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Over at my blog, I write about the profound flaws in Jared Diamond's theory of Easter Island as a casualty of indigenous ecocide. The Rapa Nui were apparently managing their island quite well, dealing with ecological catastophes not of their own making and sustaining a highly complex and accomplished culture in isolation from the outside world.
What happened to the Rapa Nui? Far from doing themselves in, they were devastated by foreign genocide instead. Peruvian slavers in the 1860s abducted half the population to work in the guano mines off Peru's coast, returning pitfiully few survivors including some infected with cholera. With the death of more than 90% of the island's population, of course the Rapa Nui collapsed.
ObWI: Peruvian slavers leave Easter Island alone in the 1860s. What happens next? Does France move in and establish a protectorate akin to that over Tahiti? Does Chile still move in? Would knowledge of rongorongo's meaning be hugely transformative?