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Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, although some islands inhabited by Polynesians are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii , New Zealand , and Easter Island .
Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and are part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, with an Urheimat in Taiwan.
The Polynesian triangle. Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages spread through the islands of Southeast Asia – most likely starting out from Taiwan, [9] as tribes whose natives were thought to have previously arrived from mainland South China about 8000 years ago – into the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia, through the Philippines and Indonesia.
This map, created by David Eccles (Rangitāne o Wairau) is based on genetic, archaeological, and radiocarbon dating data and traces the migration routes of the Polynesian population, including the discovery of New Zealand by Māori.
Outside the triangle, there are traces of Polynesian settlement as far north as Necker Island (Mokumanamana), as far east as Salas y Gómez Island (Motu Motiro Hiva), and as far south as Enderby Island . Also, there have once been Polynesian settlements on Norfolk Island and the Kermadec Islands . By the time the Europeans first arrived, these ...
Map of Pitcairn Islands. The history of the Pitcairn Islands begins with the colonization of the islands by Polynesians in the 11th century. Polynesian people established a culture that flourished for four centuries and then vanished.
Presently the island is a National Wildlife Refuge run by the U.S. Department of the Interior; a day beacon is situated near the middle of the west coast. Westerners arrived in Caroline Islands in 1525, by the Portuguese Diogo da Rocha and his pilot Gomes de Sequeira, naming them the Sequeira Islands.
The region commonly termed "Polynesia" includes thousands of islands, most of them arranged in a rough triangle bounded by Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand.Outside this Polynesian Triangle, in areas commonly designated Micronesia and Melanesia, lie about two dozen islands, most of them small and remote, whose inhabitants speak Polynesian languages.