What country does Easter Island belong to?

Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues.

Is Easter Island part of Polynesia or South America?

Because Rapa Nui, the westernmost territory of Chile, is located in Polynesia, it would be best to answer that geographically Easter Island is part of the continent of Oceania although politically it belongs to South America.

Is Easter Island part of New Zealand?

Even though Easter Island is a territory of Chile and Spanish is an official language (English is widely spoken), the history and the native inhabitants of the island are inextricably linked to Tahiti and New Zealand through Polynesian ancestry, language roots and culture.

What language do they speak in Easter Island?

Rapa Nui or Rapanui (/ˌræpəˈnuːi/), also known as Pascuan (/ˈpæskjuən/) or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family. It is spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The island is home to a population of just under 6,000 and is a special territory of Chile.

Does Easter Island have a flag?

The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro) is the flag of Easter Island, a special territory of Chile. It was first flown in public alongside the national flag on 9 May 2006.

Why are there no trees on Easter Island?

Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today. There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. However there is evidence the Polynesian rat (Rattus exulans) was present from 900 and it seems clear that these rats caused widespread deforestation.

How did humans get to Easter Island?

Linguists estimate Easter Island’s first inhabitants arrived around AD 400, and most agree that they came from East Polynesia. These linguistic links point to a genealogical bond that ties the people of the Pacific to one another. Indeed, in 1994, DNA from 12 Easter Island skeletons was found to be Polynesian.

Are Polynesians white?

Polynesians are known to have definitely originated from a branch of the Austronesian migrations in Island Melanesia, despite the popularity of rejected hypotheses like Thor Heyerdahl’s belief that Polynesians are descendants of “bearded white men” who sailed on primitive rafts from South America.

Is Polynesian Native American?

As a result, their descendants still carry some Native American DNA. However, not all modern Polynesians carry Native American ancestry; the researchers found the signal predominantly on several eastern Polynesian islands, which were likely settled after the coupling event happened, the researchers said.

Why is it called Easter Island?

Etymology. The name “Easter Island ” was given by the island’s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it on Easter Sunday (5 April) in 1722, while searching for “Davis Land”. The island’s official Spanish name, Isla de Pascua, also means “Easter Island”.

What really happened on Easter Island?

According to Easter Island: The Truth Revealed, approximately 1,500 to 2,000 people – half the population – were taken in 1862 in a raid by slave traders from Peru to work there, predominately in agriculture. They brought disease with them and much of the remaining population was decimated.

Who owns Easter Island today?

Known as Rapa Nui to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722. It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism.

Is Easter Island one of the Seven Wonders of the World?

HANGA ROA, Chile (Reuters) – On one of the world’s most remote outposts, Easter Island, inhabitants are adamant the giant stone statues that dominate their landscape should be recognised as one of the new seven wonders of the world. Chile annexed the island in 1888 and has governed it since.