Travels with Uncle Charlie: French Polynesia day 11

With further regard to the human history of Polynesia, after the Spanish priests threw up their hands, the London Missionary Society gave it a try, beginning in 1797. This crowd was a little more convincing, although it took the next 15 years to convert King Pōmare II of Tahiti to Protestantism in 1812. Not to be outdone, the French sent Catholic missionaries to Tahiti in 1834; they made it two years before being thrown out. This really ticked off the French, who sent a gunboat to rattle the local cages, and France declared Tahiti a French “protectorate” in 1842. The fact that nothing saved souls faster than the point of a gun gave rise an onslaught of Catholic missionaries could return and continue proselytizing.

Meantime, noticing that no other country was much interested in the conquest of the South Pacific, France annexed Tahiti in 1880, moving its status up to colony. We can only imagine the celebrations that took place when the natives were informed of this upgrade.

During the decade that followed, finding they could get away with most anything in Polynesia, France first claimed the Tuamotu Archipelago and then decided the entire Marquesas Islands were French. When they found the islands of Rimatara and Rūrutu had been turned down for protection by the British, those islands, too were annexed. Pretty soon France considered itself the owner of about a million square miles of ocean and islands, and since the British, Spanish, and Portuguese had their hands full trying to run the rest of the world, there was no one left to go to war over the question. Before you knew it, the natives had all started wearing clothing and totally abandoned the practice of partial nudity in public. Downright hypocritical of the French, when you think about it, if you have visited any of their beaches in Europe or the Caribbean.

Believe it or not, many Polynesians actually fought against the Japanese during World War II, even though they were unaware of the Japanese plans to do a little annexing of their own. To show their gratitude, the French granted everyone French citizenship at war’s end and upgraded the place again, to overseas territory. They didn’t get around to calling the islands French Polynesia until 1957, which might have been buttering up the locals for future testing of nuclear weapons. In 1962 Maruroa atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago became the main site for seeing how hydrogen bombs would work—just in case someone thought France would be worth invading again. When they found out the bombs worked, they discontinued testing for a while. But just to make sure, they picked Fangataufa Atoll to blow up in the mid-1990’s. This teed off the whole world, so they finally stopped the testing in 1996, and to please the locals, gave them another upgrade in 2003. French Polynesia is now a “democratic French overseas collectivity” without any meaningful political power. But that discussion will have to wait for another day. You have been holding your breath to see what exciting things have been happening on Maupiti.

We bade farewell to Poe Iti this morning, as Gerald ferried us to the next motu south, dropping us off at Kuriri, where we will be spending three nights. It is an exciting place. Three other couples are here, all French; two of the couples are young honeymooners. We have not decided whether to read them our description of French involvement in French Polynesia. They appear to be the rather serious types.