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Map of French Polynesia Bora Bora, Leeward Islands. The islands of French Polynesia make up a total land area of 3,521 square kilometres (1,359 sq mi), [2] scattered over more than 2,000 km (1,200 miles) of ocean. There are 121 islands in French Polynesia and many more islets or motu s around atolls. [5] The highest point is Mount Orohena on ...
They cover a land area of 1,590 square kilometres (610 sq mi). The Society Islands are a tropical South Sea archipelago of volcanic origin. They represent the most economically important of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia. The highest point is Mount Orohena, which reaches 2,241 meters, located on the island of Tahiti.
The Windward Islands (French: Îles du Vent [il dy vɑ̃]) are the eastern group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. These islands were also previously named the Georgian Islands in honour of King George III of the United Kingdom .
On 9 September 1842 there was a protectorate treaty signed between Tahitians and the French. The agreement was for the "protection of indigenous property and the maintenance of a traditional judicial system". [17] In 1958 the islands in the area including Tahiti were "reconstituted as a French Overseas Territory and renamed French Polynesia". [18]
In the history of French Polynesia, the French Polynesian island groups do not share a common history before the establishment of the French protectorate in 1889. The first French Polynesian islands to be settled by Polynesians were the Marquesas Islands in AD 300 and the Society Islands in AD 800.
The Marquesas Islands (/ m ɑːr ˈ k eɪ s ə s / mar-KAY-səss; French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua ʻEnana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua ʻEnata (South Marquesan), 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.
A decade later, navigator Pedro Fernández de Quirós made the first European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling it Gente Hermosa (Beautiful People). [48] [49] Cook Islanders are ethnically Polynesians or Eastern Polynesia. They are culturally associated with Tahiti, Eastern Islands, NZ Maori and Hawaii.
Makatea in French Polynesia is one of the three great phosphate rock islands in the Pacific Ocean – the others are Banaba (Ocean Island) in Kiribati and Nauru. The terrain consists of a mixture of rugged high islands and low islands with reefs. It is made up of six archipelagos. The largest and most populated island is Tahiti, in the Society ...