Rapa Nui History

By kohlsson
  • Period: 800 to 1200

    First Polynesian settlers arrive on Rapa Nui

  • Period: 1200 to 1500

    Mo'ai began to be created by the Rapa Nui people

  • Deforestation and resource shortages because of Mo'ai creation

  • First recorded European contact with the island

  • First slave raid. Islanders taken to Chile and Peru.

  • Period: to

    Major Peruvian slave raids capture approximately 1,500 Rapa Nui people. Only a few return, bringing smallpox causing a population decline.

  • Catholic missionaries arrive