Brief History of Cook Islands
It was during the Great Polynesian Migration (which began about 1500 BC), that the original ancestors first arrived in these islands. Their giant double-hulled canoes - ‘Vaka’s’ - guided by the stars and the wonder of ancient Polynesian navigation, arrived in the Cook Islands in approximately 800 AD. In the 11th century, a chief named Toi built the first coral road in Rarotonga. Now tar sealed, it lies inland and is called the Ara Metua. Two centuries later, the great chiefs Tangiia Nui from Tahiti and Karika from Samoa, joined forces to conquer earlier inhabitants.
The first Europeans were the Spanish explorers Alvaro de Mendana, who sighted Pukapuka in 1595 and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros who sighted Rakahanga in 1606. There was no further European contact until over 160 years later in 1773, when Captain James Cook, for whom the island group was eventually named, sighted Manuae atoll which he named Hervey Island. On a later voyage, he also discovered Palmerston, Takutea, Mangaia and Atiu in 1777. The ill fated Captain William Bligh sighted Aitutaki in 1789. Shortly afterwards, on April 28th 1789, on the same vessel, mutineer Fletcher Christian sighted Rarotonga following the famous “Mutiny on the Bounty”. However Rarotonga’s official discovery is credited to Captain Phillip Goodenough in the Cumberland in 1814, whilst seeking sandalwood.
The islands later became a British Protectorate in 1888. By 1900, administrative control was transferred to New Zealand. In 1965 residents chose self-government in free association with New Zealand. The emigration of skilled workers to New Zealand and government deficits are continuing problems.
