Polynesian Navigators Settle the Hawaiian Islands

Between approximately 1000 and 1200 CE, Polynesian voyagers from the Marquesas Islands and later from Tahiti settled the Hawaiian archipelago. They sailed double-hulled canoes carrying families, plants, and animals across over 3,200 kilometers of ocean. The navigators used star patterns, ocean swells, bird flight, and cloud formations without instruments. Radiocarbon dating of over 300 sites supports this timeline, contradicting earlier claims of 300 CE settlement. The settlers established a complex society that became the Hawaiian civilization that Europeans encountered in 1778.