History of Easter Island
Encyclopedia
Geologically one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, Easter Island was, for most of its history, the most isolated. Its inhabitants, the Rapanui
, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, slave raids, various colonial contacts, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. The ensuing cultural legacy has brought the island notoriety out of proportion to the number of its inhabitants.
arrived on the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family. They are believed to have been Polynesian
. There is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement. Published literature suggests the island was settled around 300-400 CE
, or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii
. Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700-800 CE. This date range is based on glottochronological
calculations and on three radiocarbon dates
from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities. Moreover a recent study which included radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material suggests that the island was settled as recently as 1200 CE. This seems to be supported by a 2006 study of the island's deforestation, which could have started around the same time. A large now extinct
palm
, Paschalococos disperta
, related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea
chilensis), was one of the dominant trees as attested by fossil evidence; this species, whose sole occurrence was Easter Island, became extinct due to deforestation by the early settlers.
The Austronesian Polynesia
ns, who first settled the island, are likely to have arrived from the Marquesas Islands
from the west. These settlers brought banana
s, taro
, sugarcane
, and paper mulberry
, as well as chicken
s and Polynesian Rat
s. The island at one time supported a relatively advanced and complex civilization.
It is suggested that the reason settlers sought an isolated island was because of high levels of Ciguatera fish
poison
ing in their then current surrounding area.
believed that cultural similarities exist between Easter Island and South American Indian cultures which he suggested might have resulted from some settlers arriving from the continent. According to local legends, a group of long-eared people called hanau epe
arrived on the island sometime after the original inhabitants, introducing the stone carving technology and attempting to enslave the population. Some early accounts of the legend place hanau epe as the original residents and the contemporary Easter Islanders as later immigrants coming from Oparo. After mutual suspicions erupted in a violent clash, the hanau epe were overthrown and exterminated, leaving only one survivor. Sebastian Englert
states that "Long-Ear" is a misinterpretation of Hanau ‘E‘epe "stout race".
The fact that the sweet potato
, a staple of the pre-contact Polynesian diet, is of South American origin, and that there is no evidence that its seed could spread by floating across the ocean, indicates that there must have been some contact between the two cultures. Either Polynesians traveled to South America and back, or Indian balsa rafts drifted to Polynesia, possibly unable to make a return trip because of their less developed navigational skills and more fragile boats, or both. Polynesian connections in South America have been claimed to exist among the Mapuche
Indians in central and southern Chile. The Polynesian name for the small islet of Sala y Gómez
(Manu Motu Motiro Hiva, "Bird's islet on the way to a far away land") east of Easter Island has also been seen as a hint that South America was known before European contacts. Further complicating the situation is that the word Hiva ("far away land") was also the name of the islanders' legendary home country. Inexplicable insistence on an eastern origin for the first inhabitants was unanimous among the islanders in all early accounts.
Jacob Roggeveen's expedition of 1722 gives us our first description of the islanders. They were "of all shades of colour, yellow, white and brown" and they distended their ear lobes so greatly with large disks that when they took them out they could "hitch the rim of the lobe over the top of the ear". Roggeveen also noted how some of the islanders were "generally large in stature". Islanders' tallness was also witnessed by the Spanish who visited the island in 1770, measuring heights of 196 and 199 cm. DNA sequence analysis of Easter Island's current inhabitants indicates that the 36 people living on Rapanui who survived the devastating internecine wars, slave raids and epidemics of the 19th century and had any offspring, were Polynesian. Furthermore, examination of skeletons offers evidence of only Polynesian origins for Rapanui living on the island after 1680.
Geneticist Erik Thorsby and colleagues have published two studies in the peer-reviewed journal Tissue Antigens
that present evidence for an Amerindian
genetic contribution to the Eastern Island population, which was probably introduced prior to the European discovery of the island. In general, theories about Easter Island which posited a non-Polynesian influence in its pre-European history have in the past been met with skepticism from mainstream archeology.
According to legends recorded by the missionaries in the 1860s, the island originally had a very clear class system, with an ariki, king, wielding absolute god-like power ever since Hotu Matua had arrived on the island. The most visible element in the culture was production of massive moai
that were part of the ancestral worship. With a strictly unified appearance, moai were erected along most of the coastline, indicating a homogeneous culture and centralized governance. In addition to the royal family, the island's habitation consisted of priests, soldiers and commoners. The last king, along with his family, died as a slave in the 1860s in the Peruvian mines. Long before that, the king had become a mere symbolic figure, remaining respected and untouchable, but having only nominal authority.
