Easter Island and Civilisational Collapse
Easter Island is a Chilean territory and a remote volcanic island in Polynesia on the part of the Polynesian islands. The island, also called Rapa Nui, is a remote and rocky place 3700 kilometres west of the coast of South America.
Its native name is Rapa Nui. It’s famed for archaeological sites, including nearly 900 monumental statues called moai, created by inhabitants during the 13th–16th centuries.
The moai are carved human figures with oversized heads, often resting on massive stone pedestals called ahus. Ahu Tongariki has the largest group of upright moai.
It is believed humans first settled the island of Easter Island between 600 A.D. and 800 A.D. between the 11th and 16th centuries, marking the period where the construction of its famous stone statues truly began.
One of the questions asked fascinated the world since the discovery of the island by Europeans in the 18th century caused its civilisational collapse, and how such a small population could embark on its sheer scale of projects with limited resources and without modern equipment.
Controversy
The story of Easter Island is also written in controversy due to all that civilisation collapsed and what stories tell us about what could cause our society to collapse on a much larger scale.
Also, due to elements within liberal culture, there is a reluctance to blame the Polynesians for the deforestation and the destruction of almost all its native birds and vast forests, which occurred between the 13th and 16th centuries.
This reluctance is due to the fear that the Polynesians will be seen as evil or not as good as other civilisations; this fear, like most human fears, is irrational for all nations and civilisations and is good and bad.
The deforestation that occurred on Easter Island is reminiscent of the harm to our planet because the Polynesians living on Easter Island destroyed their forests and, therefore, their ability to build wooden boats to gather seafood, with dolphins making up 90% of the seafood diet.
A rope was also required, made by cutting down trees to transport the massive stone statues from the island.
Politics and Governance
Easter Island was incredibly remote from other Polynesian islands. It was not until the 1770s, first when the Spanish, then back to Captain James Cook in 1774, that it was the first time in recorded human history that the native Polynesian tribes were interacting with Europeans.
At that time, it was theorised that the reason for the construction of its famous stone statues was due to the rivalries between the clans, priests and political leadership within East Ireland.
Unlike their fellow Polynesian counterparts, they did not engage in conquest and raiding their fellow Polynesian islands due to the remoteness of Easter Island.
Also, Easter Island’s geography meant that the land’s fertility was equally spread out between different tribal groups, enabling the sharing of resources that do not normally exist without creating a nation-state or kingdom dominant in the Eurasia continent.
This is quite an achievement for a tribal society.
It worked for centuries, but deforestation was likely caused by the Polynesians overharvesting trees to construct boats, construction materials, wood fire and warmth, and other needs that wood provided the peoples of East Ireland.
Furthermore, in the late 1680s, society collapsed due to the destruction of its forests, which also saw the collapse of political unity. The inability of its people to feed and provide for themselves led to cannibalism and the failure of its population.
It’s believed that its population was around 15,000 people.
In response to the societal collapse, people deliberately destroyed their stone statues due to the belief that their native gods had failed them. Also, they killed their ruling leadership, the tribal chiefs
