[3] Archaeological research suggests the islands were colonized in the 10th century AD by voyagers from West Polynesia.

That is because they constitute the first major break for the prevailing easterly winds that arise from the (atmospherically) dry Humboldt Current.

Only those islands that reach highest into the clouds (generally, higher than 750 metres (2,460 ft) above sea level) reliably have periods of precipitation.

Periodic lack of water has made human habitation only intermittently sustainable in certain parts of the various islands throughout the archipelago.

The South Equatorial Current lashes all these islands fiercely; its force has carved sea-caves that dot their shores.

Although the islands have valleys that empty into small bays, they are remarkable for their mountain ridges, which end abruptly in cliffs at the edge of the sea.

For example, a 2010 study that applied higher-precision radiocarbon dating methods to more reliable samples suggests that the earliest colonisation of eastern Polynesia took place much later, within a shorter time period, and in two waves: The first was a migration into the Society Islands between about 1025 and 1120 AD (four centuries later than had previously been thought); the second, between 70 and 265 years later, was a dispersal of migrants to all the remaining Marquesas islands between about 1190 and 1290 AD.

[5] This relatively rapid colonisation is believed to account for the "remarkable uniformity of East Polynesian culture, biology and language".

The inhabitants historically made a living by fishing, collecting shellfish, hunting birds, and gardening.

Hard evidence of significant pre-European interarchipelago trade has been found in basalt from the Marquesan quarry island of Eiao.

[12] The first Europeans to reach the Marquesas may have been the crew members aboard the San Lesmes, a Spanish vessel that disappeared in a storm in June 1526; it was part of an expedition headed by García Jofre de Loaísa.

[15] Europeans and Americans were impressed with how easy life appeared to be in the islands, which had a rich habitat and environment.

In 1791, the American maritime fur trader Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig Hope.

[20] In 1842, France conducted a successful military operation in support of the native chief Iotete's claim that he was king of the whole island of Tahuata.

The French government then laid claim to the whole island group and established a settlement on Nuku Hiva.

The indigenous people of the Marquesas suffered high death rates from diseases carried by Western explorers, such as smallpox and measles, because none of them had any immunity to them.

[2] In 2024, the Marquesas Islands were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under "Te Henua Enata" (lit.

[28] The community of communes of the Marquesas Islands was created in 2010 with the aim of delegating powers both from the six communes and from the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia to this new intercommunal structure, due to the isolation of the Marquesas Islands and distance from the seat of the French Polynesian government in Tahiti.

The French Polynesian government also transferred to the CODIM the power to grant subsidies in favor of cultural and sports activities.

[27] Besides drafting a blueprint for economic development and granting subsidies for cultural and sports activities, the CODIM is currently in charge only of creating hiking trails, drafting studies for waste collection (but not actually managing waste collection, which the communes kept for themselves), drafting a blueprint for transports between the islands of the archipelago, acquiring computers and office equipment for the six communes of the archipelago, and offering legal and technical support to the six communes.

[33][35] The total number of people born in the Marquesas Islands and living in French Polynesia decreased from 10,278 at the 2007 census to 9,965 at the 2017 census, as net births were not able to offset the departures to New Caledonia and Metropolitan France due to the economic crisis experienced by French Polynesia.

William Patterson Alexander (1805–1864), Benjamin Parker (1803–1877), and Richard Armstrong (1805–1860) arrived in the Marquesas in 1834 from Hawaii with their wives and a three-month-old baby.

Protestant missionaries gradually left Hiva Oa and returned to Hawaii, and only James Kekela remained.

From 1838 to 1839, the Catholic mission was able to establish itself, supported by the French order Pères et religieuses des Sacrés-Cœurs de Picpus (founded in 1800).

Not only were the Christians disapproving of the long-enjoyed consumption of kava, the ancient and sacred tattoo artwork, and general dancing and traditional music, but they were especially horrified by tribal fertility/virility rites and skull dissection.

Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian language dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.

While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan.

Art of the Marquesas ranges from large wooden sculptures of ancestors created for temples to small, intricate personal ornaments made from bone and shell.

Carved wooden objects were decorated in elaborate anthropomorphic and geometric motifs, similar to tattoo designs that are part of a traditional practice.

In 1996 Lucien Kimitete, the Mayor of Nuku Hiva, proposed that the Marquesas become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.