For unknown reasons, a coup by military leaders called matatoa had brought a new cult based around a previously unexceptional god Make-make
. In the cult of the birdman (Rapanui: tangata manu
), a competition was established in which every year a representative of each clan, chosen by the leaders, would swim across shark-infested waters to Motu Nui
, a nearby islet, to search for the season's first egg laid by a manutara (sooty tern
). The first swimmer to return with an egg and successfully climb back up the cliff to Orongo
would be named "Birdman of the year" and secure control over distribution of the island's resources for his clan for the year. The tradition was still in existence at the time of first contact by Europeans and ended in 1867.
) and 1770 (Spanish
) reported seeing only standing statues, but by James Cook
's visit in 1774 many were reported toppled. The huri mo'ai - the "statue-toppling" - continued into the 1830s as a part of internal conflicts among islanders. By 1838, the only standing moai
were on the slopes of Rano Raraku
and Hoa Hakananai'a
at Orongo
. In about 60 years, islanders had deliberately destroyed the main part of their ancestors' heritage. In modern times, moai have been restored at Orongo, Ahu Tongariki
, Ahu Akivi
and Hanga Roa
.
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The first-recorded European contact with the island was on 5 April (Easter Sunday
) 1722 when Dutch
navigator Jacob Roggeveen visited for a week and estimated there were 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants on the island. This was an estimate, not a census, and archaeologists estimate the population may have been as high as 10,000 to 15,000 a few decades earlier. His party reported "remarkable, tall, stone figures, a good 30 feet in height", the island had rich soil and a good climate and "all the country was under cultivation". Fossil pollen analysis shows that the main trees on the island had gone 72 years earlier in 1650. The civilization of Easter Island was long believed to have degenerated drastically during the century before the arrival of the Dutch
, as a result of overpopulation, deforestation and exploitation of an extremely isolated island with limited natural resources. The Dutch reported that a fight broke out in which they killed ten or twelve islanders.
The next foreign visitors (on 15 November 1770) were two Spanish ships, San Lorenzo and Santa Rosalia, sent by the Viceroy
of Peru
, Manuel de Amat
, and commanded by Felipe González de Ahedo
. They spent five days on the island, performing a very thorough survey of its coast, and named it Isla de San Carlos, taking possession on behalf of King Charles III of Spain
, and ceremoniously erected three wooden crosses on top of three small hills on Poike
. They reported the island as largely uncultivated, with a seashore lined with stone statues.
Four years later, in 1774, British explorer James Cook
visited Easter Island, he reported the statues as being neglected with some having fallen down; no sign of the three crosses and his botanist described it as "a poor land". He had a Tahitian interpreter who could partially understand the language as it was Polynesian.
In 1786, the French explorer Jean François de Galaup La Pérouse
visited and made a detailed map of Easter Island. He described the island as one tenth cultivated and estimated the population as a couple of thousand.
In 1804, the Russian ship, Neva
, visited under the command of Yuri Lisyansky
.
In 1816, the Russian ship, Rurik, visited under the command of Otto von Kotzebue
.
In 1825, the British ship, HMS Blossom
, visited and reported no standing statues.
Easter Island was approached many times during the early 19th century, but by now the islanders had become openly hostile towards any attempt to land, and very little new information was reported before the 1860s.
In December 1862, Peru
vian slave raiders struck Easter Island. Violent abductions continued for several months, eventually capturing or killing around 1500 men and women, about half of the island's population. International protests erupted, escalated by Bishop Florentin-Étienne Jaussen
of Tahiti. The slaves were finally freed in autumn, 1863, but by then most of them had already died of tuberculosis
, smallpox
and dysentery
. Finally, a dozen islanders managed to return from the horrors of Peru, but brought with them smallpox and started an epidemic, which reduced the island's population to the point where some of the dead were not even buried.
Contributing to the chaos were violent clan wars with the remaining people fighting over the newly available lands of the deceased, bringing further famine and death among the dwindling population.
The first Christian missionary, Eugène Eyraud
, arrived in January 1864 and spent most of that year on the island; but mass conversion of the Rapanui
only came after his return in 1866 with Father Hippolyte Roussel
and shortly after two others arrived with Captain Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier
. Eyraud was suffering from phthisis (tuberculosis) when he returned and in 1867, tuberculosis raged over the island, taking a quarter of the island's remaining population of 1,200 including the last member of the island's royal family, the 13-year-old Manu Rangi. Eyraud died of tuberculosis in August 1868, by which time the entire Rapanui population had become Roman Catholic.
– who had served as an artillery officer in the Crimean War
, but was later arrested in Peru, accused of arms dealing and sentenced to death, to be released after intervention from the French consul – first came to Easter Island in 1866 when he transported two missionaries there, returned in 1867 to recruit laborers for coconut plantations, and then came again for good in April 1868, burning the yacht he had arrrived in. He was to have a long-lasting impact on the island.
