History

French Polynesia as we know it today was one of the last places on Earth to be settled by humans. Scientists believe the Great Polynesian Migration happened around 1500 BC as  Austronesian people went on a journey using celestial navigation to find islands in the South Pacific ocean. The first islands of French Polynesia to be settled were the  Marquesas Islands in about 200 BC. The Polynesians later ventured southwest and discovered the  Society Islands around AD 300.

European communication began in 1521 when Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing in the service of the  Spanish Crown, sighted Puka-Puka in theTuāmotu-Gambier Archipelago. In 1772, Dutchman  Jakob Roggeveen came across Bora Bora in the Society Islands.

British explorer  Samuel Wallis visited Tahiti in 1767. The French explorerLouis Antoine de Bougainville visited Tahiti in 1768, while the British explorer James Cookvisited in 1769.In 1772, The Spanish  Viceroy of Peru Don Manuel de Amat ordered a number of expeditions to Tahiti under the command of  Domingo de Bonechea who was the first European to explore all of the main islands beyond Tahiti. A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774 and for a time some maps bore the nameIsla de Amatafter Viceroy Amat. Christian missions began with Spanish priests who stayed in Tahiti for a year. Protestants from the  London Missionary Society settled permanently in Polynesia in 1797.

Society islands kingdoms :

King Pōmare II of Tahiti was forced to flee to Mo'orea in 1803; he and his subjects were converted to Protestantism in 1812. French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834; their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and  Tahuata were declared a  French protectorate, to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed. The capital of  Papeetē was founded in 1843. In 1880, France annexed Tahiti, changing the status from that of a protectorate to that of a  colony. The island groups were not officially united until the establishment of the French  protectorate in 1889.

In the 1880s, France claimed the  Tuamotu Archipelago, which formerly belonged to the  Pōmare Dynasty, without formally annexing it. Having declared a protectorate over Tahuata in 1842, the French regarded the entire  Marquesas Islands as French. In 1885, France appointed a governor and established a general council, thus giving it the proper administration for a colony. The islands of  RimataraandRūrutu unsuccessfully lobbied for British protection in 1888, so in 1889 they were annexed by France. Postage stamps were first issued in the colony in 1892. The first official name for the colony was Établissements de l'Océanie (Establishments in Oceania); in 1903 the general council was changed to an advisory council and the colony's name was changed toÉtablissements Français de l'Océanie(French Establishments in Oceania).