Name: ___________________________________World HistoryPost Classical Era- Movement of People

Standard 4.0 3.5 3.0 Not a 3.0 yetWH.HT4.1.d Analyze historical patterns and developments to understand what changes and stays the same over time

60 – 55 points

54.5- 50 points

49.5- 40 points

39.5 or less

Note Packet/ _____/10 pointsEvaluation sheet with comments _____/8 points Exam paper after presentation _____/ 32 points4.0 Option- _____/10 points

Objective for Essay:

Assessment:

Write Notes here

Write Notes here

Part I: Mongol Empires

Watch the following video from Mr. Wood’s Website History vs. Genghis Khan - Alex Gendler- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq-Wk3YqeH4

Watch the following video that is linked to Mr. Wood’s website - The Rise and Fall of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire (Full Documentary) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q31t_4SZsk

Watch from 25:20 – 35:00Focus on how did the Mongols take over so much land/territory

Mongols

 Having dissolved tribal loyalties and forged an unstoppable nomadic cavalry on the Central Asia steppes,  Genghis Khan went on to conquer the largest land empire in history. The duration of the Mongol Empire was short compared to others, but never before or since has a single empire controlled the Eurasian land mass from China to Eastern Europe. When the conquests were done the entire length of the Silk Roads was in their domain and the Mongols settled down and enjoyed the benefits of trade. In an era known as the Pax Mongolica, or Peace of the Mongols, trade flourished under the protection of a flexible legal system and diplomatic protocols. They punished thieves and pirates. To extend commercial connections to Western European markets, the Mongols encouraged the building of port cities such as Kaffa on the Black Sea. They pushed trade outside of their empire by forcing Chinese to emigrate to South East Asia and form merchant communities in the trading ports there. In Cambodia, Vietnam, the Malay peninsula and Java, Chinese diaspora communities connected Mongol trade routes to foreign trading ports of the Indian Ocean network. [32]

THE MONGOL KHANATESThe Mongols built the largest land empire in the world, a remarkable feat considering they were pastoral nomads. Like the Muslims, Mongols had to overcome deep tribal divisions before they could be integrated into a large empire. In the culture of the Central Asian steppes, loyalties of kinship were so strong that they prevented any broad cooperation between people of different bloodlines. Like the Bedouins of Arabia, Central Asia nomads seemed locked into constant tribal rivalries and warfare. Genghis Khan(1162-1227) was the man responsible for uniting these warring tribes into an empire. One of his tactics was to blur the lines between tribes by intermarriage. For example, after his defeat of the Tartars Genghis took two daughters of prominent Tartar aristocrats as his wives, and encouraged other Mongols to do the same.[11] He thus blended the Tartar bloodline with his own making tribal distinctions less relevant. So widespread was his practice of cross-contaminating tribal purity through marriage and fathering children across bloodlines that recent DNA research suggests that 16 million people today are descended from Genghis Khan. [12] A more important method of breaking tribal loyalties was through military organization. The most basic unit of the Mongol army was a unit of 10 men called an arban. To break the power of tribal identity, the men in each arban were purposely chosen from different bloodlines. They lived together, trained together, and fought together. In battle, members of an arban could never leave one of their own behind as missing or a captive. Seniority in the arban was determined by age, just as it was in tribes; indeed, the strong bonds of loyalty that formed among members of the arban rendered the military unit a surrogate for one's tribe, the identity of which became increasingly irrelevant. The organization of the arban was projected across the entire army in multiples of 10. A group of ten arbans formed an unit of 100 called a zagun, and ten of these formed mingan, or battalion, of one thousand troops; ten of these was a tumen of ten thousand soldiers. [13] Promotion up the ranks was based on loyalty and performance with no consideration of the prestige of one's tribe. Communication across the empire depended on a postal service made up of arrow messengers. These fast riders delivered communications between stations set up approximately 20 miles apart, at which point another rider would take the message to the next station until it reached its intended destination.[14]

An efficient communication network was not the only thing that benefited from the Mongols' mastery of their horses. Their equestrian skills were most effective on the battle field. The Mongol army, which could travel up to 100 miles in a day, had a level of mobility unparalleled until modern times. [15] A Mongol soldier spent much of his day on his horse, trained on his horse, used it for food, and could deliver arrows with deadly accuracy from the horse.Genghis Khan's armies first united the Mongol people, then began to incorporate other Asian tribes and Turks into his empire. He imposed law, called the Yassa, which codified most aspects of politics and the daily life of the empire. This law granted religious toleration and protected trade. The breadth of the Empire encompassed the Silk Roads and trade began to flow again. The Mongols sacked Baghdad and ended the Islamic Caliphate. They destroyed the Seljuk Turks and paved the way for the rise of the Ottomans. They ruled Russia as a tributary state. After taking the Song Dynasty, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and ruled China directly. The Mongol Empire had a profound impact of the development of world history.

