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'''Marquesas' redirects here. You may have been looking for the 'Marquesas Keys' in the U.S. State of Florida.''
The 'Marquesas Islands' are a group of islands in French Polynesia. In French they are known as the 'Îles Marquises' or 'Archipel des Marquises' or 'Marquises', and in Marquesan they are known variously as 'Te Henua (K)enana' (North Marquesan) and 'Te Fenua `Enata' (South Marquesan), which means "The Land of Men". They are located at 9º 00S, 139º 30W. The highest point is 1190 m (3904 ft.), the peak of Mount Temetiu on Hiva Oa.[1]

Contents

History

Geography

Islands of the Marquesas

Northern Marquesas

Southern Marquesas

Seamounts

Geology

Government

Language

Demographics

Communications

Airports

Telecommunications

Culture

Biology

In Western culture

See also

External links

History

Main articles: Marquesas history

The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas were Polynesians, who, from archæological evidence, are believed to have arrived before 100 AD. Ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely arrived from the region of Tonga and Samoa.
The islands were given their name by the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who reached them in 1595. He named them after his patron, García Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time. Mendaña visited first Fatu Hiva and then Tahuata before continuing on to the Solomon Islands.
The American navigator Capt. Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig ''Hope'' in 1791, giving them the name 'Washington Islands'. In 1813, Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim, and in 1842, France, following a successful military operation on behalf of a native chief (named Iotete) who claimed to be king of the whole of the island of Tahuata, took possession of the whole group, establishing a settlement (abandoned in 1859) on Nuku Hiva. French control over the group was reestablished in 1870, and later incorporated into the territory of French Polynesia.
Of all the major island groups of the Pacific, the Marquesas Islands suffered the greatest population decline as a result of diseases brought by European explorers, reducing the estimated sixteenth century population of over 100,000 inhabitants, to about 20,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century, and to just over 2,000 by the beginning of the 1900s. During the course of the twentieth century, the population increased to about 8,500 by 2002, not including the Marquesan community residing on Tahiti.

Geography

Main articles: Marquesas geography


The Marquesas Islands are the island group farthest from any continent in the world, lying between 400 and 600 miles (600 and 1,000 km) south of the equator and approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) northeast of Tahiti. They fall naturally into two geographical divisions: the northern group, consisting of Eïao, Hatutu (Hatutaa), Motu One, and the islands centered around the large island of Nuku Hiva: Motu Iti (Hatu Iti), Ua Pou, Motu `Oa and Ua Huka, and the southern group of Fatu Uku, Tahuata, Moho Tani (Motane), Terihi, Fatu Hiva and Motu Nao (Thomasset Rock), clustered around the main island of Hiva `Oa.
With a combined land area of 1,274 km² (492 sq. miles), the Marquesas are among the largest island groups of French Polynesia, Nuku Hiva being the second largest island in the entire territory, after Tahiti. With the exception of Motu One, all the islands of the Marquesas are of volcanic origin.
In contrast to the common perception of lush tropical vegetation that goes culturally hand-in-hand with the appellation "Polynesia", the Marquesas are remarkably dry islands. Although the islands lie within the tropics, they are the first major break in the prevailing easterly winds spawned from the extraordinarily dry (from an atmospheric perspective) Humboldt Current. Because of this, the islands are subject to frequent drought conditions, and only those which reach highest into the clouds (generally, above about 2,500 feet above sea level) have reliable precipitation. This has led to historical fluctuations in water supply, which factor has played a crucial rôle in the sustainability of human populations in certain sections of the various islands throughout the archipelago. This is especially evident in the low historical population of Ua Huka (maximum elevation 2,812 ft.) and the intermittent inhabitability of Eiao (maximum elevation 1,890 ft.).

Islands of the Marquesas

Northern Marquesas

★ Eiao

★ Hatutu

★ Motu Iti

★ Motu `Oa

★ Motu One

★ Nuku Hiva

★ Ua Huka

★ Ua Pou

Southern Marquesas

★ Fatu Hiva

★ Fatu Huku

★ Hiva `Oa

★ Moho Tani

★ Motu Nao

★ Tahuata

★ Terihi

Seamounts

There are also a number of seamounts or shoals, located primarily in the area of the northern Marquesas. Among these are:

★ Clark Bank

★ Hinakura Bank

★ Lawson Bank

Geology

Main articles: Marquesas geology


With the exception of Motu One, all of the Marquesas Islands are high islands. Motu One is a low island, comprising two small sand banks awash on a coral reef. Unlike the majority of the islands of French Polynesia, the Marquesas are not surrounded by protective fringing reefs. Except for at Motu One, and in bays and other protected areas, the only coral in the Marquesas is found in a rather strange place: on the top of the island of Fatu Huku.
The South Equatorial Current lashes the islands mercilessly, which has led to sea-caves dotting the islands' shores. Except for where the valleys empty into the small bays, the islands are remarkable for their mountain ridges, which end abruptly as cliffs where they meet the sea.
The islands are estimated to range in age from the youngest, Fatu Hiva (1.3my) to the oldest, Eiao (6my).

