Tuamotu Archipelago

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tuamotu Archipelago
Overview map of the Tuamotu Archipelago
Overview map of the Tuamotu Archipelago
Waters Pacific Ocean
Geographical location 18 ° 2 ′  S , 141 ° 25 ′  W Coordinates: 18 ° 2 ′  S , 141 ° 25 ′  W
Map of Tuamotu Archipelago
Number of islands 78 atolls
Main island Rangiroa
Total land area 850 km²
Residents 15,354 (2012)

The Tuamotu Archipelago (former names: Paumotu Islands , Dangerous Islands , Low Archipelago ) is an archipelago belonging to French Polynesia in the South Pacific , east of the Society Islands . This world's largest group of coral atolls includes 78 atolls of various sizes with countless individual islands ( motu ) and three high coral islands. 45 atolls are inhabited by a total of around 17,000 people, most of whom are of Polynesian origin.

geography

The Tuamotu Archipelago is the largest group of islands in the world. The islands extend in the South Pacific over 15 degrees of longitude and ten degrees of latitude from Mataiva in the north to Temoe in the extreme southeast for more than 2000 kilometers. They are located between 14 ° and 23 ° south latitude and between 135 ° and 150 ° west longitude and cover more than 2 million km², an area larger than Western Europe. The land area of ​​all the islands together is only about 850 km², which corresponds roughly to the size of the urban area of Berlin .

geology

The Tuamotu Islands are, with the exception of the politically affiliated Gambier Islands in the extreme south of the archipelago, flat coral atolls or islands. The atolls show the most diverse forms, depending on the age of their formation. There are small, round to oval individual islands with a closed coral fringe ( Niau ), but also large ring-shaped structures with countless motu around a central lagoon ( Takaroa ). The archipelago includes some of the largest atolls on earth, for example the central lagoon of Rangiroa is 80 km long and 32 km wide. Makatea is one of the rare upscale atolls with a plateau up to 80 meters high, which was created when a geologically older coral atoll was raised by later deformation of the earth's crust, whereupon a coral fringe formed again around the island.

Commonly, the Tuamotus are low coral islands made up of coral rubble and sand. They rise only a little - between one and six meters - above sea level. On some islands (e.g .: Anaa, Niau, Tepoto, Rangiroa) one can find flat hills made of massive limestone , called in Tuamotuan feo , strongly weathered, sharp-edged remnants of old coral reefs.

The geologically younger Gambier Islands show a completely different appearance . The basaltic central mountains of the main islands, which are surrounded by sandy motu and a coral reef, are remnants of a largely eroded volcano. They tower more than 400 m above sea level.

Island geography

Geographically, the Tuamotus can be divided into nine groups:

Islands and atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago
View of the Fakarava Atoll lagoon

see also: List of Tuamotu Islands

climate

The climate is tropical and warm with no distinct seasons. The annual average temperature is relatively constant 26 ° C.

There are no year-round springs, streams or rivers, so the only source of fresh water is captured rainwater. An annual average of 1,400 mm of rain falls (comparison: Cologne 700 mm), although the amounts of rain in the individual months differ only slightly. The driest months are September to November.

Climate change

Most of the Pacific islands are particularly hard hit by the effects of man-made climate change ; this is especially true for the Tuamotu archipelago: a study by Karnauskas et al. (2016) in the journal Nature Climate Change found that progressive climate change would lead to the islands drying up by 2090.

Flora and fauna

flora

The less fertile soil allows only a species-poor vegetation, which has developed similarly on all islands. During the copra -Booms in the 19th century, however, the original vegetation has been using slash and burn eliminated ruthlessly to apply to extensive coconut plantations. Only a few islands have sparse remnants of the indigenous flora.

The original vegetation consisted of Pisonia grandis and Heliotropium foertherianum (Syn .: Tournefortia argentea ), which had formed monospecific forests on some islands or were interspersed with Morinda citrifolia , Pandanus and the Tarenna sambucina, which belongs to the coffee family . These six to ten meter high trees were framed by bushy vegetation, u. a. consisting of Pemphis acidula , Timonius polygamus and Scaevola taccada . Herbaceous plants, grasses and ferns, such as: Hedyotis romanzoffiensis (Syn .: Kadua romanzoffiensis, Coprosma oceanica ), Lepturus lepens or Nephrolepis sp. Coconut palms were not found on all islands.

The useful plants of today's inhabitants, yams , taro , bananas and breadfruits, as well as several types of tropical fruits, were predominantly introduced by the Polynesians, some others, for example citrus fruits and vanilla, later by the Europeans.