Dutrou-Bornier set up residence at Mataveri, aiming to cleanse the island of most of the Rapanui and turn the island into a sheep ranch. He married Koreto, a Rapanui, and appointed her Queen, tried to persuade France to make the island a protectorate, and recruited a faction of Rapanui whom he allowed to abandon their Christianity and revert to their previous faith. With rifles, a cannon, and hut burning supporters, he ran the island for several years.
Dutrou-Bornier bought up all of the island apart from the missionaries' area around Hanga Roa
and moved a couple hundred Rapanui to Tahiti
to work for his backers. In 1871 the missionaries, having fallen out with Dutrou-Bornier, evacuated 275 Rapanui to Mangareva and Tahiti, leaving only 230 on the island. Those who remained were mostly older men. Six years later, there were just 111 people living on Easter Island, and only 36 of them had any offspring.
In 1876 Dutrou-Bornier was murdered in an argument over a dress, though his kidnapping of pubescent girls may also have motivated his killers.
From that point on and into the present day, the island's population slowly recovered. But with over 97% of the population dead or left in less than a decade, much of the island's cultural knowledge had been lost.
Neither his first wife back in France, who was heir under French law, nor his second wife on the island, who briefly installed their daughter Caroline as Queen, were to keep much from his estate. But to this day much of the island is a ranch controlled from off-island and for more than a century real power on the island was usually exercised by resident non-Rapanui living at Mataveri. An unusual number of shipwrecks had left the island better supplied with wood than for many generations, whilst legal wrangles over Dutrou-Bornier's land deals were to complicate the island's history for decades to come.
was the brother of the Queen of Tahiti, and the son of an English merchant adventurer, and a member of the mercantile dynasty that had bankrolled Dutrou-Bornier. He arrived on the island in 1878 with some fellow Tahitians and returning Rapa Nui and ran the island for a decade. As well as producing wool he encouraged the manufacture of Rapanui artworks, a trade that thrives to this day. It was this era of peace and recovery that saw the linguistic change from old Rapanui to the Tahitian-influenced modern Rapanui language, and some changes to the island's myths and culture to accommodate other Polynesian and Christian influences (notably, Ure, the old Rapanui word for "penis", was dropped from many people's names).
This era saw the first "archaeological" excavations on the island, in 1882 by the Germans on the and in 1886 the whose crew blew open Ahu Vinapu with dynamite.
Father Roussel made a number of pastoral visits in the decade, but the only permanent representatives of the church were Rapanui catechists including, from 1884, Angata, one of the Rapanui who had left with the missionaries in 1871. Despite the lack of a resident priest to celebrate mass regularly, the Rapanui had returned to Roman Catholicism, but there remained some tension between temporal and spiritual power as Father Roussel disapproved of Salmon because of his Jewish paternity.
, by means of the "Treaty of Annexation of the island" (Tratado de Anexión de la isla), that the government of Chile signed with the Rapanui
people.
Until the 1960s, the surviving Rapanui were confined to the settlement of Hanga Roa
and the rest of the island was rented to the Williamson-Balfour Company
as a sheep farm until 1953. The island was then managed by the Chilean Navy
until 1966 and at that point the rest of the island was reopened.
landed and began a 17 month archaeological and ethnographic survey of the island.
The Rapanui revolted in June, after Mr Scoresby Routledge fired a Rapanui worker for stealing biscuits. Led from the Roman Catholic Church by their Catechist Angata, who claimed to be acting on the instructions from God that she was receiving in her dreams, the Rapanui declared independence, crossed the wall and took hundreds of sheep and cattle. The revolt was quelled in August by the annual supply ship from Chile
which then deported Angata's son.
In October, the German East Asia Squadron
including the , , and assembled off Hanga Roa
before sailing on to Coronel
and the Falklands.
In December another German warship, the commerce raider Prinz Eitel Friedrich
, visited and released 48 British and French merchant seamen onto the island, supplying much needed labour for the archaeologists.
Mataveri International Airport
is the island's only airport. In the 1980s, its runway was lengthened by the U.S. space program to 3,318 m (10,885 ft) so that it could serve as an emergency landing site
for the space shuttle
. This enabled regular wide body jet services and a consequent increase of tourism on the island, coupled with migration of people from mainland Chile which threatens to alter the Polynesian
identity of the island. Land disputes have created political tensions since the 1980s, with part of the native Rapanui
opposed to private property and in favor of traditional communal property.
On 30 July 2007, a constitutional reform gave Easter Island and Juan Fernández Islands
the status of special territories of Chile. Pending the enactment of a special charter, the island will continue to be governed as a province of the Valparaíso Region
.
According to a BBC
report, on December 3, 2010 at least 25 people were injured when Chilean police using pellet guns attempted to evict a group of Rapa Nui from buildings they had occupied for three months, claiming that the land the buildings stood on had been illegally taken from their ancestors.