Across the Mongol EmpiresThe Mongol Empire was the largest land-based empire in history and brought together the breadth of most of Eurasia under a single rule. This facilitated substantial technological and cultural exchange through the medium of trade.

Through the Mongols, Islamic mathematics and astronomy spread from the Dar la Islam into China where they found a receptive audience. Kublai Khan was very interested in mathematics, such as algebra, which the Muslims had developed in Baghdad. Accurate readings of the heavens were very important to Daoism and Shamanism, both of which depended on astrological readings to plan weddings, feasts and agriculture. The Chinese made advanced calculations in these areas which then made their way back to the Muslim world. Other areas of exchange were knowledge of geography and cartography. Most instrumental in this exchange was Rashid al-Din, the scholarly connection between the great Mongol courts in Iran and China. Scholars combined geographic information from China to the Middle East into the most accurate maps in the world at that time thus enabling the later Ming Dynasty to initiate its famous explorations (Zeng He and Ma Huan). In the world of food and agriculture, the Pax Mongolia allowed for the transfer of grapes and fruit trees to China. In return, luxury items of Chinese cuisine, such as pepper, cinnamonand tea, were introduced into the Muslim world. Perhaps the most important technological transfers during the Pax Mongolia were block printing and gunpowder. Through the Mongols, block printing, which had developed during China's Song Dynasty, was transferred to the Muslim world. Copying the Song Dynasty, the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia even issued paper money for a brief time. The best known technological exchange facilitated by the Mongols was gunpowder. Developed in China as early as the Han Dynasty, gunpowder would transform warfare and realign the centers of power in the world. With it Europeans would develop advanced firearms and dominate the Americas, the Byzantine Empire would fall to the Ottoman Turks, and Mongol rule over China, ironically, would come to an end. [24]

Part II- The Vikings

Watch the video and reading about the Vikings from the following website- VIKINGS- HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=ZIBT1LSMB-S&T=48S

Vikings – 5- 10 notes

VIKINGS- HTTP://WWW.HISTORY.COM/TOPICS/EXPLORATION/VIKINGS-HISTORY

From around A.D. 800 to the 11th century, a vast number of Scandinavians left their homelands to seek their fortunes elsewhere. These seafaring warriors–known collectively as Vikings or Norsemen (“Northmen”)–began by raiding coastal sites, especially undefended monasteries, in the British Isles. Over the next three centuries, they would leave their mark as pirates, raiders, traders and settlers on much of Britain and the European continent, as well as parts of modern-day Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland.

WHO WERE THE VIKINGS?Contrary to some popular conceptions of the Vikings, they were not a “race” linked by ties of common ancestry or patriotism, and could not be defined by any particular sense of “Viking-ness.” Most of the Vikings whose activities are best known come from the areas now known as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, though there are mentions in historical records of Finnish, Estonian and Saami Vikings as well. Their common ground–and what made them different from the European peoples they confronted–was that they came from a foreign land, they were not “civilized” in the local understanding of the word and–most importantly–they were not Christian.The exact reasons for Vikings venturing out from their homeland are uncertain; some have suggested it was due to overpopulation of their homeland, but the earliest Vikings were looking for riches, not land. In the eighth century A.D., Europe was growing richer, fueling the growth of trading centers such as Dorestad and Quentovic on the Continent and Hamwic (now Southampton), London, Ipswich and York in England. Scandinavian furs were highly prized in the new trading markets; from their trade with the Europeans, Scandinavians learned about new sailing technology as well as about the growing wealth and accompanying inner conflicts between European kingdoms. The Viking predecessors–pirates who preyed on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea–would use this knowledge to expand their fortune-seeking activities into the North Sea and beyond.