A specialty on some Tuamotu Islands (e.g. Takapoto , Fakahina ) is the wet field cultivation of taro , which Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout reported as early as 1837 and which the Polynesian natives already knew. A deep trench is dug into the porous coral floor, which cuts the Ghyben-Herzberg lens . The fresh water that escapes provides the taro plants with sufficient moisture.

The islanders are mostly self-sufficient. The small-scale gardening and field cultivation forms the basis of livelihood alongside fishing and pigs and chickens. The coconut palm , the basis for small copra production , is still of economic importance . On some islands, small quantities of Tahitian vanilla are grown for export.

fauna

Numerous sea birds nest on the Tuamotus, especially the uninhabited islands. A study commissioned by the WWF listed a total of 22 species. The Tuamotus are an important refuge for the curlew species Numenius tahitensis , which breed in Alaska and overwinter in the South Pacific from October to March.

The fauna on the islands themselves is very poor in species. Interesting and meanwhile threatened is the endemic (only occurring here) South Sea runner ( Prosobonia cancellata ). The rest of the fauna on land is limited to insects, land snails and lizards. The unintentional introduction of rats in connection with the establishment of coconut plantations towards the end of the 19th century was probably one of the causes of the species poverty. To combat the rat plague, cats were introduced, but they also contributed to the reduction of the native fauna.

The relatively low biodiversity on land is offset by a species-rich underwater world. Most atolls have a rainy tide- controlled exchange of water between the lagoons and the open ocean . Numerous fish pass through the channels ( Hoa ) between the coral islands of the ring structures and spend a large part of their life in the protected lagoons.

The lagoons themselves vary in depth depending on their age. The bottom is usually covered with fine sand that comes from crushed corals or shells from marine organisms. The sand is home to numerous microorganisms ( algae and cyanobacteria ), which in turn serve as food for heterotrophic organisms that live on or in the sediments . The next level of the food chain is made up of snails , sea ​​squirts , sea ​​urchins , starfish and mussels , followed by the large variety of the mostly relatively small coral fish . So far over 600 species have been registered among the Tuamotus. The largest populations of coral fish are not found in the interior of the lagoons, but in the area of ​​the reef passages ( Hoa ), where rich food is washed in with the tides. At the top of the food pyramid are the sharks , predominantly the whitetip reef shark . From bacteria to sharks, every organism has its place in the sensitive and now extremely threatened ecosystem of the atolls.

history

Early history

The early history of the Tuamotu Islands is largely in the dark, as there is no historiography from pre-European times. Ethnological findings allow the conclusion that the Marquesas were probably colonized very early, between 500 and 700 AD , beginning on the eastern Tuamotus. A patrilineal tribal society developed very quickly .

On numerous islands of the Tuamotus (including Rangiroa , Manihi , Takapoto , Takaroa , Mataiva ), ceremonial platforms built from coral blocks of the Polynesian natives (Polynesian: Marae ) are still visible today. Their exact age is mostly unknown, as comprehensive and systematic archaeological investigations for most of the islands are still pending. Further, however, obtained on only a few islands monuments Native are fish traps (z. B. Mangareva ) and planting pits for Taro, the Ghyben-Herzberg lens cut (u. A. Pukarua , Takapoto).

If the oral tradition is to be believed, there was an invasion of Marquesan warriors in the 12th century, who conquered some of the islands of the eastern Tuamotus and the Gambier Islands.

The Polynesian peoples had an extensive long-distance trade network that was active for centuries and encompassed the entire Pacific. They have been shown to have embarked on trade trips that spanned distances of thousands of kilometers out of sight of land. In the 16th century, these journeys came to a largely standstill, only between the Society Islands , the northwestern Tuamotu Islands and in Micronesia there were still trade contacts. One can only speculate about the reasons; both climatic influences ( Little Ice Age ) and man-made destruction of the ecosystems on the main islands, followed by social degeneration, are mentioned.

Anaa , once the most densely populated atoll of the Tuamotu Archipelago with 5000 inhabitants, seems to have assumed a dominant position among the other islands through a series of wars of conquest. Under Chief Tomatiti, the warriors are said to have conquered the atolls to the north-west by the beginning of the 19th century. They kidnapped numerous residents as hostages to Anaa and demanded tribute, but otherwise left the rulership structures of the annexed islands unchanged. Charles Wilkes reports that the warriors of Anaa had even established themselves on the Taiarabu Peninsula of Tahiti -Iti and that King Pomaré I of Tahiti was only able to persuade them to withdraw through negotiations and tribute payments .

