Fangataufa.

The area attracted worldwide interest in 1985 when French commands blown up a Greenpeace boat when they led a demonstration near the Mururoa Atoll. The French PM Pierre Bérégovoy stopped the tests in 1992, but President Jacques Chirac ordered his reinstatement in 1995.

A Mururoa bombing operation was launched under the wide-spread resistance of the French general population and within the area. After the test there were riots on French soil. Increasing anti-nuclear pressures prompted the French to cut the number of scheduled testing from eight to six, and the last unit was launched under the Fangataufa atoll in January 1996.

Later, in 1996, France ratified the South Pacific Treaty on the Free Zone (Rarotonga Treaty). As a result, several hundred French troops abandoned the area, resulting in the shedding of many related services workstations. There were still issues about the impact of the atomic testing on the people of the area, and a 2006 goverment commission of enquiry told the legislator that France had concealed the level of radioactivity from the above-ground testing.

France was advised by the EESC to supervise regional healthcare, reimburse the Polynesians affected and restore the countryside; the French authorities opposed the proposal. The French authorities in 2009 provided some $10 million in reimbursement to those affected by the tests, but the bid was inadequately overturned.

While the French public authorities in 2012 recognised the consequences of the atomic test as a likely cause of illness among those affected and the compensation remains on the table, France ignored the current applications for clean-up. Meanwhile, the question of French Polynesia's independency has been further debated. At the insistence of Temaru and the independent group, in 2013 the UN put French Polynesia on the shortlist of non-self-governing areas working towards self-determination from which France had withdrawn its land in 1947.

The pro- and anti-independent French Polish and French Polish rulers were both in favor of a plebiscite on this issue, although the preferred voting schedule was different.