EARLY VIKING RAIDS

In A.D. 793, an attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age. The culprits–probably Norwegians who sailed directly across the North Sea–did not destroy the monastery completely, but the attack shook the European religious world to its core. Unlike other groups, these strange new invaders had no respect for religious institutions such as the monasteries, which were often left unguarded and vulnerable near the shore. Two years later, Viking raids struck the undefended island monasteries of Skye and Iona (in the Hebrides) as well as Rathlin (off the northeast coast of Ireland). The first recorded raid in continental Europe came in 799, at the island monastery of St Philibert’s on Noirmoutier, near the estuary of the Loire River.CONQUESTS IN THE BRITISH ISLESBy the mid-ninth century, Ireland, Scotland and England had become major targets for Viking settlement as well as raids. Vikings gained control of the Northern Isles of Scotland (Shetland and the Orkneys), the Hebrides and much of mainland Scotland. They founded Ireland’s first trading towns: Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Limerick, and used their base on the Irish coast to launch attacks within Ireland and across the Irish Sea to England. When King Charles the Bald

began defending West Frankia more energetically in 862, fortifying towns, abbeys, rivers and coastal areas, Viking forces began to concentrate more on England than Frankia.In the wave of Viking attacks in England after 851, only one kingdom–Wessex–was able to successfully resist. Viking armies (mostly Danish) conquered East Anglia and Northumberland and dismantled Mercia, while in 871 King Alfred the Great of Wessex became the only king to decisively defeat a Danish army in England. Leaving Wessex, the Danes settled to the north, in an area known as “Danelaw.” Many of them became farmers and traders and established York as a leading mercantile city. In the first half of the 10th century, English armies led by the descendants of Alfred of Wessex began reconquering Scandinavian areas of England; the last Scandinavian king, Erik Bloodaxe, was expelled and killed around 952, permanently uniting English into one kingdom.

VIKING SETTLEMENTS: EUROPE AND BEYOND

Meanwhile, Viking armies remained active on the European continent throughout the ninth century, brutally sacking Nantes (on the French coast) in 842 and attacking towns as far inland as Paris, Limoges, Orleans, Tours and Nimes. In 844, Vikings stormed Seville (then controlled by the Arabs); in 859, they plundered Pisa, though an Arab fleet battered them on the way back north. In 911, the West Frankish king granted Rouen and the surrounding territory by treaty to a Viking chief called Rollo in exchange for the latter’s denying passage to the Seine to other raiders. This region of northern France is now known as Normandy, or “land of the Northmen.”

In the ninth century, Scandinavians (mainly Norwegians) began to colonize Iceland, an island in the North Atlantic where no one had yet settled in large numbers. By the late 10th century, some Vikings (including the famous Erik the Red) moved even further westward, to Greenland. According to later Icelandic histories, some of the early Viking settlers in Greenland (supposedly led by the Norwegian Viking hero Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red) may have become the first Europeans to discover and explore North America. Calling their landing place Vinland (Wine-land), they built a temporary settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows in modern-day Newfoundland. Beyond that, there is little evidence of Viking presence in the New World, and they didn’t form permanent settlements.

END OF THE VIKING AGE

The events of 1066 in England effectively marked the end of the Viking Age. By that time, all of the Scandinavian kingdoms were Christian, and what remained of Viking “culture” was being absorbed into the culture of Christian Europe. Today, signs of the Viking legacy can be found mostly in the Scandinavian origins of some vocabulary and place-names in the areas in which they settled, including northern England, Scotland and Russia. In Iceland, the Vikings left an extensive body of literature, the Icelandic sagas, in which they celebrated the greatest victories of their glorious past.

Take notes from the following video that is linked to Mr. Wood’s website- The Vikings - Who Were They - Discovery History Channel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YdSMvYRnn4-Watch from 5:00 – 7:30, 14:20 - 19:15

Viking ships- http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/vikings_at_sea/The Vikings built fast ships for raiding and war. These ships were 'dragon-ships' or 'longships'. The Vikings also had slower passenger and cargo ships called knorrs. They built small boats for fishing or short trips.

Viking longships could sail in shallow water. So they could travel up rivers as well as across the sea. In a raid, a ship could be hauled up on a beach. The Vikings could jump out and start fighting, and then make a quick getaway if they were chased.