European discovery and proselytizing

The Rurik expedition discovered the Krusenstern Islands (today Tikehau), spring 1816, drawn by Ludwig Choris

For Europe, the Tuamotus were discovered in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan during his famous circumnavigation when he visited Puka Puka and possibly Fakahina and Fangatau . This was followed by the Spaniard Pedro Fernández de Quirós in 1606 , the Dutch Willem Cornelisz Schouten , Jakob Le Maire in 1616 and Jakob Roggeveen , the discoverer of Easter Island in 1722 , whose escort ship Africaansche Galey ran aground near Takapoto . In 1765 John Byron and 1767 Samuel Wallis landed on some Tuamotu Islands. In early April 1769, James Cook passed some islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago with his ship Endeavor , but although he found them to be inhabited, Cook did not anchor, but sailed on to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus . It was followed in 1768 by the French Louis Antoine de Bougainville and in 1815 by the German Otto von Kotzebue, who served the Russian tsars . Initially, these discoveries had no political consequences. The islands were still under the influence of the Pomare royal dynasty of Tahiti .

In 1833 the Catholic Church divided the Pacific into two Apostolic Vicariates: Western Oceania fell to the Marists , and Eastern Oceania - which included the Tuamotus, Hawaii , Tahiti , the Marquesas and the Cook Islands - was the responsibility of the Picpus missionaries . In 1834 the French Fathers Honoré Laval and François d'Assise Caret arrived on Mangareva . The Picpusiens began a comprehensive development program for the Gambier Islands, initially with the toleration and later with the active support of the island chiefs . This included the introduction of cotton cultivation , pearl and mother-of- pearl fishing, and the creation of plantations and kitchen gardens. As they were highly successful, their missionary work gradually spread to the other islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago. With the missionary work, the news of the islands' abundance of pearls penetrated Europe and made them a popular destination for European traders and adventurers.

The "merchant king" of the Tuamotus was Narii Salmon (* 1856, † 1906), son of the Scottish-Jewish businessman Alexander Salmon (* 1820, † 1866) and the Tahitian princess Arii Tamai (* 1821, † 1897) and through his mother related to the royal dynasty Pomaré of Tahiti. At a young age he had already toured the Tuamotus with a schooner from his father's company and, over time, installed a logistically highly efficient organization of pearl divers and an extensive trading network on the Tuamotu Islands. He traded in pearls, mother-of-pearl and copra and sold the products to his brother-in-law George Darsie in Papeete . However, economic success was hampered by the significant population decline when many Polynesians died from introduced infectious diseases.

The ban on the slave trade caused labor shortages in the large haciendas in South America. The Peruvian authorities therefore gave permission to import "colonists" from the southeastern Pacific Islands as labor. In 1863, several Peruvian ships, so-called Blackbirders , called at the Tuamotu Islands Fakarava , Katiu , Motutunga , Kauehi and Tahanea and kidnapped a total of 151 people who, under false pretenses, threats or coercion, were made to sign long-term employment contracts. None of them returned.

After Queen Pomare Vahine IV of Tahiti had to give in to the threats of Admiral Dupetit-Thouars , who was sent from France, and had to recognize the French protectorate over her domain, her son and successor Arijane, who as Pomare V only led a sham government, renounced in 1880 any claim to the throne. As a result, the Tuamotu Islands were annexed by France. The islands became a French colony .

Modern times

The phosphate mining on the island of Makatea brought considerable profits at the beginning of the 20th century, from which the Polynesians hardly profited, however. Even so, most of the islands in the archipelago remained relatively isolated until the middle of the 20th century, as shipping was dangerous between the islands, which barely rise above the sea surface, and numerous sharp-edged reefs. The Tuamotus still bore the name "Dangerous Islands" on the maps in the early 20th century.

The Tuamotus hit the headlines of the world press when in 1947 Thor Heyerdahl reached the Raroia atoll with his Kon-Tiki raft from South America .

French nuclear weapons tests

The Tuamotus were largely spared from the events of the Pacific War . When the nuclear arms race began after the Second World War , the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) was founded in France , which provided two locations for the French nuclear weapons tests: the Sahara in Algeria and the Tuamotu archipelago in Polynesia. The CEA initially preferred the Sahara. When Algeria became independent in 1962, the tests were transferred to the previously evacuated islands of Mururoa and Fangataufa. Despite protests by Polynesian independence groups in Tahiti, construction work began on the experimental and supply facilities on several Pacific islands under the direction of the Center d'expérimentation du Pacifique (CEP), founded in 1964 .

On July 2, 1966, a French atomic bomb (code name Aldebaron) detonated over the Mururoa Atoll and on July 19, 1966 another over Fangataufa. The nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere and the protests against it continued. But when the governments of New Zealand and Peru intervened after increased levels of radioactive radiation had been detected in these countries, France only carried out a series of underground tests. By the time it was discontinued in 1996, there had been 181 nuclear tests in the Tuamotu Archipelago, most of them underground.

