The arrival of Europeans marked a turning point in Pacific history but, despite population losses from disease and warfare, it did not have in the long term the catastrophic impact once suggested. Vasco da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia. More generally, islanders adopted new ideas and techniques in renowned New Zealand historian Kerry Howe’s words, they “proved adaptable, resourceful, and resilient”. to claim that de Gama prejudiced the future of European missions and commerce in the. The details of how these centralised kingdoms emerged differ, but each of these rulers used European alliances to strengthen his position. This collaboration was seen most clearly in the emergence of three island kingdoms: Tahiti (ruled by Pomare), Hawaii (ruled by Kamehameha) and Tonga (ruled by Taufa‘ahau). Islanders gradually came to be seen not as helpless victims of technologically superior newcomers but as participants in a process of mutual exploitation. This ‘fatal impact’ thesis has remained compelling, but in recent decades its conclusions have been challenged by scholars – anthropologists as well as historians – working with local rather than European sources.
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