Finding the wayVikings sailed close to the coast whenever possible, watching for landmarks. Out of sight of land, they looked for the sun: west (towards the sunset) meant they were headed for England; east (towards the sunrise) meant home to Denmark or Norway. The Vikings invented a kind of sun compass to help find their way. At night they watched the stars. Seamen knew a lot about winds and sea currents. By watching birds or even the colour of the water, an experienced sailor could tell when land was close

Take notes from the Reading from APWorldipedia 3.1- http://apworldipedia.com/index.php?

title=Key_Concept_3.1_Expansion_and_Intensification_of_Communication_and_Exchange_Networks

The migrations of the Norsemen, as they were called, was made possible by a remarkable vessel, the Viking Longship. Its nearly forty foot wide sail could catch the North Sea's winds and drive it with great speed. In the absence of wind the boats could be propelled by oars. They were seaworthy enough for trans-Atlantic crossings but small enough to maneuver in shallow rivers. In the last half of the 9th century the Vikings crossed the North Sea, navigated the Seine River and sacked Paris 3 times. They burned it the third time, and pillaged Tours 7 times. [34]The Longship was light enough to be carried by its crew across a land-bridge and, unlike larger ships, could be run ashore thus alleviating the need for secondary landing crafts during a raid. [35]Despite their plundering and destroying, the movement of the Vikings had an impact on commerce. Their expansion connected several regional trading zones in Eurasia by linking Byzantine, Islamic, Northern European, and Central Asian routes via the Russians. The geographic reach given to the Vikings by their longships intensified trade. [36]

A well-preserved Viking Longship excavated in Norway on display at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

Go to the following website linked to Mr. Wood/Ms. Healy’s website and fill out the OPTIC chart

- See where the Vikings travelled - http://sciencenordic.com/see-where-vikings-travelled Overview Look at the entire visual image- What is “The Big Picture,” and not a small detail in part of the image.

Parts Focus on the parts of the visual (read labels, look for symbols, study the details). Write 2-3 details about what the individual parts/symbols mean or represent?

Title Write the title or make one up and 2-3 details about what the title tells you about the image.

I learned that … Name three ideas or concepts that you learned from this image

Context Explain how this connects to what we have been studying, name of chapter and era.

Part III- The Bantu Migrations

Watch the following video on the Bantu Language & Migration - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6VZxfdq10w

Read from the following section from APWorldipedia

The migration of Bantu people across Africa, which was a protracted movement of people lasting about 2000 years, disseminated iron making technology across the continent. The effect on agriculture was profound. Sharp iron tools made reaping of crops much faster allowing more to be grown. Some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa experienced demographic changes. Making use of bananas, which were first brought to east Africa by Polynesian people, Bantu populations increased. [40]To meet the needs of growing populations, Bantu speaking people turned to irrigation and terracing techniques and experienced the associated environmental effects. Land was cleared and erosion took place at a greater rate. [41] 

Their use of cattle accelerated the land clearing. According to some historians, the pressures this put on resources led to the collapse of perhaps the most well known society of Bantu ancestory, Great Zimbabwe. In the absence of further technological innovations, the growing population exhausted the supply of firewood, soil, and pasture lands

Bantu Migrations- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwhbb1kpH4M

Why study The Bantu Migration?- https://www.chegg.com/tutors/what-is-The-Bantu-

Migration/

The Bantu migration was one of the first formative events in African history. It's necessary to understand this if you want to understand how modern Africa came to be. The Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from Western Africa-- near modern-day Nigeria-- southward and eastward, spreading out across all of the southern half of the African continent. This migration started at about 1000 B.C.E., and ended at about 1700 A.D. although that date is still in dispute. The Bantu-speaking peoples brought agriculture to the southern half of Africa, which was mostly populated by foragers, herders, and hunter-gatherers. Bantu peoples settled land and created great empires like the Great Zimbabwe and the Zulu kingdom, and continued to expand and settle more land. This changed so much of Africa very dramatically. This migration, or expansion, was discovered through LANGUAGE. Bantu refers to several similar languages, or a 'family' of languages, that can be found throughout central and south Africa. language today, Contemporary Bantu languages are different from the ancestral languages of 3000 years ago, and it is this change and evolution in language that has allowed historians and anthropologists to track this great movement across a huge continent.

The Bantu Expansion- The Word "Bantu"

The word "Bantu" (which means "people" in many Bantu languages) refers to a group of about 500 African languages and to their speakers, today numbering about 90 million people. The Bantu language most often taught in American Universities is Swahili, but there are many others.

