History of Tahiti

ounded the Pōmare Dynasty and his lineage was the first to unify Tahiti from 1788-1791. He and his descendants founded and expanded Tahitian influence to all of the lands that now constitute modern French Polynesia.

Among the European ships that landed in Tahiti in the last two decades of the 18th century the best-known was HMS Bounty, whose crew mutinied after leaving Tahiti in 1789.

After European contact, the population fell rapidly and traditional society was disrupted by guns, prostitution, venereal disease, and alcohol. Introduced diseases including typhus, influenza and smallpox killed so many Tahitians that by 1797, the population was only 16,000. Later it was to drop as low as 6,000.

The London Missionary Society, who sent missionaries and teachers such as John Williams in 1816 and John Paton in 1858, worked to provide stability in the islands through sustainable relief and development work, providing a written language, and ending traditional cannibalism and child sacrifice practices.

1800s

In 1803 Pōmare I died and was succeeded by Pōmare II. In 1821 Pōmare II died and the throne went to his son Pōmare III who was 18 months old. He was to die at the age of six in 1827 and was succeeded by his sister, Pōmare IV.

In November 1835 Charles Darwin visited Tahiti aboard the HMS Beagle on her circumnavigation, captained by Robert FitzRoy. He was impressed by what he perceived to be the positive influence the missionaries had had on the sobriety and moral character of the population. Darwin praised the scenery, but was not flattering towards Tahiti's Queen Pōmare IV. Captain Fitzroy negotiated payment of compensation for an attack on an English ship by Tahitians, which had taken place in 1833.

In 1839 the island was visited by