Government

Main articles: Marquesas Islands government


The center of government is Tai o Ha`e on Nuku Hiva, although the former capital, Atuona on Hiva `Oa, still serves as the administrative center for the southern islands.
Administratively, the Marquesas Islands form the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands (''la subdivision administrative des (Îles) Marquises''), one of French Polynesia's five administrative subdivisions (''subdivision administratives''). Geographically, the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas Islands (''la subdivision administrative des (Îles) Marquises'') is identical with the electoral circumscription of the Marquesas Islands (''circonscription des Îles Marquises''), one of French Polynesia's six electoral districts/circumscriptions (''circonsriptions électorales'') for the Assembly of French Polynesia (see also Politics of French Polynesia).

Language

Main articles: Marquesan language

Although French and Tahitian are the only official languages of French Polynesia, and therefore of the Marquesas Islands as well, the Marquesan languages, in their various forms, remain the primary means of communication within the archipelago.
'Marquesan' is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. They are usually classified into two groups, North Marquesan and South Marquesan, roughly along geographic lines.
The North Marquesan dialects are spoken on the islands of Ua Pu and Nuku Hiva, and South Marquesan dialects on the islands of Hiva `Oa, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva. The dialects of Ua Huka are often incorrectly classified as North Marquesan; they are instead transitional. While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan. The North Marquesan dialects are sometimes considered two separate languages: North Marquesan and Tai Pi Marquesan, the latter being spoken in the valleys of the eastern third of the island of Nuku Hiva, in the ancient province of Tai Pi.
The most striking feature of the Marquesan languages is their almost universal replacement of the or of other Polynesian languages by a (glottal stop).
Like other Polynesian languages, the phonology of Marquesan languages is characterized by a paucity of consonants and a comparative abundance of vowels.

Demographics

Main articles: Marquesas demographics


The population of the Marquesas Islands at the 2002 census was 8,712 inhabitants, which is on the rise, but still far lower than 16th century estimates which put the population at over 100,000. Much of the population was wiped out by Small pox between 1600 and 1900, when the population was counted at just under 2,000.

Communications

Airports

There are four airports in the Marquesas, one each on the islands of Nuku Hiva, Ua Pu, Ua Huka, and Hiva Oa. The terrain of Tahuata is too irregular to allow for the construction of a landing strip without significant investment, and while the upland plateau of central Fatu Hiva is large enough to permit the construction of an airstrip, the island's minuscule population makes such an exercise of dubious benefit.

Telecommunications

The Marquesas are served by telephone as well as by radio and television mainly from Tahiti.

Culture

Main articles: Marquesan culture

The Marquesas Islands were once a major center of eastern Polynesian civilization.

Biology

The ecosystem of the Marquesas has been devastated in some areas by the activities of feral livestock. As a first step in preserving what remains, the Marquesan Nature Reserves were created in 1992.

In Western culture

★ Famous French painter Paul Gauguin and Belgian singer Jacques Brel spent the last years of their lives in the Marquesas, and are buried there. Brel composed a famous song, ''Les Marquises'', about the Marquesas Islands, his last home.

★ The Marquesas provided inspiration to American novelist Herman Melville, whose experiences in the Marquesas formed the basis for his novel ''Typee''. (Despite some sources, Omoo is based in the Society Islands, not in the Marquesas.)

★ Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Marquesas in 1888, and wrote about his experiences and impressions there in 1900, in a book called ''In the South Seas''.

★ Frederick O'Brien wrote a 1919 book ''White Shadows in the South Seas'' based on his experiences in the Marquesas. This book was also adapted into an MGM movie of 1928.

★ Thor Heyerdahl wrote his book ''Fatu Hiva'' during a year-long stay on the island.

★ The island group is also mentioned in passing in the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, "Southern Cross".

★ The Marquesas Islands temporarily received an international spotlight in the United States when the reality TV show '' was filmed on Nuku Hiva. It was the fourth installment of the TV series ''Survivor''.

See also

★ Jacques Brel

★ Paul Gauguin

★ French overseas departments and territories

★ Administrative divisions of France

★ Politics of French Polynesia

★ Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans

External links

★ Official site (Tahiti Tourism board)

★ Finding French Polynesia

★ The Marquesas Online

★ Effects of the 1946 Aleutian Tsunami on the Marquesas Is.

★ Flora of the Marquesas Islands

★ History of the Marquesas Islands

★ Satellite Images of the Marquesas Islands

★ Encarta Map

★ WorldAtlas.com's map of the Marquesas--includes most of the islands

★ Administrative divisions of the Marquesas Islands

★ Pacific Islands Travel's Marquesas Page

★ Marquesas Islands Homepage

★ http://cecile.barbet.free.fr/ (in French)

★ Polynesian Cultural Center's Marquesas Islands information page

★ http://www.alptuna.com