The Bantu HomelandThe first Bantu speakers seem to have lived in the area that is today Nigeria and Cameroon (roughly at the "notch" on the west side of Africa). Their early Neolithic adaptation involved yams and bananas, which may have originated in Malaysia. The more or less simultaneous development of (1) agriculture and of (2) iron-working (and the extensive trade it promoted) was once thought to be the underlying reason for the initial Bantu expansion out of the homeland area. The first great expansion seems to have begun about 3500 years ago, or about 1500 BC. That would be shortly after the yam and banana complex arrived. Expansion seems to have been further vigorously stimulated when (1) cereal crops later came to be cultivated, introduced from southwestern Asia, and (2) iron came to be worked. Iron tools facilitated cutting down trees for shifting "slash-and-burn" cereal agriculture, and iron was the basis for valuable trade items. Perhaps most importantly, iron made good weapons, facilitating expansion by well armed Bantus into lands occupied only by foraging peoples.

The SahelThe gradual Bantu expansion (or “migration”) progressed by two routes: One ran down the Atlantic coastal grasslands into what is today Angola. The other ran across the strip of thorn forest and grassland south of the Sahara and north of the central African jungles, a region known as the “Sahel” (originally an Arabic term for “coast,” referring with some irony to the edge of the expanding Sahara desert in what is today southern Mali, Niger, and Chad.Simplifying enormously, we can say that once early Bantu farmers were raising grain in addition to their earlier cultigens, they had an agriculture that was tolerant of dry regions, even, if necessary, savanna land.The southern portion of the Sahel merges into a strip of land, still un-forested, called the "sudan" (not the same as the country) that was actually very good agricultural land, but insufficient for the ever growing Bantu population.Farmers were obviously not attracted either to the desert regions lying to the north or to the dense and pest-ridden forests of the Congo and adjacent lands.Settling EverywhereReaching Eastern Africa by about 150 BC, the area of Bantu agriculturalists expanded slowly southward through the farmlands east of the great forests, and on further to the south. The two migrating streams of population — one down the west side of the continent and the other cross the Sahel and then down the east side —gradually wrapped around

below the central forest region, and met again, probably in the southern part of the Congo where the forest gives out. That probably happened by about the time of Christ or a little after. By about AD 300 Bantu speakers occupied most of Africa south of the Sahara, establishing the major kingdom of Zimbabwe by AD 1000.Like the people of Northeast Asia crossing the Bering Strait into the Americas without knowing they were going anywhere in particular, the Bantu speakers spread across the continent in what was almost certainly not a self-conscious act, but merely a gradual "seepage" of populations seeking more or better farming and grazing land. Envision opportunistic farmers occasionally homesteading new fields, not trudging travelers.This movement need not have been stimulated only by new discoveries or growing populations, of course. There was probably also pressure from the spreading of the Sahara desert into the Sahel lands, pushing the population ahead of its deadly desication, just as it continues to do today.

Conquering EverybodyThe areas into which the Bantu moved were not unoccupied. Even today one finds descendants of the displaced, non-Bantu-speaking, foraging populations. These include speakers of so-called "Khoisan" languages in the Southwest — especially Namibia and Botswana — and the Pygmy forest dwellers like the Aka and BaMbuti.) These peoples have in effect been pushed off of cultivable land into agriculturally marginal "refuge" areas of little interest to Bantu farmers. In recent centuries they have tended to dwell in interaction with and subordination to Bantus. Naturally all groups have intermarried now and then over the generations, and in modern times one might also argue that the long process of the spread of the Bantu way of life has now been completed as foraging has become virtually extinct. Further, African languages selected for official and school use in the southern half of the continent are nearly always Bantu.Jordan, David K., Ph. D. "The Bantu Expansion." David K. Jordan Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, UCSD. University of California San Diego, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.

From the 1200s to 1600s - http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bantu_expansion

Great Zimbabwe ruins, a World Heritage Site

Between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries relatively powerful Bantu-speaking states on a scale larger than local chiefdoms began to emerge, in the Great Lakes region, in the savannah south of the Central African rainforest, and on the Zambezi river where the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex, which housed some 40,000 people Zimbabwe and means “house of stone.” The empire of the Monomatapa lasted from 1250 to 1629. The Shona people are descended from the builders of the House of Stone. When Europeans discovered this in the sixteenth century (when the ruins were visited by Portuguese explorers and traders) they began to theorize that it had been built by Arabs, or by the Phoenicians since they could not entertain the possibility that Africans were capable of building such a structure. Such processes of state-formation occurred with increasing frequency from the sixteenth century onward. They were probably due to denser population, which led to more specialized divisions of labor, including military power, while making outmigration more difficult, to increased trade among African communities and with European, Swahili and Arab traders on the coasts, to technological developments in economic activity, and to new techniques in the political-spiritual ritualization of royalty as the source of national strength and health.

