Rapa Nui Timeline

  • 800

    Polynesian explorers first set foot on island

  • 1400

    The Moai was first being carved by the Rapa Nui people

  • The Rapa Nui people had finished carving the Moai

  • Dutch explorers arrived on Island on Easter Sunday

  • British explorer James’s cook visited for a few days

  • Slave raiders came from Peru, capturing between 1,500 and 2,000 people of Rapa Nui (which was approximately half of the Rapa Nui population).

  • Eugène Eyraud, the first Christian missionary, arrived. Conversions of islanders began and within two years almost the whole population was Roman Catholics.

  • The island was officially annexed by its geographical neighbor, Chile. Meaning chile took territorial control over Rapa Nui, and Rapa Nui people became Chilean citizens.