Kingdom of Bora Bora
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Bora Bora Kingdom Royaume de Bora Bora (French) Hau Pora Pora (Tahitian) 1847 -1895 |
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| Official languages | French and Tahitian | |||
| Capital | Nunue Vaitape |
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| Form of government | monarchy | |||
| Head of state | monarch | |||
| religion | Tahitian religion, Christianity | |||
| founding | 1847 | |||
| resolution | 1895 | |||
| currency | French franc , pound sterling | |||
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The Kingdom of Bora Bora ( French Royaume de Bora Bora ; Tahitian : Hau Pora Pora ) was founded in the early 19th century with the political unification of the islands of Bora Bora and recognized by France and the United Kingdom in 1847 with the Jarnac Agreement . In the 19th century, the kingdom was next to Tahiti , Huahine and Raiatea one of several independent Polynesian states within the Society Islands with a common language and culture, whose rulers were dynastically linked through marriage. In addition to Bora Bora, the kingdom included the islands of Tūpai , Maupiti , Maupihaa , Motu One and Manuae . In 1888 the kingdom was finally annexed by France and the last queen, Teriimaevarua III. , was forced to abdicate in 1895. Since then, the islands have belonged to French Polynesia .
Pre-colonial period
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The history of Bora Bora is marked by the rivalry between two clans: one from Faanui , consisting of families from the marae Farerua, and the families from Nunue and Anau around the marae Vaiotaha, which was for a long time the most important marae in Polynesia.
In the exercise of religious power, Bora Bora's history was also marked by rivalry with Raiatea . Up to a certain period of time, a certain parallel between the institutions of Bora Bora and Raiatea can be perceived, which suggests that both islands together dominated the other Leeward Islands politically and religiously. However, Raiatea ultimately became the center of religious power while Bora Bora remained a strong military power, which was evident in internal wars as well as wars with rival islands.
According to Pacific driver Tupaia , Bora Bora was a place of exile for thieves and other criminals. The outcasts pursued piracy and raided the other islands. In the 18th century the chief Puni (Teihotu Matarua) managed to dominate the other clans on the island. He then conquered Tahaa and then turned to Raiatea , which he conquered in 1763 after a three-year campaign. When James Cook landed on Tahaa and Raiatea in 1769, the islands were still ruled by Puni and his Borabora warriors.
After Puni's death, his nephew Tapoa I, the supreme chief of Bora Bora, Raiatea and Tahaa, settled in Raiatea. He left local power to the chiefs Mai and Tefaaora, originally from Nunue and Anau, and members of the marae of Vaiotaha.
The first verifiable mention of the island came from the Dutch explorer Jakob Roggeveen in 1722 . James Cook sighted Bora Bora in 1769 and landed there in 1777.
Independence under Franco-British colonial influence
While Tahiti was shaped by the missionary and colonial goals of France and the United Kingdom at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Bora Bora was to remain untouched for a relatively long time by the power struggles between the two European powers. However, their influence was particularly felt in the island's evangelism .
In the 1810s, Chief Mai and 262 warriors joined Pomare II in his fight against the Teva clan. In 1815 the battle of Fe'i Pi in Punaauia (on the island of Tahiti) sealed the victory of the Protestant party Pomares II, who was converted in 1812, against the traditionalist party. The Christianity became the religion of the victors, and on their return to Bora Bora in 1816 the warriors brought the new religion. The success was so great that in 1818 the residents requested books and pastors for the island from the missionaries of Moorea and Huahine. Reverend Orsmond visited the island for the first time in the same year and settled on Bora Bora in 1820.
On May 12, 1820, Tamatoa III, chief of Raiatea, implemented a missionary obedience code based on 25 articles based on the Tahiti Code (Pomare Code). In the same year Chief Mai brought this code to Bora Bora and extended it to Maupiti. In 1822, the Bora Bora Church in Vaitape in the Nunue district was consecrated.
In the late 1820s, much of the population of Bora Bora joined the Mamaia movement. This millenarian movement, which arose on the island of Raiatea, united the old faith and the new religion and challenged the authority of the missionaries. When the leaders of this movement were banished from Raiatea in 1826, heresy spread to the Leeward Islands, including Bora Boras. The Mamaia movement gained such influence on Tahaa and Bora Bora in 1830 that the two islands united in a war against Raiatea and Huahine and remained loyal to the missionaries. However, Tapoa II, leader of the Alliance and chief of Tahaa, was defeated and his wife, Pomare IV, Queen of Tahiti, was separated from him in 1831. He then moved to Bora Bora as chief of the island at the request of the clans of Mai and Tafaaora. Tapoa II remained on good terms with Pomare IV, his ex-wife, and in 1841 he adopted a daughter, Teriimaevarua, whom he declared his heiress.
