I hope it isn’t too late to give you an answer to your question. Better late than never right? Anyway, Easter Island’s annexation to Chile is rooted in the geopolitical environment of South America of the mid-nineteenth century. By mid-century, most South American countries had undergone a process of state formation, meaning some form of new national elite had taken power, established some form of republic, and ended the civil wars that had plagued the countries since independence. South American states started to look outward toward their poorly defined frontiers (often leftover from the colonial period), which had been largely neglected since independence because locals tended to be more concerned with gaining control over the core of the country than the periphery. This led to a whole bunch of conflicts in the 1860s and 1870s around the continent, which were settled diplomatically and/or militarily. For example, the Paraguayan War allowed Argentina and Brazil to seize valuable territory from Paraguay. Chile’s victory in the War of the Pacific gave them access to mineral reserves in the Atacama Desert. They also renounced their claims to Patagonia east of the Andes in return for control of the southern tip of South America. This period also corresponded to some of the last exterminations of unsubjugated indigenous groups in Chile and Argentina. I see all of these internal and foreign conflicts as part of this transition from colony to nation-state. What does this have to do with Easter Island’s annexation? Well by the 1880s, Chile had stabilized, had developed a strong navy, had been cut off from eastward expansion across the continent, had engaged in aggressive military expansions, and had a sense of national identity, patriotism, and “progress.” All of these developments helped set the stage for annexation.
The 1870s corresponded with European imperialism in Africa and the Pacific. The British, French, and German Empires all took islands in the Pacific. The Chilean elite came to see Easter Island as an unclaimed strategic position from which Europeans might be able to launch aggressive moves toward South America. On the flip side, taking Rapa Nui for themselves was a way for Chile to get its own colony, thus bringing prestige to the newly powerful nation. More importantly, they saw Easter Island as a strategic location for its navy, which heretofore lacked coaling, resupply, and garrisoning locations in the Pacific. Furthermore, Chilean elite thought that a colony in the Pacific would act as insurance against a future canal built in Central America. The proposed canal would greatly reduce the number of ships docking in Chile, so Easter Island could be a valuable resupply location between the canal and Australia. Likewise, some Chilean elite saw the annexation of Rapa Nui as sharing the goals that motivated European imperialism: “civilizing mission” and profit. Chilean missionaries would bring Roman Catholicism, Spanish, and democracy to the “backwards” natives. And for many who had never actually visited Rapa Nui, they imagined a tropical paradise, capable of providing valuable plantation agricultural products.
Unfortunately, virtually all of these conceptions were incorrect (as they were for many European colonies elsewhere in the world). As a port or a naval base, Easter Island is terrible. It has no natural harbor and offers virtually no protection from storms. As a resupplying location, it has no trees, almost no freshwater, and poor, rocky soil that makes significant agricultural production almost impossible. Once the Panama Canal opened, ships chose to sail on to Polynesia to resupply rather than Easter Island. And of course, as with virtually all colonies, the indigenous people were never asked about their desire to be a part of Chile.
Where were the indigenous Rapa Nuis in all of this? Well to answer that, I’ll include a bit of another answer that I wrote on Askhistorians a while back: Back in the 1860s, Peru faced a major labor shortage since they had abolished slavery after independence, which they attempted to fill by bringing over thousands of Chinese workers. When this was only moderately successful, Peruvians turned to “blackbirding” Polynesians to work in mines, on plantations, and serve as domestic servants. The most famous episode at Easter Island occurred in 1862, when Peruvian businessmen “signed”...and by signed they meant violently captured....around 1,500 Easter Islanders to immigrate to Peru...with a few hundred more casualties left behind when they resisted (McCall 97). Of the 1,500 Islanders taken to do agricultural and domestic work in Peru, only a score or two ever returned to the island. Upon their repatriation, a massive outbreak of smallpox devastated the remaining Islanders, swiftly eliminating most of the elderly who had preserved the oral and cultural traditions. Devastating outbreaks of tuberculous followed, dropping the island’s population below 600.
Meanwhile, European missionaries and other foreign businessmen arrived on the scene. The missionaries established a church and worked to convert the population to Christianity. According to Steven Roger Fischer, the missionaries banned “non-Christian customs: nudity, tattooing, most sexual practices, and, above all idolatry or ritual performance of any kind” (99). The Church drew upon traditional Latin hymns, Polynesian chants, and songs in Rapa Nui to attract converts. After a serious outbreak of violence among the remaining population, the missionaries and hundreds of Rapa Nui fled the island; the Islanders were later indentured to work on plantations elsewhere in the Pacific (Fischer 113-116). When it was all said and done, the population of the island was reduced to just over 100 Islanders by the 1870s. The mid-1800s was nearly an extinction event for the indigenous people of Easter Island and their culture.
Slowly, a few businessmen bought up the land on Easter Island. Later, Chile either bought out these businessmen or, in the case of the missionaries, they simply turned over their land to the republic. When a Chilean naval vessel arrived to annex the island, the Chilean representatives gathered the remaining islanders to together in the middle of town sign a questionably-worded treaty, which in Spanish (though not really in Rapa Nui) gave control if the island to a series of naval governors (Haun 10-11). Use of the island was rented to sheep and cattle companies, while the remaining Islanders were confined to Hanga Roa in an indigenous ghetto surrounded by a rock wall. The town did not even have a freshwater source. Islanders were not allowed to travel outside the wall without a pass, and if they violated the law, they were severely punished (Tector 186). This oppression continued for decades and planted the seeds of resentment that still plagues the relationship between Easter Island and Chile to this day.
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