Oceanie / Homme de Taiti / Femme de l’ile Opolou / Femme de l’ile Routouma

Title

Oceanie / Homme de Taiti / Femme de l’ile Opolou / Femme de l’ile Routouma

Description

Very nice view of "Homme de Taiti, Jeune Fille des iles Viti, Femme de l'ile Opolou (Archipel des Navigateurs), Femme de l'ile Routouma, Naturel des iles Irea (Archip. des Carolines)". It shows a native of Tahiti, a girl from Viti Island, a woman from Opolou, Routouma and natives from the Caroline Islands. From the edition "Geographie Universell " De Malte-Brun par E. Cortambert, Book 4 (Tome Quatrieme). Paris. Edited by Dufour Mulat et Boulanger, drawn by Philippoteaux.

ca. 1855

Artist

Malte-Brun (1816-1889)

Victor Adolphe Malte-Brun was a french Georapher and Map maker.Victor Adolphe Malte-Bruns' father, Conrad Malte-Bruns, was the founder of the Société de Géographie.

Historical Description

Records of the Society Islands begin when Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Tuamotu Archipelago in 1521. In June 1767, the archipelago is discovered and recorded by Samuel Wallis. The latter named the main island, today's Tahiti, after the client and sponsor of his circumnavigation. From then on, the island was called King George Island. In April 1768, Louis Antoine de Bougainville reached the Society Islands, unaware that he was encountering a group of islands that had already been discovered. The islands were reliably mapped in 1777 by James Cook, who named the archipelago "Society" because of the arrangement of the islands into a "society". Colonization by France began in 1843, when the Society Islands first became a French protectorate and then a French colony in 1880.