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Easter Island was a once thriving civilization with thousands of people in the 1600s and early 1700s. They lived a very advanced life with complex political organization, which they needed in order to distribute goods throughout the entire island. Hundreds of very large and heavy statues were built which only could've been built with more complex inventions. Goods from different areas of the island were found all over so this must be the case. Greenery and life were plentiful, as the island had lots of palm trees and forests. I believe, heavily based on Russell McCarthy's 2014 ideas and theories, that the end of the society came about upon the arrival of European travelers. The introduction of disease to the native people brought about the end of their large, complex society. Captain James Cook arrived after much of the decline of the civilization and recorded seeing a couple thousand people who used just very basic, low quality canoes that only held two people, nothing very advanced, and scarce plant and animal life. Roggeveen came two years after that, massacring dozens and noting much of the same things.

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Easter Island was a subtropical forest full of trees and plant life (30,000 years before human arrival) 

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Easter Island was a subtropical forest full of trees and plant life (30,000 years before human arrival) 

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Firsthand records from explorers show that the island was devoid of plant and animal life, but these explorers found the island in the 1700s. Research from archaeologists however show that thousands and thousands of years before human arrival, the island was full of plant life and subtropical forest (Diamond 2004).

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Earliest radiocarbon date associated with human activity (AD 400 - 700)

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Earliest radiocarbon date associated with human activity (AD 400 - 700)

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The idea that the earliest human activity on the island was somewhere between 400-700 AD suggests that the explorers who arrived in the 1700s, arrived at least 1,000 years since the earliest civilizations (Diamond 2004). This would have given lots of time for a more complex society to form and fall before outsiders could discover it.

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Life on Easter Island was very advanced with complex political organization and innovation (Pre - early 1700s)

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Life on Easter Island was very advanced with complex political organization and innovation (Pre - early 1700s)

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Long before any European explorers arrived, the island was very complex. It HAD to be given the evidence found after its collapse such as goods from other areas of the island found all across the island that only could've spread by a highly complex political organization (Diamond 2004). The statues found across the island are also proof a more complex society once existed (McCarthy 2014).

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Jacob Roggeveen arrives at Island (1772)

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Jacob Roggeveen arrives at Island (1772)

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European explorer Jacob Roggeveen arrives at the island in 1772, making sure to leave his mark as he did. Within just minutes of arrival, Roggeveen massacred dozens of natives. Just as Cook will note two years later, he saw the society was very underdeveloped, seeing the weak canoes and land devoid of trees, and very small population (McCarthy 2014).

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Cook briefly visited the island in 1774 and noted a very small population with very basic organization and innovation, and little plant and animal life. The kinds of basic innovation Cook observed were things like low quality canoes that could barely hold two people. In opposing ideas however, he observed hundreds of very large stone statues, some still standing but most knocked down or incomplete (Diamond 2004). European travelers as a more broad category, have even claimed to have seen cannibalism due to lack of resources for food (World Abandoned).

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Statues standing (1770) - All statues pulled down by Islanders ( by 1864)

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Statues standing (1770) - All statues pulled down by Islanders ( by 1864)

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In the 1770s as travelers like Cook and Roggeveen arrived at the island, they found that many of the statues were still up, about 200, while about 700 were found abandoned or unfinished in quarries. However, by 1864, all of the statues were pulled down by Islanders. The statues themselves, being as big and as heavy as they were, help to prove the society was once complex, because they would have needed to travel 6 miles, and the explorers noted no machines, no draft animals, no ropes, no wheels, and no power source other than muscle. There had to have been more previously to build and transport the statues (Diamond 2004).

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Island basically abandoned, 97% culture lost (1872)

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Island basically abandoned, 97% culture lost (1872)

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Unfortunately, by 1872, 97% of the Polynesian culture on the island was lost and it was basically abandoned. The population stood at a whopping 111 people (World Abandoned).

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Became UNESCO World Heritage site (1995)

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Became UNESCO World Heritage site (1995)

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UNESCO, being an organization committed to bringing people together through education, culture, and science, turned the island into a World Heritage site in 1995 (World Abandoned). Locations that earn the title are cultural sites that are considered to be of "Outstanding Universal Value," important across countries and generations.

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Russell McCarthy, The Collapse of Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond, Environmental Collapse of Easter Island

World Abandoned, Easter Island - The Ecological Disaster of the Rapa Nui