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At the center is Tahiti (5), with Samoa (4) to the west. The Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: The US state of Hawaii, Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and New Zealand (Aotearoa). This is often used as a simple way to define Polynesia.
Tahiti is the highest and largest island in French Polynesia lying close to Moʻorea island. It is located 4,400 kilometres (2,376 nautical miles) south of Hawaiʻi, 7,900 km (4,266 nmi) from Chile, 5,700 km (3,078 nmi) from Australia. [3] [4] The island is 45 km (28 mi) across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km 2 (403 sq mi).
The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings. [1] Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Oceania. [2] [3] [4] At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, or Japanese, or by the United States.
By tradition, the islands located in the southern Pacific have also often been called the South Sea Islands, [4] and their inhabitants have been called South Sea Islanders. The Hawaiian Islands have often been considered to be part of the South Sea Islands because of their relative proximity to the southern Pacific islands, even though they are ...
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. [10] A short-lived Spanish settlement was created in 1774, [7] and for a time some maps bore the name Isla de Amat after Viceroy ...
Bora Bora (French: Bora-Bora; Tahitian: Pora Pora) is an island group in the Leeward Islands in the South Pacific. The Leeward Islands comprise the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, which is an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. Bora Bora has a total land area of 30.55 km 2 (12 sq mi).
The Society Islands (French: Îles de la Société [il də la sɔsjete], [2] [3] officially Archipel de la Société [aʁʃipɛl də la sɔsjete]; [4] [5] Tahitian: Tōtaiete mā) [6] are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean that includes the major islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Huahine.
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 ...