Rapanui
The Rapa Nui or Rapanui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the Rapa Nui people make up 60% of Easter Island's population, with some living also in mainland Chile...
, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, slave raids, various colonial contacts, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. The ensuing cultural legacy has brought the island notoriety out of proportion to the number of its inhabitants.
First settlers
Early European visitors to Easter Island recorded the local oral traditions about the original settlers. In these traditions, Easter Islanders claimed that a chief Hotu Matu'aHotu Matu'a
Hotu Matu'a was the legendary first settler and ariki mau of Easter Island. Hotu Matu'a and his two canoe colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva...
arrived on the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family. They are believed to have been Polynesian
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
. There is considerable uncertainty about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement. Published literature suggests the island was settled around 300-400 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until 700-800 CE. This date range is based on glottochronological
Glottochronology
Glottochronology is that part of lexicostatistics dealing with the chronological relationship between languages....
calculations and on three radiocarbon dates
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities. Moreover a recent study which included radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material suggests that the island was settled as recently as 1200 CE. This seems to be supported by a 2006 study of the island's deforestation, which could have started around the same time. A large now extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
, Paschalococos disperta
Paschalococos
Paschalococos disperta , formerly Jubaea disperta, was the native cocoid palm species of Easter Island...
, related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea
Jubaea
Jubaea chilensis is the sole extant species in the genus Jubaea in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to southwestern South America, where it is endemic to a small area of central Chile, between 32°S and 35°S in southern Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and northern Maule regions...
chilensis), was one of the dominant trees as attested by fossil evidence; this species, whose sole occurrence was Easter Island, became extinct due to deforestation by the early settlers.
The Austronesian Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
ns, who first settled the island, are likely to have arrived from the Marquesas Islands
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
from the west. These settlers brought banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s, taro
Taro
Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...
, sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
, and paper mulberry
Paper Mulberry
The Paper Mulberry is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Asia. Other names include Dak, Halibun, Kalivon, Kozo, and Tapacloth tree.It is a deciduous tree growing to tall...
, as well as chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
s and Polynesian Rat
Polynesian Rat
The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...
s. The island at one time supported a relatively advanced and complex civilization.
It is suggested that the reason settlers sought an isolated island was because of high levels of Ciguatera fish
Ciguatera
Ciguatera is a foodborne illness caused by eating certain reef fishes whose flesh is contaminated with toxins originally produced by dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which lives in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates adhere to coral, algae and seaweed, where they are...
poison
Poison
In the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ing in their then current surrounding area.
South American links
The Norwegian adventurer Thor HeyerdahlThor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands...
believed that cultural similarities exist between Easter Island and South American Indian cultures which he suggested might have resulted from some settlers arriving from the continent. According to local legends, a group of long-eared people called hanau epe
Hanau epe
The Hanau epe or Long-ears were a group of semi-legendary people who are said to have arrived at Easter Island. According to some theories , they were a South American indigenous people, but most evidence suggests that the original Easter Islanders were Polynesian in origin.Sebastian Englert states...
arrived on the island sometime after the original inhabitants, introducing the stone carving technology and attempting to enslave the population. Some early accounts of the legend place hanau epe as the original residents and the contemporary Easter Islanders as later immigrants coming from Oparo. After mutual suspicions erupted in a violent clash, the hanau epe were overthrown and exterminated, leaving only one survivor. Sebastian Englert
Sebastian Englert
Father Sebastian Englert OFM Cap., was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest, missionary, linguist and ethnologist from Germany....
states that "Long-Ear" is a misinterpretation of Hanau ‘E‘epe "stout race".
The fact that the sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
, a staple of the pre-contact Polynesian diet, is of South American origin, and that there is no evidence that its seed could spread by floating across the ocean, indicates that there must have been some contact between the two cultures. Either Polynesians traveled to South America and back, or Indian balsa rafts drifted to Polynesia, possibly unable to make a return trip because of their less developed navigational skills and more fragile boats, or both. Polynesian connections in South America have been claimed to exist among the Mapuche
Mapuche
The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...
Indians in central and southern Chile. The Polynesian name for the small islet of Sala y Gómez
Sala y Gómez
Isla Salas y Gómez, also known as Isla Sala y Gómez, is a small uninhabited Chilean island in the Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost point in the Polynesian Triangle...
(Manu Motu Motiro Hiva, "Bird's islet on the way to a far away land") east of Easter Island has also been seen as a hint that South America was known before European contacts. Further complicating the situation is that the word Hiva ("far away land") was also the name of the islanders' legendary home country. Inexplicable insistence on an eastern origin for the first inhabitants was unanimous among the islanders in all early accounts.
