easter island history

The history of Easter Island, located in the middle of the South Pacific, has always been surrounded by a halo of mystery, being one of the most remote and remote places in the world.

Much has been speculated about the origins of civilization that one day was able to sculpt and set up those spectacular stone monuments known as moais and the truth is that very little is known with certainty about the origins of the Rapa Nui people, when the island began to be populated and from where the first inhabitants arrived.

The first settlers

There are two theories about who were those first intrepid navigators who found Easter Island and decided to settle in it by founding a new civilization.

Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian scientist who devoted much of his life to studying the Polynesian migratory patterns and its possible link with South America, supported the idea that it was the South American natives who sailed across the Pacific Ocean and populated Easter Island. To test his theory, in 1947 he left the coast of Peru in a rudimentary wooden boat - Kon Tiki - and managed to arrive in French Polynesia, following the marine currents. Although his arrival was well above Easter Island, he argued that leaving South America would be possible to reach Easter Island. This theory, much refuted since its inception, has been denied more recently thanks to DNA tests that show that the Rapanui have Polynesian and not South American genes.

The theory of population more accepted and endorsed, in turn, by oral tradition, tells that King Hotu Matu'a arrived on Easter Island from the mythical island Hiva, possibly in the Marquesas Islands, sometime between 6th and 8th centuries AD It is believed that when Hotu Matu'a and his men (about 100) landed on the beach of Anakena, taking with him what was necessary to form a new civilization, and found an island covered with palm trees and edible plants, where there were also plenty of birds marine and fish.

Tradition has it that the Ariki (king) Hotu Matu'a established what would be the social and religious organization of the new community, dictating norms for the construction of houses and monuments. Those first years would have been dedicated to exploiting everything that the island offered them, to cultivate species that they themselves had taken and to increase the population of animals and humans

Moais and religious beliefs
As in all of Polynesia, on Easter Island, the cult of the ancestors governed much of the spiritual life of its inhabitants. The Rapanui believed that the "mana" (spiritual energy) of the important people continued to exist after their death, and had the ability to influence the events long after their death, a belief that became tangible in the elaboration of the moai

Esta es la conocida como etapa clásica, cuando la cultura Rapa Nui alcanzó su máximo esplendor erigiendo enormes altares ceremoniales o Ahu en los cuales se levantaron las enormes esculturas talladas en piedra volcánica, que son el símbolo más característico de la Isla de Pascua. El período de los moais se extendió aproximadamente entre el año 800 d.C. y 1860, cuando el conflicto entre los distintos linajes cambió la historia de la Isla.

Al momento de morir el jefe de una tribu o alguno de sus miembros más importantes, se mandaba esculpir una estatua en la cantera de Rano Raraku, misma que luego sería trasladada hasta la aldea correspondiente, para que proyecte sobre sus descendientes su “mana” o poder sobrenatural, a través de su mirada. Los moais siempre se colocaron mirando hacia su aldea y sus descendientes, no hacia el mar, ya que su objetivo no era protegerlos de amenazas externas sino extender sobre ellos un manto protector

The arrival of the first Europeans

Almost everything we now know about the Rapanui culture comes from the narration made by the first European travelers who arrived on Easter Island.

The first to arrive was the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who arrived on Easter Island from the Juan Fernandez archipelago, while searching for Terra Australis, the legendary continent of the Southern Hemisphere that, according to the beliefs of the time, balanced the lands of the Northern Hemisphere .

Roggeveen sighted the island, which did not appear on his navigation maps, on Sunday, April 5, 1722, and since that day was Easter Sunday, he baptized the island with the name of Easter Island, a name that has lasted until today. The Dutchman only managed to stay one day on land because of the strong winds and, since he found few possibilities of provisioning, he left for Tahiti, continuing with his mythical search.

Nearly fifty years passed until the arrival of new European ships. This time the Spanish expedition led by Felipe González de Haedo arrived from Peru in 1770 in order to reclaim the territory for Spain. The islanders did not resist and even some bosses "signed" a contract to formalize Spanish rule. The island was renamed San Carlos in honor of King Carlos III and after six days, the expedition left. From that moment, no one else ever showed up to make the Spanish domain over the island effective.

First map of Easter Island history