This article will draw on a specific case study; the Polynesian Empire. The Polynesians were sea-faring race of people who colonised most of the pacific islands between BC 1600 and AD 1000. They travelled thousands of kilometres in their boats and reached Rapa Nui (Easter Island), between 900 and 1000 AD. In the few centuries that followed, they ate everything, cut the majority of the trees down, and eventually resorted to cannibalism.
In order to build their Moai, they had to use a lot of timber and clear a lot of land, both to transport the stones, and for agriculture to feed the workers. Alarmingly, there was no consideration given to the idea that the day may come where they would run out of resources. When the Dutch finally arrived in the 1770s, they described the locals as “miserable and thin-looking”. Of course, after the Europeans’ arrivals the Polynesians’ collective misery increased exponentially, as they were infected with foreign disease, sold off, bought back, and massacred.
However, what is vital to point out is that the Europeans merely sped up a process that was already in action. The process of collapse. By looking at soil layers in Rapa Nui, we can find evidence of what foodstuffs made up their diets during different times. We can see that when the island was first colonised, the diet was made up of some sea birds, deep sea tuna and land birds. As we get to more recent years, we see this change to predominantly molluscs and rats, then finally when the molluscs have run out, rats, and, soon before the Dutch arrive, human bones. There is no doubt that the Polynesians degraded their environment and the common perception that the Europeans destroyed a beautiful, vibrant community is a myth. The Europeans hastened the process of degradation and destruction that was already in place before their arrival.