Jacob Roggeveen's expedition of 1722 gives us our first description of the islanders. They were "of all shades of colour, yellow, white and brown" and they distended their ear lobes so greatly with large disks that when they took them out they could "hitch the rim of the lobe over the top of the ear". Roggeveen also noted how some of the islanders were "generally large in stature". Islanders' tallness was also witnessed by the Spanish who visited the island in 1770, measuring heights of 196 and 199 cm. DNA sequence analysis of Easter Island's current inhabitants indicates that the 36 people living on Rapanui who survived the devastating internecine wars, slave raids and epidemics of the 19th century and had any offspring, were Polynesian. Furthermore, examination of skeletons offers evidence of only Polynesian origins for Rapanui living on the island after 1680.
Geneticist Erik Thorsby and colleagues have published two studies in the peer-reviewed journal Tissue Antigens
Tissue Antigens
Tissue Antigens is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1971. It covers the field of allergy and immunology. It is the official journal of the European Federation for Immunogenetics, a scientific society .-External links:*...
that present evidence for an Amerindian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
genetic contribution to the Eastern Island population, which was probably introduced prior to the European discovery of the island. In general, theories about Easter Island which posited a non-Polynesian influence in its pre-European history have in the past been met with skepticism from mainstream archeology.
Pre-European society
Moai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...
that were part of the ancestral worship. With a strictly unified appearance, moai were erected along most of the coastline, indicating a homogeneous culture and centralized governance. In addition to the royal family, the island's habitation consisted of priests, soldiers and commoners. The last king, along with his family, died as a slave in the 1860s in the Peruvian mines. Long before that, the king had become a mere symbolic figure, remaining respected and untouchable, but having only nominal authority.
Makemake (mythology)
Makemake in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, was the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the "Tangata manu" or bird-man cult .He is a frequent subject of the island's Petroglyphs.-In Astronomy:The trans-Neptunian...
. In the cult of the birdman (Rapanui: tangata manu
Tangata manu
The Tangata manu , was the winner of a traditional competition on Rapa Nui . The ritual was an annual competition to collect the first Sooty Tern egg of the season from the islet of Motu Nui, swim back to Rapa Nui and climb the sea cliff of Rano Kau to the clifftop village of Orongo.-Myth:In the...
), a competition was established in which every year a representative of each clan, chosen by the leaders, would swim across shark-infested waters to Motu Nui
Motu Nui
Motu Nui is the largest of three islets just south of Easter Island and is the most westerly place in Chile. All three islets have sea birds but Motu Nui was also an essential location for the Tangata manu cult which was the island religion between the moai era and the Christian times...
, a nearby islet, to search for the season's first egg laid by a manutara (sooty tern
Sooty Tern
The Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus , is a seabird of the tern family . It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake...
). The first swimmer to return with an egg and successfully climb back up the cliff to Orongo
Orongo
‘Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial centre at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui . The first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses were investigated and restored in 1974 by American archaeologist William Mulloy...
would be named "Birdman of the year" and secure control over distribution of the island's resources for his clan for the year. The tradition was still in existence at the time of first contact by Europeans and ended in 1867.
The "statue-toppling"
European accounts in 1722 (DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
) and 1770 (Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) reported seeing only standing statues, but by James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
's visit in 1774 many were reported toppled. The huri mo'ai - the "statue-toppling" - continued into the 1830s as a part of internal conflicts among islanders. By 1838, the only standing moai
Moai
Moai , or mo‘ai, are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Chilean Polynesian island of Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the...
were on the slopes of Rano Raraku
Rano Raraku
Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed of consolidated volcanic ash, or tuff, and located on the lower slopes of Terevaka in the Rapa Nui National Park on Easter Island. It was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the...
and Hoa Hakananai'a
Hoa Hakananai'a
Hoa Hakananai'a is a moai housed in the British Museum in London. The name Hoa hakanani'a is from the Rapa Nui language; it means "stolen or hidden friend." It was removed from Orongo, Easter Island on 7 November 1868 by the crew of the English ship HMS Topaze, and arrived in Portsmouth on 25...
at Orongo
Orongo
‘Orongo is a stone village and ceremonial centre at the southwestern tip of Rapa Nui . The first half of the ceremonial village's 53 stone masonry houses were investigated and restored in 1974 by American archaeologist William Mulloy...
. In about 60 years, islanders had deliberately destroyed the main part of their ancestors' heritage. In modern times, moai have been restored at Orongo, Ahu Tongariki
Ahu Tongariki
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Rapa Nui/Easter Island . Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the...
, Ahu Akivi
Ahu Akivi
Ahu Akivi is an ahu with seven moai on Rapa Nui in Chilean Polynesia. The ahu and its moai were restored in 1960 by the American archaeologist William Mulloy and his Chilean colleague, Gonzalo Figueroa García-Huidobro...
and Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of the Chilean province of Easter Island. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau....
