While the exact history of the Cook Islands is not known as there is very little documentation to prove when the first visitors landed on these islands, what is known is that the Polynesians were the first to arrive here from neighboring Tahiti and New Zealand. Most of the ancient history of this country has passed down from generation to generation, with archaeologists tracing settlements on many of the islands to roughly 1200 AD. Much of the Cook Islands written history begins only with the Europeans arriving here in the late 16th century.

The first European to spot Cook Islands was a Spanish explorer by the name of Alvaro de Mendana. He first saw the island of Pukapuka in 1595. However, it was only until 1606 that Spaniard Pedro Fernandez de Quiros first landed on these islands. He stopped over at the isle of Rakahanga to gather provisions. After this till the late 1700’s no more Europeans came to this area until 1773 when the English explorer Capitan James Cook came here.

Captain Cook mapped out much of the Cook Islands that stand today, but surprisingly enough he did not discover Rarotonga. Instead, Rarotonga was discovered in 1789 by Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty. Dubbing the island group as ‘Hervey Islands,’ Captain Cook did not set foot anywhere except on the tiny atoll of Palmerston. It was only half a century later in 1842 when a Russian cartographer was publishing a map of the Pacific Ocean that he renamed the Hervey Islands, Cook Islands in honor of James Cook.

Following the explorers, the missionaries were the next group of people to land here with the Reverend John Williams of the London Missionary Society setting foot on Aitutaki in 1821. Leaving two Polynesians preachers behind, the Rev. Williams left Cook Islands only to return two years later and find that the entire island converted to Christianity. Even today, the Cook Islands is overwhelmingly Christian.

In 1888, the British took control of Cook Islands and declared it a British Protectorate till the year 1901, when it was annexed to New Zealand. Ignored for much of the early 20th century, these islands were given self-governing status in 1965, with New Zealand now only in charge of foreign policy and defense. Today, an essentially independent country, the Cook Islands is still under New Zealand sovereignty, with the Queen as the Head of State.