Marquesas Islands
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How it came to be
The Marquesas are 12 islands in French Polynesia in the South Pacific. Polynesian seafarers settled them around 1000 CE, and between the 10th and 19th centuries they built a society in isolation. The people called themselves Ènata, human beings, and organised chiefdoms by valley, each running from ridge to shore.
The Ènata raised dry-stone platforms called paepae, some 6 m high, for houses and ceremonies, and carved tiki figures and petroglyphs. On 21 July 1595 the Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña arrived and named the islands after the Marquis of Cañete, Viceroy of Peru.
A population of more than 78,000 in the 18th century collapsed after contact with outsiders, falling to 2,255 in 1926. France annexed the islands in 1842 and re-established control in 1870. UNESCO listed them as a mixed site in 2024.
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