Great Zimbabwe National Monument- http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364

…Scientific research has proved that Great Zimbabwe was founded in the 11th century on a site which had been sparsely inhabited in the prehistoric period, by a Bantu population of the Iron Age, the Shona. In the 14th century, it was the

principal city of a major state extending over the gold-rich plateaux; its population exceeded 10,000 inhabitants. About 1450, the capital was abandoned because the hinterland could no longer furnish food for the overpopulated city and because of deforestation. The resulting migration benefited Khami, which became the most influential city in the region, but signaled waning political power. When in 1505 the Portuguese settled in Sofala, the region was divided between the rival powers of the kingdoms of Torwa and Mwene-Mutapa.Archaeological excavations have revealed glass beads and porcelain from China and Persia, and gold and Arab coins from Kilwa which testify to the extent of long-standing trade with the outer world. Other evidence, including potsherds and ironware, gives a further insight to the property’s socio-economic complexity and about farming and pastoral activities. A monumental granite cross, located at a traditionally revered and sacred spiritual site, also illustrates community contact with missionaries.

Watch the video about Great Zimbabwe- Kingdoms of Africa Great Zimbabwe-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyKrTdv-t4E from 46:15 – 48:20

Part IV- Polynesian Migrations

Watch the following video on the Polynesian Migrations from 3:20 – 9:20 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWp5MiiVR1 k

Watch the following video on the Polynesian Discovery Part I- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJk_a4iWj0

Another significant migration during this era was the movement of Polynesian people across the the Pacific Ocean. From their origins in East Asia, probably Taiwan, Polynesians spent several centuries “island hoping” to Fiji, Somoa, and Tahiti. By 500 C.E. they had reached the Hawaiian Islands. After learning to navigate with the stars and perfecting canoe building, their reach extended thousands of miles to complete the Polynesian Triangle, an imaginary triangle with Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island forming its corners. (Hansen 127) Without a written language or the use of metals, they formed complex hierarchical societies. There is convincing evidence that Polynesian mariners travelled as far as the coast of South America. (P Manning) Nevertheless, these connected societies established in the Pacific remained largely isolated from the rest of the world.Animals taken by the migrating Polynesians had significant environmental consequences. In Hawaii the pigs they brought destroyed much of the indigenous flora and fauna. Much worse were the consequences of large edible rats the Polynesians carried to Easter Island. The pigs devoured the nuts and seeds from trees thus preventing them from replenishing. Probably to appease their gods, the Polynesians cut most all of the mature trees. Soon there was nothing left to make boats for fishing. After having eaten everything on the island they could, including their dogs, the population suffered a catastrophic collapse. Polynesian Migrations http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&CategoryID=311

Over the span of 800 years, Polynesians explored 16 million square miles of ocean and settled on every habitable island in the Pacific. They brought their world view with them when they arrived in Hawai`i by voyaging canoe from the southern Pacific (primarily the Marquesas), settling the islands circa 300-600 AD. After they arrived in Hawai’i, the stories and chants they brought from western Polynesia soon grew to include events and details derived from their new home. The travelers also brought with them an array of plants and animals, including taro, ti, kukui, noni, olona, `uala (sweet potato), wauke, chickens, pigs and dogs.

A second wave of Polynesian migrations took place circa 1000-1300 AD with voyagers traveling back and forth between Hawai`i and the Society Islands. Tahitian chiefs and priests, most notably the high priest Pa`ao, introduced new religious forms and social structure to Hawai`i. At this time, human sacrifice was established as an element of religious observance, restrictions of the kapu increased, and Hawaiian society became more stratified and rigid. Consensual rule through `aha councils, or councils of elders and experts, gave way to the rule of ali`i, the chiefly class whose position was confirmed by lineage. The population of the islands increased rapidly and chiefs undertook the building of large public works projects such as fish ponds, taro terraces, irrigation systems and heiau (temples). After 1300, long distance voyaging ceased, and Hawaiian culture and society continued to develop along its unique path.The Voyaging Canoe- http://www.pbs.org/wayfinders/polynesian2.html

The Polynesians' primary voyaging craft was the double canoe made of two hulls connected by lashed crossbeams. The two hulls gave this craft stability and the capacity to carry heavy loads of migrating families and all their supplies and equipment, while a central platform laid over the crossbeams provided the needed working, living, and storage space. Sails made of matting drove this ancient forerunner of the modern catamaran swiftly through the seas, and long steering paddles enabled Polynesian mariners to keep it sailing on course.

