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Overview[]
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History[]
Lucky the island was not nuked in 1962, but near by Johnson Attol was destroyed by Soviet nuclear arms.
WW3[]
The nation was not a target in World War 3, but was immediately cut off from the rest of the world for several years.
They soon became dependent on Tahitian help and both Easter Island and French Polynesia for the majority of their food and other supplies. Although the Pitcairns were grateful for the help they had received they felt that their national identity and independence was being taken away.
They survived fairly well due to local fishing, coconuts, clams, conchies and tropical fruits in the time after doomsday. A lost Hawaiian fishing boat, small Panmanian tramp steamer and yacht arrived about a month after the war, and the 8 fishermen, 26 civil mariners and 5 yachtsmen then stayed.
Everyone was still desperate to make contact with the rest of the world.
Survival[]
They survived fairly well due to local fishing, coconuts, clams, conchies and tropical fruits in the time after the war. Despite this they soon fell into a state of civil unrest that occurred during the first 18 months, but they then recovered stability afterwards.
A lost Hawaiian yacht and Mexican fishing boat arrived about 6 months after the war and the 4 yachtsmen and 6 fishermen then stayed. A lost LA yacht crew, who obviously could not return home after the attack drifted up on Sandy Island a few, days later and they hid in a small group of Island trees.
This clump was the best on the island, planted near a water seep, but the dry climate and sea birds, eager for anything upon which to perch, did not give the trees or shrubs much of a chance to survive. Some odd bits of debris drifted up on the beach over time.
Sandy, Oeno and Ducie islands
They reclaimed the near by islands of Henderson, Sandy Island, Oeno and Ducie islands in 1963, but the islands were also claimed by Tahiti in 1972, Hawaii in 1973, the Cook Islands in 1974 and Chile in 1983. Pitcairn Island annexed them in 1968.
Over farming by the 125+ islanders caused a major short fall in fruit and coconut production after 1967.
First contact[]
Tahiti, Easter Island, Cook Islands, Austral Islands, Marquesas Islands, and Pitcairn fishing boats happened to meat more by chance than by planing off the coast of Henderson Island in 1964 and diplomatic relations were formally opened 6 months later.
Pitcairn, the Cook Islands, Easter Island and French Polynesia made joint contact with Tuvalu, the Wallis and Futuna, Fiji and Kiribati in 1969.
Pitcairn, the Cook Islands, Easter Island and French Polynesia made joint contact with New Zealand, the remnants of Peru, the remnants of Chile and Nauru 1971.
2 years later and emigration took it's toll with 8 people leaving Pitcairn in favor of settling in Tahiti in 1973.
Sandy Island, Oeno and Ducie islands
Akamaru in French Polynisia
Demus liberos peperit![]
Populorum paene exstinctus?[]
After 1979[]
When the Cook Islands and Tuvalu officially became an Associate State of New Zealand in 1980, they offered the Pitcairn Islands the opportunity to become part of the Cook Islands. After a long time they were able to make contact with Australia in 1982, who sent a ship six months later with supplies like food, dry-board, hand tools and medicine.
After much popular debate the Pitcairns agreed to the Cook Island's offer in 1987, with a few conditions; that they have equal representation in the government, retain the Pitkern language and that they have the right to leave the Cook Islands at anytime with a weeks notice being given too the Cook Island forhand.
Hawaii and Chile had boath
After a long time they were able to make contact with both halves of Samoa in 1992, Hawaii in 1994 and then Australia in 1995, both of whom who sent a ship 6 months later with supplies like food, dry-board, hand tools and medicine. A Hawaiian fishing boat arrived in 1994 and a Australian patrol boat arrived in 1996, but they did not claim or settle them.
Fijian sailing boats reached both Île de Clipperton, Pitcairn, Hederson and Baker Island in 1998, but they did not claim or settle them.
Heavy storms[]
- March 1970
- December 1982
- January 1983
- March 1983
- June 2008.
- June 2014.
Current Status[]
A Hawaiian Navy Lockheed_P-3_Orion had apparently crashed on Henderson Island in 1993 and 1994. All of both the 11 person crews had died in the impact.
Coconut and fruit shortages ended in 1997.
A free trade treaty was singed between Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu, Palau, New Caledonia, FSOM, and Marquesas Islands, Marshal Islands, Guam, Mariana Islands, Japan, Australia, Panama, Costa Rica, Vanuatu, Colombia, Ecuador, the Wallis and Futuna Islands, French Polynesia and the Pitcairn Islands, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Timor Leste and American Samoa in 2008.
Religion[]
The Island is overwhelmingly Seventh-day Adventist and plus a few Roman Catholics.
Politics[]
In 2004 Brenda Christian served the territory as its first female Mayor from 8 November to 15 December 2004. She was appointed to the Mayoralty in an interim capacity by the Island Council, following her brother Steve Christian's dismissal by the colonial Governor, in the wake of his rape convictions on 30 October 2004. He is now jailed in the Cook Islands. She has been a member of the Island Council since 2000. She was also the island's sole police officer between 1999 and 2000.
Economy[]
They voted In 1988 in a referendum 60%-40% in favor of permanently becoming an associate state of the Cook Island and continuing ever closer relations with the Cook Islands. They voted In 1998 in a referendum 55%-45% in favor of using the currency of the Cook Island and French Polynesia and Relations are good with the other Pacific Islands.
Local language[]
Pitkern is a creole language based on eighteenth-century English and Tahitian. Pitkern is closely related to Norfuk spoken on Norfolk Island, where some descendants of the mutineers subsequently settled.