Asia PacificEvent

Jacob Roggeveen's Landing on Easter Island

When
1722
Where
Easter Island
Episodes
1

Dutch admiral Jacob Roggeveen made the first recorded European contact with Easter Island on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1722, while searching for Davis Land. He named the island Paasch-Eyland and reported a population of 2,000 to 3,000 inhabitants.

Episodes

  1. April 5, 1722 · Easter IslandFirst European Contact

    Roggeveen lands on Easter Island on Easter Sunday, 1722, naming it Paasch-Eyland and reporting the local population size.

Background and detail

The Landing. On April 5, 1722, Roggeveen arrived at Easter Island on Easter Sunday. He became the first recorded European visitor, naming the island Paasch-Eyland. He observed the local population and noted the island's fertility and the presence of fowls as the only kept animals.

People involved

Sources

  1. Easter Island Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-27
  2. Jacob Roggeveen Wikipedia, revision of 2026-02-14

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.