While anthropological opinion varies, it is thought that settlers from Southeast Asia arrived in the Marquesas Islands around 300 AD, although other historical evidence has suggested tribes from Samoa and Tonga sailed into the region before 100 AD.

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French Polynesia is made up of some 200 islands -- the Society, Tuamotu, Gambier, Austral and Marquesas groups -- spread over 4.1 million square kilometres of Pacific Ocean: an area roughly eight times the size of France.

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