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Polynesian Pacific Expansion

Type Event Region Pacific Ocean Time 1150–1159

In the 1150s, Polynesian navigators continued extending colonial and trade networks across the vast central Pacific, completing or consolidating sett…

Timeline

  1. 1150–1159Society Islands · French PolynesiaPolynesian navigators piloted outrigger canoes across thousands of kilometers of ocean, relying on star navigation and seasonal wind patterns to push population and culture from the central-western Pacific toward island groups further east.
  2. 1150–1159North Island of New Zealand · New ZealandMigrants established agricultural and fishing settlements on new islands, introduced the Austronesian crop package, and formed chiefly clans, ceremonial platforms (marae), and social hierarchies, laying the foundation for ancestral Māori culture (the precise dating for New Zealand is slightly later than this anchor).

Sources