Despite the protest movements that formed, the Polynesian response was mixed. The presence of numerous military and government officials created a welcome economic boom. The infrastructure was significantly improved, with some of the Tuamotu Islands receiving paved roads, jetties and airfields for the first time . Apparently, however , the fallout resulted in radioactive contamination with an increased cancer rate on numerous islands. The CEP collected data, but they are still under lock and key to this day.

population

In a census in 2012, the Tuamotu Archipelago including the Gambier Islands had 16,664 inhabitants, a 1.09 percent decrease in population compared to the previous census in 2007. The indigenous population is of Polynesian origin, but there are now some immigrants from Europe and Asia due to the pearl industry. The inhabitants are predominantly Roman Catholic.

Administration, economy and infrastructure

Copra spread out to dry (puka-puka)

Politically, the Tuamotus are affiliated with French Polynesia. They are French overseas territory . It is managed by a subdivision ( Subdivision des Îles Tuamotu-Gambier ) of the High Commission of French Polynesia ( Haut-commissariat de la République en Polynésie française ) in Papeete on the island of Tahiti . The main task of the High Commissioner is to advise and support the municipal administrations, especially in budget and economic issues, to check the legality of the resolutions of the municipal councils and to monitor the budget.

The Tuamotu-Gambier archipelago is politically divided into 17 self-governing municipalities. All communities except Puka Puka and Tatakoto consist of several atolls. 13 of the 17 municipalities are divided into 35 “ Communes associées ” (sub-municipalities). Only the two communities Puka Puka and Tatakoto, each consisting of one atoll, as well as the communities Gambier and Tureia are not further subdivided into Communes associées .

Pearl farm workers (Rangiroa)

The currency is the CFP franc linked to the euro . The Tuamotus are extensively supported with subsidies from France and the EU. The economy is essentially based on three pillars:

  • Coproduction ; The Tuamotus produce around 8,000 tons annually in small and family businesses, around two thirds of which are for export, the rest is processed in the country
  • Black pearl breeding ; Probably the most important source of income today, but most of it is in the hands of Hong Kong Chinese
  • Tourism ; the tourist infrastructure is currently still modestly developed and is mainly limited to diving and luxury tourism on the islands of Rangiroa , Tikehau , Fakarava and Manihi.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karnauskas et al .: Future freshwater stress for island populations. Nature Climate Change volume 6, pages 720-725 (2016). doi: 10.1038 / nclimate2987
  2. ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois , F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands , Springer-Verlag, New York-Berlin 1998, ISBN 0-387-98313-9 , pp. 433-437
  3. ↑ Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout: Voyages aux îles du Grand Océan. Bertrand, Paris 1837, engl. Translation: Arthur R. Borden: Travels to the Islands of the Pacific Ocean . University Press of America, Lanham-New York-London 1993, ISBN 0-8191-8899-9 , p. 99
  4. ↑ Patrick Vinton Kirch: The evolution of the Polynesian chiefdoms , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) 1996, ISBN 978-0521273169 , p. 169
  5. ^ A b c d Steven Roger Fischer: A History of the Pacific Islands. Palgrave, New York 2002, ISBN 0-333-94976-5
  6. ^ A b Kenneth P. Emory: Tuamotuan Religious Structures , Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 191, Honolulu 1947
  7. ↑ Kenneth P. Emory: Tuamotuan Stone Structures , Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 118, Honolulu 1934
  8. ^ Marshall Weisler: Hard evidence for prehistoric interaction in Polynesia; in: Current Anthropology 39, Chicago 1998, pp. 521-532
  9. ↑ Jared Diamond : Collapse. Why societies survive or perish . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 168
  10. ^ A b Charles Wilkes: Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition , Wiley and Putnam, London 1845, Vol. 1, p. 357
  11. ^ Claus Gossler: The Social an Economic Fall of the Salmon / Brander Clan of Tahiti. In: Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 40 (2), September 2005
  12. ^ Henry Evans Maude : Slavers in Paradise. The Peruvian labor trade in Polynesia, 1862-1864 , University of the South Pacific, Suva Fiji 1986, p. 188
  13. ^ Australian Government: Query Nuclear Explosions Database [1]
  14. ^ Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF) - Recensement de la population 2012

literature

  • Jacques Bonvallot et al .: Les Atolls des Tuamotu. Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7099-1175-2 . (The most extensive publication on this archipelago, with numerous references; French)

Web links

Commons : Tuamotu Archipelago  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Wikisource: The Paumotu Archipelago by Karl Eduard Meinicke (1870)  - Sources and full texts