Tahiti - History, Modern Tahiti

17°37S 149°27W; pop (2000e) 164 000; area 1042 km²/402 sq mi. Largest island of French Polynesia, S Pacific Ocean, belonging to the Windward group of the Society Is; length, 48 km/30 mi; French colony, 1880; capital, Papeete; rises to 2237 m/7339 ft in the volcanic peak of Mt Orohena; vanilla, coconuts, copra, sugar cane, tourism; home of Gauguin (1891–3).

Tahiti is the largest island of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean at 17°40′S 149°30′W. (This makes it the most populated island of French Polynesia holding 69% of the total population.) The capital is Papeete, on the northwest coast.

Tahiti is some 45 km (28 mi) long at the widest point and covers 1,048 km² (404 sq mi), with the highest elevation being at 2,241 m (7,352 ft) above sea level (Mount Orohena). The northwestern part is known as Tahiti Nui ("big Tahiti"), and the southeastern part, much smaller, is known as Tahiti Iti ("small Tahiti") or Taiarapu.

History

Tahiti was estimated to have settled by Polynesians between AD 300 and 800 coming from Tonga and Samoa, although some estimates place the date earlier.

Although the islands were first spotted by a Spanish ship in 1606, Spain made no effort to trade with or colonize the island. Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sighted Tahiti on June 18, 1767, and is considered the first European visitor to the island.

Wallis was followed in April 1768 by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who was completing the first French circumnavigation. His account of the island powerfully illustrated the concept of the noble savage, and influenced the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the advent of the French Revolution.

In 1774 Captain James Cook visited the island, and estimated the population at that time to be some 200,000. Introduced diseases including typhus and smallpox killed so many Tahitians that by 1797, the island's population was only about 16,000.

In 1842, a European crisis involving Morocco escalated between France and Great Britain when Admiral Dupetit-Thouars, acting independently of the French government, was able to convince Tahiti's Queen Pomare IV to accept a French protectorate. However he returned to work towards indoctrinating the locals against the Roman Catholic French.

News of the events in Tahiti had reached Europe in early 1844. The French statesman François Guizot, supported by King Louis-Philippe of France, had strongly denounced the annexation of the island. However, war between the French and the Tahitians continued until 1847. The island remained a French protectorate until June 29, 1880, when King Pomare V (1842–1891) was forced to cede the sovereignty of Tahiti and its dependencies to France. In 1946, Tahiti and the whole of French Polynesia became a Territoire d'outre-mer (French overseas territory). In 2003, this status was changed to that of Collectivité d'outre-mer (French overseas community).

French painter Paul Gauguin lived on Tahiti in the 1890s and painted many Tahitian subjects.

Modern Tahiti

Tahitians are French citizens with full civil and political rights. The Tahitian language and the French language are both in use.

Tahiti is part of French Polynesia (Polynesie Française). French Polynesia is now a semi-autonomous territory of France with its own assembly, President, budget and laws. The current President of French Polynesia, Oscar Temaru, is advocating full independence from France, however, only about 20% of the population is currently in favor of full independence.

During a press conference on June 26, 2006 during the second France-Oceania Summit, French President Jacques Chirac said he did not think the majority of Tahitians wanted independence.

Elections for the Assembly of French Polynesia, the Territorial Assembly of French Polynesia, were held on May 23, 2004 (see French Polynesian legislative election, 2004). In a surprise result, Oscar Temaru's pro-independence progressive coalition formed a Government with a one seat majority in the 57 seat parliament, defeating the conservative party led by Gaston Flosse (see also List of political parties in French Polynesia).

Tahiti hosts a French university, Université de la Polynésie Française ("University of French Polynesia").

Tourism is a significant industry, mostly to the islands of Bora Bora and Moorea.

Black pearl farming is also a substantial source of revenues, most of the pearls being exported to Japan, Europe and the US.