Figure 1.--The Polynesians were the first people to reach these islands and the only inhabitants until European ships encountered them. Here we see Polynesians and the liush island vegetation on Raiatenin, west of Tahiti in 1903. |
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French Polynesia includes the islands at the outer extreme of maritime migration from Asia with he exception of Easter Island. The islands were uninhabited at the time that Polynesians reached them. And when the Europeans began making contact, the population was entirely Polynesian. Polynesians constitute about 78 percent of the population. Only small numbers of Europeans were on the islands when the French colonized the islands (late-19th century). Other than the French and a few Americans who now consitute about 10 percent of the population. The only other major ethnic group is the Chinese. The Polynesians were not too interested in working on the oplantations tha French settlers founded. So they brouught in Chinese to work on their plantations (early-20th century). Most were recruited in southeast China (Kwantung) to work on cotton plntations. They were not awarded French citizenship for many years (1974). Today they make up about 12 percent of the population. They are primarily on Tahiti. It is becoming more difficicult assesing ethnicity in FP. There has been a great deal of ethnic mixing since World War II. Until that time, the three ethnic groups were fairly discrete. This is much less true today.
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