Polynesian Navigation Expansion

Timeline

1. 1131–1135Samoa–Tonga cultural core · TongaPolynesian navigators mastered the construction of double- and single-hulled canoes, using observations of the sun, stars, wave patterns, and bird migration to determine direction and nearby land. In the 1130s, Samoa–Tonga remained the center of navigational knowledge transmission and canoe building; senior navigators (tautai) orally transmitted star charts and route information, organizing expedition fleets to explore unknown waters to the southeast and northeast.
2. 1135–1140Islands of the eastern Pacific · Pacific OceanArchaeological evidence shows that Polynesians colonized most habitable islands of the eastern Pacific between the mid-to-late first millennium CE and the 13th century. Around the 1130s, seafaring communities may have continued to expand toward the remote Hawaiian Islands (traditionally settled around 1000–1200 CE) and the Marquesas further south, carrying taro, breadfruit, chickens, pigs, and dogs, and establishing agricultural and fishing livelihood systems on new islands.