A kingdom of Tahiti and the Society Islands established by the Pōmare dynasty, which united the islands under a single monarch before ceding sovereignty to France in 1880 and becoming a French protectorate (from 1842) and then colony.
The Kingdom of Tahiti became a French protectorate on 9 September 1842, when local chiefs (not Queen Pōmare IV, who was absent at Mo'orea) signed the protectorate convention under pressure from Admiral du Petit-Thouars; Pōmare IV contested French rule until her death in 1877; her son King Pōmare V ceded full sovereignty to France on 29 June 1880, and the kingdom was formally dissolved, becoming the French Établissements français de l'Océanie (French Polynesia).
Covers the Tahitian chiefdom system from which the Pōmare monarchy emerged.
Provides the broader Polynesian prehistory context for Society Islands political development.
Primary-source account of the first missionary voyage to Tahiti during the early Pōmare Kingdom period; documents society under Pōmare I.
A single-volume history of the island Pacific — broad context for this polity.