“The fateful moment when a social capsule is broken open, when primitive creatures, beasts as well as men, are confronted for the first time with Civilisation” – Alan Moorehead
This essay incorporates Moorehead’s argument that the first contact between Pacific Island communities and Western explorers during 16th to 19th centuries caused a ‘fatal impact’ for Pacific Islands. The Western Explorers and their crew introduced diseases that caused vast mortally, depopulation and the deconstruction of social stability. Therefore, this essay focuses on the impacts of sexually transmitted diseases for causing depopulation, the impact of ships as transporters of disease and how epidemics of disease destabilized social structures. The introduced …show more content…
The Hawaiians reflected that “Lawe li’ili’ika make a ka Hawai’I, lawe nui ka make a ka haole” meaning “death by Hawaiians takes a few at a time; death by foreigners takes many”. Therefore, it is clear that preventative measures began to be put in place to avoid the ‘fatal impacts’ of introduced disease. Terms such as “I am shippy” when expressing symptoms elevates that the Indigenous populations understood the correlation between the outbreak of disease with foreigners and their ships. However, despite many societies preventing ships coming a shore, due to small-scale populaces, trade routes and Island interconnection diseases still managed to spread across island borders. Hao Ofa’ elevates that the Pacific islands should be considered as a “sea of lands” rather than “islands in a far sea” in order to recognise the inter-connected nature of the Pacific. It is clear through the spread of disease between islands that they had connected sea routes. It also elevates the larger scale of the ‘fatal impact’ of the first introduced diseases as such illnesses continued to spread throughout the Pacific. However, due to the “geographical and social buffer” of islands, not all islands were severely affected by the introduction of particular
This essay incorporates Moorehead’s argument that the first contact between Pacific Island communities and Western explorers during 16th to 19th centuries caused a ‘fatal impact’ for Pacific Islands. The Western Explorers and their crew introduced diseases that caused vast mortally, depopulation and the deconstruction of social stability. Therefore, this essay focuses on the impacts of sexually transmitted diseases for causing depopulation, the impact of ships as transporters of disease and how epidemics of disease destabilized social structures. The introduced …show more content…
The Hawaiians reflected that “Lawe li’ili’ika make a ka Hawai’I, lawe nui ka make a ka haole” meaning “death by Hawaiians takes a few at a time; death by foreigners takes many”. Therefore, it is clear that preventative measures began to be put in place to avoid the ‘fatal impacts’ of introduced disease. Terms such as “I am shippy” when expressing symptoms elevates that the Indigenous populations understood the correlation between the outbreak of disease with foreigners and their ships. However, despite many societies preventing ships coming a shore, due to small-scale populaces, trade routes and Island interconnection diseases still managed to spread across island borders. Hao Ofa’ elevates that the Pacific islands should be considered as a “sea of lands” rather than “islands in a far sea” in order to recognise the inter-connected nature of the Pacific. It is clear through the spread of disease between islands that they had connected sea routes. It also elevates the larger scale of the ‘fatal impact’ of the first introduced diseases as such illnesses continued to spread throughout the Pacific. However, due to the “geographical and social buffer” of islands, not all islands were severely affected by the introduction of particular