When the Kingdom of Tahiti was placed under the Protectorate of France in 1842, Bora Bora was not affected. Bora Bora, on the other hand, profited from the consequences of the Pritchard affair, because in order to end the Franco-British dispute, Louis-Philippe I ratified the Jarnac Agreement on June 19, 1847, which would secure the independence of the Leeward Islands, including Bora Boras , recognized. The two great colonial powers undertook not to take possession of these islands or even to put them under protectorate. Tapoa II reigned on an independent island until his death in 1860.
On July 30, 1860, his adopted daughter Teriimaevarua I was crowned Queen of Bora Bora by Reverend Platt. She ruled the island until 1873. Since Teriimaevarua had no children, the crown passed to her niece Teriimaevarua II, daughter of Tamatoa V, king of Raiatea and granddaughter of Pomare IV. On January 9, 1884, she married Prince Hinoi, also a grandson of Pomare IV.
End of independence
During the reign of Teriimaevarua II, the international situation changed. The Jarnac Convention, which guaranteed the independence of the Leeward Islands, was only binding on its two signatories, France and the United Kingdom. However, from 1878 the German Empire showed a strong interest in the Leeward Islands. In 1879 the Germans tried to form alliances with Raiatea and Bora Bora. The two islands refused and Teriimaevarua II informed the French government about the German attempt. It was now urgent for France to repeal the Jarnac Agreement to prevent the establishment of a rival power at the gates of its colony, especially since the expected opening of the Panama Canal would enhance the strategic position of the Society Islands.
In order to defend themselves against the German attempts, Raiatea and Tahaa demanded the protection of France in 1880. Between 1880 and 1887 the two islands were under the provisional protectorate of France. Initially, the chiefs and the Queen of Bora Bora agreed to accept the French protectorate subject to an agreement with the British, but later refused to question their independence from France. In the meantime, France and the United Kingdom were negotiating the repeal of the Jarnac Convention. The agreement was reached in October 1889 and with the annexation of the Leeward Islands on March 19, 1898, Bora-Bora became a French territory. In contrast to the inhabitants of the old Kingdom of Tahiti, the inhabitants of Bora Bora did not receive French citizenship. Like the other inhabitants of the Leeward Islands, they were given the status of French subjects and were subject to the rule of the indigenous people.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christopher Buyers: Bora Bora: The Tapoa Dynasty Genealogy . In: Royal Ark web site . Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ↑ Ben Cahoon: French Polynesia . In: WorldStatesman.org . 2000. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- ^ Anne Salmond: Aphrodite's Island . University of California Press, Berkeley 2010, ISBN 9780520261143 , pp. 36,218,286.
- ↑ Tahiti et ses archipels par Pierre-Yves Toullelan, éditions Karthala, 1991, ISBN 2-86537-291-X , p. 61.
- ^ "La conversion des îles Sous-le-Vent au protestantisme" by Pierre-Yves Toullelan (dir.), Encyclopédie de La Polynésie, Vol. 6, La Polynésie s'ouvre au monde 1769-1842 p. 64
- ^ Jean-François Baré, Tahiti, les temps et les pouvoirs. Pour une anthropologie historique du Tahiti post-européen . Editions de l'ORSTOM, 1987. p. 222
- ^ Jean-François Baré, Tahiti, les temps et les pouvoirs. Pour une anthropologie historique du Tahiti post-européen . Editions de l'ORSTOM, 1987. p. 266
- ^ Jean-François Baré, Tahiti, les temps et les pouvoirs. Pour une anthropologie historique du Tahiti post-européen . Editions de l'ORSTOM, 1987. p. 267
- ^ Bertrand de la Roncière, La reine Pomaré: Tahiti et l'Occident 1812-1877 , Editions L'Harmattan, 2003, p. 232
- ^ Paul Deschanel, la politique française en Océanie. Speaking of the Canal de Panama , 1884, p. 527
- ^ Paul Deschanel, la politique française en Océanie. Speaking of the Canal de Panama , 1884, p. 532
- ^ A b Francis Cheung, Tahiti et ses îles (1919-1945): étude d'une société coloniale aux antipodes de sa métropole , L'harmattan, 1998, p. 44
literature
- Lorenz Rudolf Gonschor: Law as a Tool of Oppression and Liberation: Institutional Histories and Perspectives on Political Independence in Hawaiʻi, Tahiti Nui / French Polynesia and Rapa Nui . University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu August 2008.
