Like all Polynesians, the Tahitians did not have a writing system that recorded their ancient sojourns; but anthropologists believe they migrated to their islands over 2,000 years ago from central Polynesia, probably from Samoa. The early Tahitians also spread throughout the area to other island groups, including Rarotonga (the Cook Islands), the Tuamotu islands, the Marquesas, and eventually even Hawaii.
British Capt. Samuel Wallis is the first known European to make contact with Tahiti in 1767, followed by French navigator Count Louis de Bougainville in 1768, British explorer Captain James Cook in 1769 and, of course, British Captain William Bligh and his first mate, Fletcher Christian, in 1789 aboard HMS Bounty.
For the next 50 years the British and French engaged in political negotiations for control of the islands in the area, with France emerging as the colonial power by 1842. In 1847 Queen Pomare accepted the protection of France; however, it wasn't until the hereditary leader, Pomare V, abdicated his throne in 1880 that France came to full power in the region.
Over the ensuing years, various artists have helped spread the appeal of Tahiti to the rest of the world, including Robert Louis Stevenson in the 1890s, French artist Paul Gauguin who came in 1901 and died in the Marquesas in 1903. World War I veterans Charles Nordhoff and James Hall moved there in 1920 and made the mutiny on the Bounty famous with their trilogy that has been made into a series of movies. American author James Michener was stationed on the fabled island of Bora Bora during World War II and, of course, went on to write his first well-known book, Tales of the South Pacific, partially based on that and other island experiences.
The people became French citizens in 1946, and although the islands are still an overseas territory of France, they gained self-governing status in 1977.
