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The island consists of two roughly round portions centered on volcanic mountains, connected by a short isthmus named after the small town of Taravao, which sits there. The northwestern part is known as Tahiti Nui, or big Tahiti, and the southeastern part, much smaller, is known as Tahiti Iti (small Tahiti) or Taiarapu. Whereas Tahiti Nui is quite heavily populated (especially around Papeete) and benefits from rather good infrastructure, such as roads and highways, Tahiti Iti has remained quite isolated, its southeastern half (Te Pari) being accessible only by boat or hiking. Tahiti is some 28 miles (45 km) long at the widest point and covers 1,048 km˛ (404 sq. miles), with the highest elevation being at 2,241 meters (7,352 feet) above sea level (Mount Orohena).
Tahiti hosts a French university: the University of French Polynesia ( Universite de la polynesie francaise)[1]. It is a small university. It counts around 2,000 students and about 60 researchers. Physicists Pascal Ortega [2] (lightning studies) and Alessio Guarino [3] ( nonlinear physics) are among them. In the Human Sciences departement sogiologist L. Schuft deserves to be mentioned for her study on the integration of mainlander French workers in Tahiti.
The island is served by Faaa International Airport.
The vegetation is lush rain forest. The wet season is November through April.
The native population is Polynesian, and is estimated to have settled on the island sometime between 300 and 800 AD, although some estimates place the date earlier.
The fertile island soil combined with fishing provided ample food for the population with ease. The relaxed and contented nature of the local culture much impressed early European visitors, and has been somewhat romanticized since.
Although the islands were first spotted by a Spanish ship in 1606, Spain made no effort to trade with or colonize the island.
Samuel Wallis , an EnglishEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England sea captain, sighted Tahiti on June 18June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining. Events 1178 Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of, 1767Events The Burmese invasion reaches the Thai capital of Ayutthaya, razing it. North Carolina woodsman Daniel Boone goes through the Cumberland Gap and reaches Kentucky in defiance of a decree from King George III. He discovers a rich hunting ground, conte and is considered the first European discoverer of the island.He was followed in April 1768 by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville who was completing the first French circumnavigation. Bougainville made Tahiti famous in Europe when he published the account of his travel in Voyage autour du Monde . He described the island as an earthly paradise where men and women live happily in innocence, away from the corruption of civilization. His account of the island powerfully illustrated the concept of the noble savageThe term noble savage expresses a romantic concept of humankind as unencumbered by civilization; the natural essence of the unfettered person. The concept symbolises the idea that without the bounds of civilization, man is essentially good. The concept ha, and influenced the utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau ( June 28, 1712 July 2, 1778) was a Swiss-French philosopher, writer, political theorist, and self-taught composer. Biography of Rousseau Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and died in Ermenonville (28 miles northeast of Paris before the advent of the French Revolution.
In 1774 Captain James Cook visited the island, and estimated the population at that time to be some 200,000. This was probably too high; another estimate from the same period was 121,500.
After this European ships landed on the island with ever greater frequency. The best-known of these ships was the HMS Bounty, whose crew mutinied shortly after leaving Tahiti in 1789. The European influence caused significiant disruption to the traditional society, by bringing Christianity, prostitution, venereal diseases, and alcohol to the island. Introduced diseases including typhus and smallpox killed so many Tahitians that by 1797, the island's population was only about 16,000. Later it was to drop as low as 6,000.
In 1842 the kingdom of Tahiti was declared a French protectorate.
In 1880, King Pomare V (1842–1891) ceded sovereignty to France.
In 2004, Tahiti and the whole French Polynesia, become a POM (Pays d'autre mer).
French painter Paul Gauguin lived on Tahiti in the 1890s and painted many Tahitian subjects. Papeari has a small Gauguin museum.