History : The Tuamotu

Marie José Langlade , IRD

(a review from the books referenced)

 The discoverers

• Three centuries of discovery 

It took almost three centuries for famous explorers from all over the world (including Magellan in the 16th. Century, Quiros and Schouten in the 17th. Century, Roggeveen, Byron, Wallis, Carteret, Bougainville, Cook and Bligh in the 18th. Century and Von Kotzebue, Von Bellingshausen and Fitz Roy in the 19th. Century) to chart the 78 atolls of which the archipelago consists. The first explorer to arrive in this part of the world was Magellan, who reported the existence of the atoll of Puka Puka back in 1521. It was only in 1835 that the last two islands, Kauehi and Taiaro, were discovered by  Captain Fitz Roy.

In 1823, the Russian hydrographer A.J. Krusenstern published his "Atlas de l'Océan Pacifique", containing the first maps of the Pacific Ocean to be published; this atlas included detailed maps of 20 of the Tuamotu atolls drawn up by the author's compatriot Thadeus Von Bellingshausen and by those who had undertaken previous scientific expeditions to this part of the world. In 1845, the American Commodore Charles Wilkes produced the first complete map of the Tuamotu archipelago.

• Islands with a dangerous reputation. 

Since access to this archipelago is difficult, it was baptised by successive explorers "The Rough Waters" (1616, William Schouten), "The Labyrinth" (1922, Jacob Roggeveen), "The Dangerous Archipelago" (1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville), "The Low Archipelago" (1777, Forster) and  "The Rough Sea Archipelago " (Dupetit-Thouars,1838). For a long time, it was known by its Tahitian name, Paumotu (submissive or low islands). Since the middle of the last century, this name has come to be replaced by another Tahitian name, that of  Tuamotu (distant islands).

• A toponymic problem. 

The individual atolls have also been given various names, which were either reminiscent of the events experienced by the navigators or indicate who their owners were at the time: the island of Takapoto, for example, has been called "the bottomless island" (Le Maire), "the tricky island" (Roggeveen) and "Spiridoff island" (Kotzebue), while Rangiroa  has been known as "the island of the flies" (Le Maire), "the isle of Good Hope" (Roggeveen) and "Dean's islands" (Wilkes). In 1765, Byron called Takaroa and Takapoto  "King George's Islands". These names, which were handed on by successive map-makers,  serve to remind us how complex toponymic problems can be. Nowadays, these coral islands have Polynesian names transcribed in the Roman alphabet.

The European influence

• The beginning of the pearl trade (early 19th. Century)

The early 19th Century saw the start of the pearl trade when the Australian Captain William Campbell began to barter for pearls on a small scale in the north-western islands.  In 1825, the English Captain Richard Charlton set up proper trading connections between the eastern islands (including Hao) and Valparaiso (Chili), where a pearl industry had come into being

• The Catholic missions: conversion and copra (1817-1883)

The work of the LMS (London Missionary Society), which opened schools for the inhabitants of the archipelago, has left strong cultural traces on these islands. The French Catholic missionaries took advantage of this stronghold and started to indoctrinate the local populations and induce them to leave  their home. The inhabitants not only adopted the Catholic faith, but even the most obstinate communities - those in the east of the archipelago - became staunchly allied to France as a result of the French missionaries' efforts.

These missionaries were also responsible for the large numbers of coconut plantations which were set up on the hitherto barren islands, and for the fairly prosperous development of the copra industry on the archipelago.

• Radio broadcasts and nuclear tests break the isolation (starting in the 1950's)

Despite the various interventions made during the colonial period (developing pearl collecting and copra farming and working the Makatea phosphate mine), the inhabitants of the Tuamotu atolls, who were not very severely affected by the two World Wars,  were so isolated from the rest of the world that they kept their language and their traditional lifestyle up to the middle of the 20th. Century. In 1950, however, two events occurred which were to completely change the Tuamotu inhabitants'  way of life: the daily news broadcasts on the radio, and especially the implantation of the Nuclear testing centre on the eastern islands (Fangataufa and Moruroa) and the military base in Hao. These events led to a considerable improvement in the communications and in more being known about this part of the world, as well as to a tendency for the population to be attracted to Papeete, which stabilised, however, in the 70's.

Natural cataclysms

• In 1982-1983, the Tuamotu archipelago was struck by no less than five cyclones, which badly damaged buildings, coconut plantations and the natural environment on three quarters of the inhabited atolls.

References

Dupon JF, Sodter F, 1993, les îles Tuamotu in Atlas de Polynésie Française, ORSTOM Editions, 11-13

Bonvallot J, Laboute P, Rougerie F, Vigneron E (1994), Les atolls des Tuamotu, ORSTOM, 296p.

Norman&Ngaire, Douglas (1994), Pacific Islands Yearbook, 17° édition, Fiji Times Ltd, 767p.