.
European contacts
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
) 1722 when Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
navigator Jacob Roggeveen visited for a week and estimated there were 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants on the island. This was an estimate, not a census, and archaeologists estimate the population may have been as high as 10,000 to 15,000 a few decades earlier. His party reported "remarkable, tall, stone figures, a good 30 feet in height", the island had rich soil and a good climate and "all the country was under cultivation". Fossil pollen analysis shows that the main trees on the island had gone 72 years earlier in 1650. The civilization of Easter Island was long believed to have degenerated drastically during the century before the arrival of the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, as a result of overpopulation, deforestation and exploitation of an extremely isolated island with limited natural resources. The Dutch reported that a fight broke out in which they killed ten or twelve islanders.
The next foreign visitors (on 15 November 1770) were two Spanish ships, San Lorenzo and Santa Rosalia, sent by the Viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Manuel de Amat
Manuel de Amat y Juniet
Felipe Manuel Cayetano de Amat y de Juniet was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator. He was the Royal Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile from December 28, 1755 to September 9, 1761, and Viceroy of Peru from October 12, 1761 to July 17, 1776.-Origins and military...
, and commanded by Felipe González de Ahedo
Felipe González de Ahedo
Felipe González de Ahedo, also spelled Phelipe González y Haedo , was a Spanish navigator and cartographer known for annexing Easter Island in 1770....
. They spent five days on the island, performing a very thorough survey of its coast, and named it Isla de San Carlos, taking possession on behalf of King Charles III of Spain
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...
, and ceremoniously erected three wooden crosses on top of three small hills on Poike
Poike
Poike is one of three main extinct volcanoes that form Rapa Nui . At 370 metres, it is the island's second highest peak after Terevaka.right|275 px|thumb|[[Ahu Tongariki]] with Poike in the background...
. They reported the island as largely uncultivated, with a seashore lined with stone statues.
Four years later, in 1774, British explorer James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
visited Easter Island, he reported the statues as being neglected with some having fallen down; no sign of the three crosses and his botanist described it as "a poor land". He had a Tahitian interpreter who could partially understand the language as it was Polynesian.
In 1786, the French explorer Jean François de Galaup La Pérouse
Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse was a French Navy officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.-Early career:...
visited and made a detailed map of Easter Island. He described the island as one tenth cultivated and estimated the population as a couple of thousand.
In 1804, the Russian ship, Neva
Russian warship Neva
Neva was a Russian sloop-of-war, bought in Britain. It was named after the Neva River.It was the first Russian ship to circumnavigate the globe in 1804 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Yuri Lisyansky...
, visited under the command of Yuri Lisyansky
Yuri Lisyansky
Yuri Fyodorovich Lisyansky was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy and explorer of Ukrainian origin....
.
In 1816, the Russian ship, Rurik, visited under the command of Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue
Otto von Kotzebue was a Baltic German navigator in Russian service....
.
In 1825, the British ship, HMS Blossom
HMS Blossom (1806)
HMS Blossom was an 18-gun Cormorant-class sloop-of-war. She was built in 1806 and is best known for the 1825–1828 expedition under Captain Beechey to the Pacific Ocean. She explored as far north as Point Barrow, Alaska, the furthest point into the Arctic any non-Inuit had been at the time...
, visited and reported no standing statues.
Easter Island was approached many times during the early 19th century, but by now the islanders had become openly hostile towards any attempt to land, and very little new information was reported before the 1860s.
Destruction of society and population
A series of devastating events killed almost the entire population of Easter Island in the 1860s.In December 1862, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian slave raiders struck Easter Island. Violent abductions continued for several months, eventually capturing or killing around 1500 men and women, about half of the island's population. International protests erupted, escalated by Bishop Florentin-Étienne Jaussen
Florentin-Étienne Jaussen
Monsignor Florentin-Étienne Jaussen was the first bishop of Tahiti and the man who brought the rongorongo script of Easter Island to the world's attention. In the 1860s Bishop Jaussen was responsible for ending the slave raids on Easter Island.Jaussen was born in Rocles, France...
of Tahiti. The slaves were finally freed in autumn, 1863, but by then most of them had already died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
and dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
. Finally, a dozen islanders managed to return from the horrors of Peru, but brought with them smallpox and started an epidemic, which reduced the island's population to the point where some of the dead were not even buried.
Contributing to the chaos were violent clan wars with the remaining people fighting over the newly available lands of the deceased, bringing further famine and death among the dwindling population.
The first Christian missionary, Eugène Eyraud
Eugène Eyraud
Eugène Eyraud was a lay friar of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and the first Westerner to live on Easter Island.- Early life :...
