Table of Contents
- 1 How did the Polynesians know about Hawaii?
- 2 When did Polynesian migrations begin?
- 3 How far did the Polynesians sail?
- 4 How far did Polynesians travel to Hawaii?
- 5 What happened to the Native Hawaiians?
- 6 When and where did the Polynesians do most of their exploring?
- 7 How did Polynesians navigate the Polynesian Triangle?
- 8 What did Cook discover about the Polynesians?
How did the Polynesians know about Hawaii?
Polynesian navigators used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition.
When did Polynesian migrations begin?
Archaeology suggests that the migration eastward occurred in roughly two waves, the first occurring in the Bismarck Archipelago, Samoa and Tonga from 1600–1200 BC, and the second occurring later and spreading to the outer reaches of the Polynesian Triangle, bordered by Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand.
How long ago did the Polynesians colonize the Hawaiian Islands?
A Brief History of the Hawaiian Islands 1,500 years ago: Polynesians arrive in Hawaii after navigating the ocean using only the stars to guide them. 1778: Captain James Cook lands at Waimea Bay on the island of Kauai, becoming the first European to make contact with the Hawaiian Islands.
What is the oldest Polynesian culture?
Traditional Polynesia. Linguistic evidence suggests that western Polynesia was first settled some 3,000 years ago, by people of the Lapita culture.
How far did the Polynesians sail?
The goal of the project was to show that, although no such voyage had been made for hundreds of years, ancient Polynesian voyagers had been able to navigate distances of more than 2,500 miles using nothing more than their knowledge of the wind, sea, and stars.
How far did Polynesians travel to Hawaii?
The Hawaiian Islands were first settled as early as 400 C.E., when Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands, 2000 miles away, traveled to Hawaii’s Big Island in canoes.
During which years were the Polynesians discovering new places?
Polynesian colonization was sudden and swift Polynesian ancestors settled in Samoa around 800 BC, colonized the central Society Islands between AD 1025 and 1120 and dispersed to New Zealand, Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui and other locations between AD 1190 and 1290.
How many islands did the Polynesians colonize?
Accidental or Intentional Migration? The geographic area in Remote Oceania called the Polynesian triangle encompasses Aotearoa, Hawaii, and Easter Island as its corners and includes more than 1,000 islands.
What happened to the Native Hawaiians?
Within a century after Cook first landed, however, the Native Hawaiian population had been decimated, dropping down to about 40,000. Deaths were attributed to a number of “new” diseases including smallpox, measles, influenza, sexually-transmitted diseases, whooping cough, and the common cold.
When and where did the Polynesians do most of their exploring?
The Polynesians Rough estimates surrounding the dates of their voyages place their explorations between 1500 BC and 1000AD. New Guinea is thought to be one of the first places they settled, followed by the Solomon Islands, to Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand.
Where did the Polynesians come from?
Once they had reached the mid-ocean archipelagos of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, these seafarers – the immediate ancestors of the Polynesians – were alone in the ocean, for only they had the canoes and navigational skills needed to push so far into the Pacific.
When was the first Polynesian navigation system used?
Hawaiian navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, c. 1781. Traditional Polynesian navigation was used for thousands of years to make long voyages across thousands of miles of the open Pacific Ocean.
Canoes and navigation. The Polynesians encountered nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials,…
What did Cook discover about the Polynesians?
Cook was also the first European explorer to consider seriously that the Polynesians could have intentionally explored and settled their island world without the aid of a nearby Southern Continent, Spanish ships, divine intervention, or other external agencies. “How shall we account for this Nation spreading itself so far over this Vast ocean?”