Marquesas Holidays
Many tourists want a vacation or holiday in the Marquesas Islands. Some want to see the islandsto see the beaches, the landscapes the villages, towens and to see the entertainment on offer. Some m,ight want to visit the island to see the coastline and tour the seas. Some may want to have a hotel that is cheap or one that is luxury. Some may want hotel that offers high quality or has a good reputation. Some tourists may want a hotel that has good views and has good access for parking. Some may want hotels that are in urban areas or rural areas.
The Marquesas Islands (French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua (K)enana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua `Enata (South Marquesan), both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W. The highest point is the peak of Mount Oave (French: Mont Oave) on Ua Pu island at around 1,230 m above sea level.
The Marquesas Islands form one of the five administrative divisions (subdivisions administratives) of French Polynesia. The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva.
The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas were Polynesians, who, from archæological evidence, are believed to have arrived before 100 AD. Ethnological and linguistic evidence suggests that they likely arrived from the region of Tonga and Samoa.
The islands were given their name by the Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who reached them on 21 July 1595. He named them after his patron, García Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis of Cañete, who was Viceroy of Peru at the time. Mendaña visited first Fatu Hiva and then Tahuata before continuing on to the Solomon Islands.
The American navigator Capt. Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig Hope in 1791, giving them the name Washington Islands. In 1813, Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim, and in 1842, France, following a successful military operation on behalf of a native chief (named Iotete) who claimed to be king of the whole of the island of Tahuata, took possession of the whole group, establishing a settlement (abandoned in 1859) on Nuku Hiva. French control over the group was reestablished in 1870, and later incorporated into the territory of French Polynesia.
Of all the major island groups of the Pacific, the Marquesas Islands suffered the greatest population decline as a result of diseases brought by European explorers, reducing the estimated sixteenth century population of over 100,000 inhabitants, to about 20,000 by the middle of the nineteenth century, and to just over 2,000 by the beginning of the 1900s.
The sparsely populated Marquesas Islands, located 1,371 km from Tahiti, the most populated island and dominant political center of French Polynesia, often feel neglected by politicians in Tahiti, and some favor a direct link with Paris instead of depending from Papeete. Several prominent Marquesan political leaders have repeatedly declared themselves in favor of separating from French Polynesia and remaining within the French Republic in case French Polynesian political leaders in Tahiti would proclaim the independence of French Polynesia.[ This has generated controversies in Tahiti where pro-independence Tahitian leaders have accused the French central government of encouraging the separation of the Marquesas Islands from French Polynesia.
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