, arrived in January 1864 and spent most of that year on the island; but mass conversion of the Rapanui
Rapanui
The Rapa Nui or Rapanui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the Rapa Nui people make up 60% of Easter Island's population, with some living also in mainland Chile...
only came after his return in 1866 with Father Hippolyte Roussel
Hippolyte Roussel
Hippolyte Roussel was a French priest and missionary to Polynesia, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.In 1854 he was sent to evangelize in the Tuamotus and Mangareva in the Gambier Islands...
and shortly after two others arrived with Captain Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier was a French mariner who settled on Easter Island in 1868, purchased much of the island, removed many of the Rapanui and turned the island into a sheep ranch.- Early life :...
. Eyraud was suffering from phthisis (tuberculosis) when he returned and in 1867, tuberculosis raged over the island, taking a quarter of the island's remaining population of 1,200 including the last member of the island's royal family, the 13-year-old Manu Rangi. Eyraud died of tuberculosis in August 1868, by which time the entire Rapanui population had become Roman Catholic.
Dutrou-Bornier
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-BornierJean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier
Jean-Baptiste Dutrou-Bornier was a French mariner who settled on Easter Island in 1868, purchased much of the island, removed many of the Rapanui and turned the island into a sheep ranch.- Early life :...
– who had served as an artillery officer in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
, but was later arrested in Peru, accused of arms dealing and sentenced to death, to be released after intervention from the French consul – first came to Easter Island in 1866 when he transported two missionaries there, returned in 1867 to recruit laborers for coconut plantations, and then came again for good in April 1868, burning the yacht he had arrrived in. He was to have a long-lasting impact on the island.
Dutrou-Bornier set up residence at Mataveri, aiming to cleanse the island of most of the Rapanui and turn the island into a sheep ranch. He married Koreto, a Rapanui, and appointed her Queen, tried to persuade France to make the island a protectorate, and recruited a faction of Rapanui whom he allowed to abandon their Christianity and revert to their previous faith. With rifles, a cannon, and hut burning supporters, he ran the island for several years.
Dutrou-Bornier bought up all of the island apart from the missionaries' area around Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of the Chilean province of Easter Island. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau....
and moved a couple hundred Rapanui to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
to work for his backers. In 1871 the missionaries, having fallen out with Dutrou-Bornier, evacuated 275 Rapanui to Mangareva and Tahiti, leaving only 230 on the island. Those who remained were mostly older men. Six years later, there were just 111 people living on Easter Island, and only 36 of them had any offspring.
From that point on and into the present day, the island's population slowly recovered. But with over 97% of the population dead or left in less than a decade, much of the island's cultural knowledge had been lost.
Neither his first wife back in France, who was heir under French law, nor his second wife on the island, who briefly installed their daughter Caroline as Queen, were to keep much from his estate. But to this day much of the island is a ranch controlled from off-island and for more than a century real power on the island was usually exercised by resident non-Rapanui living at Mataveri. An unusual number of shipwrecks had left the island better supplied with wood than for many generations, whilst legal wrangles over Dutrou-Bornier's land deals were to complicate the island's history for decades to come.
1878-1888
Alexander Salmon, JrAlexander Salmon, Jr
Alexander Ariipaea Vehiaitipare Salmon Jr. was the English-Jewish-Tahitian co-owner of the Maison Brander plantations on Tahiti and de facto ruler of Easter Island from 1878 till its cession to Chile in 1888.-Family:...
was the brother of the Queen of Tahiti, and the son of an English merchant adventurer, and a member of the mercantile dynasty that had bankrolled Dutrou-Bornier. He arrived on the island in 1878 with some fellow Tahitians and returning Rapa Nui and ran the island for a decade. As well as producing wool he encouraged the manufacture of Rapanui artworks, a trade that thrives to this day. It was this era of peace and recovery that saw the linguistic change from old Rapanui to the Tahitian-influenced modern Rapanui language, and some changes to the island's myths and culture to accommodate other Polynesian and Christian influences (notably, Ure, the old Rapanui word for "penis", was dropped from many people's names).
This era saw the first "archaeological" excavations on the island, in 1882 by the Germans on the and in 1886 the whose crew blew open Ahu Vinapu with dynamite.
Father Roussel made a number of pastoral visits in the decade, but the only permanent representatives of the church were Rapanui catechists including, from 1884, Angata, one of the Rapanui who had left with the missionaries in 1871. Despite the lack of a resident priest to celebrate mass regularly, the Rapanui had returned to Roman Catholicism, but there remained some tension between temporal and spiritual power as Father Roussel disapproved of Salmon because of his Jewish paternity.
