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The Spanish explorers visited several islands in the Northern group in the late 1500s and early 1600s but did not stay, as Capt. James Cook was the first European to call at most of the islands in the southern group, in 1773, 1774, and 1777. -
Cook Islanders are true Polynesians connecting directly back to the finest seafarers of the Pacific. Sophisticated navigation took them fearlessly in search of new lands. From 1500 BC Polynesian islands were gradually populated by Maori ancestors who landed in their Vakas (magnificent giant double-hulled canoes) guided by the stars and their famous power of navigation. Polynesians arrived in Rarotonga around 800 AD, sailing from Tupua’i, now French Polynesia. -
The French had taken over Tahiti the French dispatched a warship in 1842 to demand reparations and to arrange a French protectorate. -
After stopovers from Spanish explorers Alvaro de Mendana sighting Pukapuka in 1595, and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros sighting Rakahanga in 1606, Captain James Cook sighted Manuae in 1773, then subsequently Palmerston, Takutea, Mangaia and Atiu, where Lieutenant Gore landed in 1777. -
New Zealand wanted to govern over the Cook Islands. -
Polynesians, mainly from the area now known as ‘French Polynesian’, were the only inhabitants of the Cook Islands until the 19th Century. With minor exceptions, each island was autonomous, and within each of the larger islands there were several competing ethnic communities.