What is the history of Rapa Nui?
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What is the history of Rapa Nui?
Known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722. It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism.
What is Rapa Nui known for?
Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues.
What is Rapa Nui also known as?
Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui; Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
When was Rapa Nui discovered?
The world that the Europeans first observed when they arrived on Rapa Nui in 1722 has puzzled us for centuries.
What happened to Rapa Nui?
Around 1200 A.D., their growing numbers and an obsession with building moai led to increased pressure on the environment. By the end of the 17th century, the Rapanui had deforested the island, triggering war, famine and cultural collapse.
Where are the Rapa Nui people from?
Easter Island
The Rapanui are a Polynesian people, the majority of whom live on Easter Island. A few hundred live on mainland Chile and in Tahiti. As of 2013, only 2,553 people self-identified as Rapanui, comprising about 0.3 per cent of Chile’s total indigenous population. The majority of this community lives in urban areas.
Do Rapa Nui still exist?
The Rapanui are a Polynesian people, the majority of whom live on Easter Island. A few hundred live on mainland Chile and in Tahiti. As of 2013, only 2,553 people self-identified as Rapanui, comprising about 0.3 per cent of Chile’s total indigenous population. The majority of this community lives in urban areas.
Who killed Easter Island?
Peruvian slave raiders
In December 1862, Peruvian 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.
Do the Rapa Nui still exist?
Following contact with Europeans, disease spread dangerously through the Rapa Nui population, sparing only approximately 100 individuals. But the Rapa Nui survived and today account for around 50 percent of the 7,750 people living on the island.
What happened to Rapa Nui people?
Its inhabitants, the Rapa Nui, have endured famines, epidemics of disease and cannibalism, civil war, environmental collapse, slave raids, various colonial contacts, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion.
Why is Easter Island a mystery?
The Easter Island mystery is mainly due to its isolation. This made the Rapa Nui culture and history have not been completely unraveled and made the Easter Island myths and legends very relevant. They been transmitted orally by the natives and collected by ancient visitants.
Who invaded Rapa Nui?
slave raiders
Lost knowledge. In 1862-1863, many slave raiders attacked Rapa Nui. All able-bodied men were taken, among them all the wise men who knew how to read and write rongo-rongo. Since then, no one knows how to interpret the tablets.
Why did the Rapa Nui collapse?
Who discovered Easter Island first?
explorer Jacob Roggeveen
Between 600 and 800 A.D., a group of colonists from an unidentified location in Eastern Polynesia settled on Easter Island after sailing in a southeasterly direction for many weeks. The name Easter Island originated with the European explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who first saw the island on Easter Sunday, 1722.
