Polynesia

'Polynesia' is a Greek word that means 'many islands'.

Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia.

The sweet potato is native to South America. And yet, there have been sweet potatoes on the menu in Polynesia as far back as 1,000 years ago. So how did it get there?

If you like controversy, maybe read the article "Linguistic Evidence for a Prehistoric Polynesia—Southern California Contact Event."

"Toward a Comparative Japanese-Austronesian I" by Takao Kawamoto demonstrates that Japanese is cognate with the Austronesian family of languages, the Pacific languages. The demonstration bases itself on pairing a few hundreds of words of Old Japanese (OJ) with words of Proto-Austronesian (PA) or one of its branches. What was this world like in those ancient times? I have heard theories that in ancient Pre-Columbian times, Pacific Islanders made voyages reaching as far as the Pacific coasts of the Americas. I believe such did happen. So, there were likely contacts between Polynesian tribes and Amerindian tribes. "Linguistic Evidence for a Prehistoric Polynesia—Southern California Contact Event" by Kathryn Klar and Terry L. Jones expounds on the theme, mentioning the Amerindian language groups Chumashan and Gabrielino in southern California. Some Pre-Columbian contact between the Americas and Polynesia is evident from the ubiety of the South American sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) in Polynesian archaeological sites, most notably from Mangaia, Cook Islands (circa 1000 CE).

Easter Island, isolated in the southeast Pacific Ocean, belongs to Chile politically, but geographically it is part of Polynesia.

I have been wishing to travel to French Polynesia, including Tahiti and Bora Bora. There was a phase in my life wherein I studied Malayo-Polynesian languages such as Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Ilocano, and so forth. I have a book collection of them. I do have Austronesian ancestry. Some researchers call it "Sundadont," whilst I have also "Sinodont" and "Eurodont" ancestries.

Sailors from Polynesia first settled the Hawaiian Islands around the year 400. For more than 1,000 years, the Native Hawaiians lived together in small groups, farmed and fished for their needs, and governed themselves. In the late 1700s, one native leader overpowered the others and united the islands into a single kingdom.

Tonga is in Polynesia.