Tahiti was converted to Protestant Christianity by the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the early 19th century with the patronage of the Pōmare dynasty.

Pritchard and Pōmare IV attempted to resist French rule and to convince the British to intervene in favor of the Tahitians.

These efforts were unsuccessful and led to the imprisonment of Pritchard and the deposition and voluntary exile of Pōmare IV to her relatives in neighboring Raiatea.

The technologically inferior Tahitians were no match for the French marines in the field and so relied on their superior knowledge of the island's mountainous interior to wage guerrilla warfare.

[3][4] Western concepts of kingdoms and nation states were foreign to the native Tahitians or Maohi[note 1] people who were divided into loosely defined tribal units and districts before European contact.

[6] In the 1830s, tensions between French naval interests, the British settlers and pro-British native chieftains on Tahiti led to conflict.

The commander forced the native government to pay an indemnity and sign a treaty of friendship with France respecting the rights of French subjects in the islands including any future Catholic missionaries.

[9] Pritchard had been away on a diplomatic mission to Great Britain during the incident with Dupetit Thouars and returned to find the islands under French control.

[11] In November 1843, Dupetit Thouars deposed the queen for her continued resistance and formally annexed the islands, placing Armand Joseph Bruat in charge as colonial governor.

Captain Andrew Snape Hamond, of HMS Salamander, wrote that if the British had actively forestalled the French, "England might have been spared the pain of seeing the Pet Lamb she has fostered and brought snatched from her protection by unprincipled Frenchmen".

[23] In 1846, Admiral George Seymour, the British commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station, visited Raiatea and "declared all French enactments there null and void" and had a private audience with Queen Pomare.

[24][10] From 1846 to 1847, the British Navy officer Henry Byam Martin and commander of HMS Grampus, was sent to the Society Islands to spy on the conflict.