Annexation to Chile
Easter Island was annexed by Chile on 9 September 1888 by Policarpo ToroPolicarpo Toro
Policarpo Toro Hurtado was a Chilean naval officer, . He enrolled in the Chilean Navy in 1871 and visited Easter Island in 1875. From 1877 to 1879 he participated in the English Navy as second lieutenant...
, by means of the "Treaty of Annexation of the island" (Tratado de Anexión de la isla), that the government of Chile signed with the Rapanui
Rapanui
The Rapa Nui or Rapanui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the Rapa Nui people make up 60% of Easter Island's population, with some living also in mainland Chile...
people.
Until the 1960s, the surviving Rapanui were confined to the settlement of Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of the Chilean province of Easter Island. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau....
and the rest of the island was rented to the Williamson-Balfour Company
Williamson-Balfour Company
The Williamson-Balfour Company was a Scottish owned Chilean company. Its successor company, Williamson Balfour Motors S.A., is a subsidiary of the British company Inchcape plc....
as a sheep farm until 1953. The island was then managed by the Chilean Navy
Chilean Navy
-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...
until 1966 and at that point the rest of the island was reopened.
1914
1914 was an eventful year for the 250 residents of Easter Island. In March, the Routledge ExpeditionKatherine Routledge
Katherine Maria Routledge, née Pease was a British archaeologist who initiated the first true survey of Easter Island....
landed and began a 17 month archaeological and ethnographic survey of the island.
The Rapanui revolted in June, after Mr Scoresby Routledge fired a Rapanui worker for stealing biscuits. Led from the Roman Catholic Church by their Catechist Angata, who claimed to be acting on the instructions from God that she was receiving in her dreams, the Rapanui declared independence, crossed the wall and took hundreds of sheep and cattle. The revolt was quelled in August by the annual supply ship from Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
which then deported Angata's son.
In October, the German East Asia Squadron
German East Asia Squadron
The German East Asia Squadron was a German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the 1870s and 1914...
including the , , and assembled off Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa
Hanga Roa is the main town, harbour and capital of the Chilean province of Easter Island. It is located in the southern part of the island's west coast, in the lowlands between the extinct volcanoes of Terevaka and Rano Kau....
before sailing on to Coronel
Battle of Coronel
The First World War naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher...
and the Falklands.
In December another German warship, the commerce raider Prinz Eitel Friedrich
SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904)
SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a German passenger liner which saw service in the First World War as an auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial German Navy...
, visited and released 48 British and French merchant seamen onto the island, supplying much needed labour for the archaeologists.
Today
Since being given Chilean citizenship in 1966, the Rapanui have re-embraced their ancient culture, or what could be reconstructed of it.Mataveri International Airport
Mataveri International Airport
-See also:*Extreme points of Earth*Shuttle Down, a 1980 novel by American author G. Harry Stine , which gives a fictional account of the Space Shuttle Atlantis making an emergency landing.-External links:***...
is the island's only airport. In the 1980s, its runway was lengthened by the U.S. space program to 3,318 m (10,885 ft) so that it could serve as an emergency landing site
Shuttle Down
Shuttle Down is a novel by American author G. Harry Stine, written under the nom de plume Lee Correy. First appearing as a four-part serial in Analog magazine between December 1980 and March 1981, the novel was later published by Ballantyne/Del Rey in 1981, with a second edition following in...
for the space shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
. This enabled regular wide body jet services and a consequent increase of tourism on the island, coupled with migration of people from mainland Chile which threatens to alter the Polynesian
Polynesian culture
Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples' culture of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Chronologically, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:...
identity of the island. Land disputes have created political tensions since the 1980s, with part of the native Rapanui
Rapanui
The Rapa Nui or Rapanui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in the Pacific Ocean. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the Rapa Nui people make up 60% of Easter Island's population, with some living also in mainland Chile...
opposed to private property and in favor of traditional communal property.
On 30 July 2007, a constitutional reform gave Easter Island and Juan Fernández Islands
Juan Fernández Islands
The Juan Fernández Islands are a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of three main volcanic islands; Robinson Crusoe Island, Alejandro Selkirk Island and Santa Clara Island, the first...
the status of special territories of Chile. Pending the enactment of a special charter, the island will continue to be governed as a province of the Valparaíso Region
Valparaíso Region
The V Valparaíso Region is one of Chile's 15 first order administrative divisions.Valparaíso Region, 2006 With the country's third highest population of 1,539,852 million in 2002 and third smallest area of , the region is Chile's second most densely populated after the Santiago Metropolitan Region...
.
According to a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
report, on December 3, 2010 at least 25 people were injured when Chilean police using pellet guns attempted to evict a group of Rapa Nui from buildings they had occupied for three months, claiming that the land the buildings stood on had been illegally taken from their ancestors.