Jacob Roggeveen reaches Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
- Date
- 5 April 1722
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Oceania (Rapa Nui / Easter Island, South Pacific)
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
On Easter Sunday, 5 April 1722, the Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen became the first European to sight and land on Rapa Nui, which he named Paasch-Eyland (Easter Island) for the day of its discovery.
Commanding a three-ship fleet (the Arend, Thienhoven, and Afrikaansche Galey) of roughly 223 crew sponsored by the Dutch West India Company, Roggeveen had set out in 1721 in search of the conjectured southern continent Terra Australis and the elusive Davis Land. His arrival ended more than a thousand years of the island's isolation and produced the earliest written account of Rapa Nui society, estimating 2,000-3,000 inhabitants and describing the colossal stone moai, which the Dutch initially mistook for clay figures. The brief landing turned violent when nervous crewmen opened fire, killing an estimated ten to twelve islanders. The encounter inaugurated sustained European contact with one of the most remote inhabited places on Earth, foreshadowing the disease, slave raiding, and depopulation that would devastate the Rapa Nui over the following century and a half.
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Empires active in 5 April 1722
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
Related exploration & colonisation events
- Cook's First Voyage Charts New Zealand and Eastern Australia1769-1770
- Abel Tasman's Voyage: First European Contact with New Zealand, Tonga and FijiDecember 1642 - February 1643
- The Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony and the Mayflower CompactNovember 1620
- Champlain founds Quebec and New France3 July 1608
- Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America14 May 1607
- Torres Navigates the Strait Between New Guinea and AustraliaOctober 1606
Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Pacific Islands
Accessible overview of Oceania, including the Tongan maritime empire.
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