By the mid 1600s, the population of the island had grown to a peak of about 10,000 after which the island could no longer support this population. Shortages of water, wood for fuel and food soon became an ecological disaster and it became a fight for survival. The once thriving, wealthy and ordered society broke down and a bloody civil war began which eventually saw some of the society descend into cannibalism.
It is believed that all of the moai that were standing along the coastline were torn down by the islanders and those that are standing today were the result of more recent archaeological effort. The timing of when the statues were pulled down is unclear as no written records were kept. But Captain Cook on his visit to the island in 1774 reported that some of the moai were still standing together with their topknots but some were toppled. In 1804, a Russian visitor reported only about 20 statues still standing. By 1838, it is recorded that the only statues to remain upright were those on the slopes of Rano Raroka, in Hoa Hakananai’s in Orongo and at Ariki Paro and Ahu Te Pito Kura. These are on both the east and west extremities of the island where the clan groups were particularly strong.
The Birdmen cult started about the time of the first Europeans, 1760, and continued until 1878. The first church was built by the Roman Catholic missionaries who arrived in 1864. We’ll come back to look into this the Birdman topic, later.
In the 1860’s Peruvian slave traders visited the island and during a number of visits over 1400 islanders, mainly productive men, were kidnapped. This was half of the islands population. These included the paramount chief and his heir. After protests by the Catholic Church, some of the islanders were returned but many died on the return journey and the smallpox that they brought with them, wiped out almost the entire population of the island. Some of the remaining islanders were evacuated with the missionaries when they left in 1871 and records exist that show that by 1877 that the population was reduced to 111 individuals. This dramatic reduction of the populations also had a devastating impact on the preservation of their culture.
