Easter Island 's History And Decline

Colonisation has impacted profoundly on indigenous communities worldwide and this essays examines and details some of those impacts.

There have been many instances throughout history in which indigenous people have unwillingly suffered the consequences of foreigners’ interaction with their culture. In the case of the Huaorani two foreign groups, the oil companies and the missionaries, invaded their land and gravely affected the life they led in the Ecuadorian amazon. In the book Savages Joe Kane gives a firsthand account at how the Huaorani fight to preserve their land and traditional way of life.

This happened because, the foreigners took every single firewood they can obtain from the Hawaiian’s land. There was also another incident related to this matter. Every time the Hawaiians have regrown their plants, the foreigners pull them out and took everything for themselves. These facts are more of an economic related problem because, all the incidents are relevant to resource and food related. In the past the there weren't any problems where the Hawaiians did not have any resource, the Hawaiian instead had the system of the Kapu system. The Kapu system was where the Hawaiians will only take what they will need, but now, it was different because, they can’t get the resources they need to

As early as the 1400’s the colonization and territorial expansion has affected the lives of the indigenous people. We have seen this all around the world in South America, Africa and China. The indigenous people have endured death by disease, slavery, starvation, and war.

Hawaii has always been a beautiful flourishing place, but since the first arrival of outsiders, the local flora and fauna have been greatly affected. Hawaii is located in one of the most secluded parts of the world, being thousands of miles from the closest land mass. For an excessive amount of time Hawaii lived in isolation. The arrival of Captain Cook in the 18th century impacted Hawaii instantly. Like any arrival of westerners to an isolated place, the westerners transmitted diseases that the indigenous had no immunization to. Like the Native Americans at the arrival of the Spanish, Hawaiians were dying quick. With the introduction of new diseases the westerners also brought ideas. Since Hawaii was now known to the world missionaries came to enforce those new ideas and a new religion. The missionaries did nothing but confuse the indigenous people even more. Missionaries sought to make the Hawaiians identical to them, or similar. They forced acculturated the population and assimilated their culture. The descendants of the first missionaries later aided in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. They also helped introduce the idea and practice of land “owning” to the indigenous. The introduction of such process led to a 4:1 ratio of land owned by whites to land owned by indigenous.

Many people are under a false impression that early Native Americans are the original environmentalists. This is an impression that many people share. The Abenaki tribes that resided in Maine from 3700 BP were not by our traditional definition, environmentalists. In fact they were far from ecologically sound. This paper is meant not to criticize the Native Americans of the age, but to clarify their roles in the environment. To better understand this subject some background is needed.

On September 8, 2000, the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) made a formal apology for the their participation in ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of the Indigenous Nations of the Western Territories of the Unites States.2 From forced relocation to obscure lands and forced assimilation into the white man’s view of the world, the BIA previously set out to ‘destroy all things Indian’.3 Through the colonization of Turtle Island (North America), the American Federal policy set out to eliminate in part or as a whole, the Indigenous populations.4 The attitudes of the colonists were intentionally detrimental and the process is naturally exterminatory.5 The process of colonization was often exemplified by violent confrontations, deliberate massacres, and in some cases, total annihilations of a people.6 The culture of conquest was developed and practiced by Europeans well before they landed on Turtle Island as the practice was developed, and perfected well before the fifteenth century.7 Taking land and imposing values and ways of life on the social landscape created a conflictual relationship with the Indigenous peoples and forced a new way of life that ultimately destroyed those that previously existed there.8 Modern Europe

The Hawaiians were further depicted as "thieves" like the rest of the "people in Polynesia," and plagued with the barbaric accusation of committing infanticide. These so called "facts" were enough for the Euro-American forces to send out missionaries to regulate the Hawaiian people and take over their land and all their practices. (Stannard, 381- 417)

Once voyages to North America became profitable, European nations looked to capitalize in any way possible. The nations really had to sell the idea of starting a new life from scratch thousands of miles away to their constituents. This was not easy as the voyage in it of itself could be deadly, not to mention the only thing guaranteed in return was an allocation of land and a chance at earning large sums of money. The difficult nature of recruitment often led to deliberately bias accounts of North American lands (Cronon 1983). The bias accounts often amounted to over hyping the abundance of resources in the mysterious “New World.” Not only did this lead to ultimately more colonizers making the voyage, but it also influenced their mindset and interactions with the natural world upon their arrival. The influence of bias accounts led to environmentally disconnected practices.

First off, the foreigners stole the Hawaiians land and crops including pineapple, bananas, onions, yams, and pumpkins (Puamana). In this act, the Hawaiians lost their lands because of the crookedness and dishonesty of the foreigners. For example, the foreigners said the land was used to grow sugarcane, but it was actually turned into a cattle run (Puamana). Before, the Hawaiians had plenty of land to grow crops on and they had nice, fertile land to live on, but the Mahele caused them to lose all their property and their land to become dry and hard because of the cattle. Now, the Hawaiians have barely any land to produce goods for trading so they cannot obtain materials they need for survival.

Diamond stated that when the Polynesian ancestors arrived the island was covered with heavily forested and fertile land, however by the 1400's the forest were destroyed and cause the people to revert to cannibalism once the animals died off and the people couldn't construct ocean-going canoes. Diamond concluded that the Easter Island declined because of environmental destruction and social concerns being more

It reveals the abundance that once existed in this now poverty-stricken region, a residual effect of colonialism. It is a testament to the underhanded methods which were employed in their acquisition, as Columbus takes possession of the islands “with proclamation and the royal standard displayed” to a populace that neither understands his language nor the concepts that his actions imply. His exploitation of the natives, abusing their trust and offering “as many as they shall order to be shipped” into slavery, condemning him in the eyes of history. (Columbus 1922,

     The people of Easter Island came over to their new land, and recognized that it was ideal for them to settle. The land was lush; the sea was providing a bounty of fresh fish, and other seafood. The earth was dark brown, and very rich. Everything was just the way it needed to be to support a growing community of people.

Leonard A. Crippa’s article, “The Inspiring Rapa Nui Nation’s Efforts to Rebuild Its Government and Regain Control of Its Territory,” examines the relationship between the autonomy-seeking Rapa Nui people and Chile, which governs the nation. Like many of the different regional groups that we have studied, the Rapa Nui are dependent upon their environment for shelter and food. While the resources of Rapa Nui are not directly threatened by the commodity trade, tourism and uncontrolled immigration threaten the livelihood of the people living on the Rapa Nui islands.

Easter island has been called ‘the best historical example of a society collapsing’. From roughly 700 to 1400 Easter Island flourished; they had a stable