A medium-size voyaging canoe 50 to 60 feet long could accommodate two dozen or so migrants, their food supplies, livestock, and planting materials.

Polynesian Canoe  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/for-four-years-this-polynesian-canoe-sail-around-world-raising-awareness-global-climate-change-180951786/

…Polynesian migration resides among the greatest single human adventures of all time, comparable to Columbus’ 1492 voyage across the Atlantic and the Apollo 11 crew’s landing on the moon. Here were small-island peoples using stone tools, crafting rope from coconut husks and stitching pandanus leaves into sails to build an ocean-going craft that could journey 2,500 miles and back again. But they also ingeniously developed a complex science of star and sea knowledge that enabled them to track their journeys, find islands beyond the horizon, mark them on mental maps and voyage back and forth across great distances. When we compare this to the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus, the contrast is impressive. Five hundred years after the Polynesians began fanning out across the Pacific, they managed to locate tiny dots of land in a vast ocean that covers a third of the planet, Columbus sailed across a relatively narrow Atlantic Ocean. His target was, by comparison, easy; he could have hardly missed the Americas, with 10,000 miles of coastline stretching nearly from pole to pole.

The Polynesian Settlement of the Pacific- http://archive.hokulea.com/migrationspart1.html

The Polynesian migration to Hawai'i was part of one of the most remarkable achievements of humanity: the discovery and settlement of the remote, widely scattered islands of the central Pacific. The migration began before the birth of Christ. While Europeans were sailing close to the coastlines of continents before developing navigational instruments that would allow them to venture onto the open ocean, voyagers from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa began to settle islands in an ocean area of over 10 million square miles. The settlement took a thousand years to complete and involved finding and fixing in mind the position of islands, sometimes less than a mile in diameter on which the highest landmark was a coconut tree. By the time European explorers entered the Pacific Ocean in the 16th century almost all the habitable islands had been settled for hundreds of years.

The voyaging was all the more remarkable in that it was done in canoes built with tools of stone, bone, and coral. The canoes were navigated without instruments by expert seafarers who depended on their observations of the ocean and sky and traditional knowledge of the patterns of nature for clues to the direction and location of islands. The canoe hulls were dug out from tree trunks with adzes or made from planks sewn together with a cordage of coconut fiber twisted into strands and braided for strength. Cracks and seams were sealed with coconut fibers and sap from breadfruit or other trees. An outrigger was attached to a single hull for greater stability on the ocean; two hulls were lashed together with crossbeams and a deck added between the hulls to create double canoes capable of voyaging long distances.

The canoes were paddled when there was no wind and sailed when there was; the sails were woven from coconut or pandanus leaves. These vessels were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, such as the one between Hawai'i and Tahiti. And though these double-hulled canoes had less carrying capacity than the broad-beamed ships of the European explorers, the Polynesian canoes were faster: one of Captain Cook's crew estimated a Tongan canoe could sail "three miles to our two."…

…To keep track of their position at sea during long sea voyages, the navigators used a system of dead reckoning, memorizing the distance and direction traveled until the destination was reached. Finding islands before they could actually be seen was also part of the art of navigation. Voyagers followed the flight of land-dwelling birds that fished at sea as these birds flew from the direction of islands in the morning or returned in the evenings. The navigators also watched for changes in swell patterns, cloud piled up over land, reflections on clouds from lagoons, and drifting land vegetation.

When European explorers found the islands of Polynesia, the common ancestry of the Polynesians was evident, the inhabitants of widely separated islands looked alike, spoke alike, and had similar cultural practices. Their manufactured products such as fishhooks, trolling lures, adzes, and ornaments also revealed similarities. And they had the same basic stock of domesticated plants and animals.

The peoples of Polynesia came from a common ancestral group that developed a distinctive fishing and farming culture in the islands of Tonga and Samoa.