AD 1

Trade links are established between New Guinea and island Southeast Asia

AD 1

Micronesian peoples begin to settle Chuuk and Kosrae in the Caroline Islands

AD 300

Eastern Polynesian culture develops

AD 500

People originating in Southeast Asia settle Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island

AD 500

Polynesians continue eastwards

AD 500

Around this time the Society Islands, Tuamotus, Hawaii, Mangareva and Easter Island are colonised

AD 600

Over the next 200 years Hawaii Islands are colonised from the Marquesas Islands

AD 700

Sumatran kingdom of Shrivijaya extends its trading network as far as the Moluccas and western New Guinea

AD 700

Polynesians land on Easter Island

AD 700

Around this time Polynesians settle in the Cook Islands

AD 800

Pottery production ceases on the central islands of the western Pacific

AD 900

First settlers from the Cook Islands, ancestors of the Maoris, reach the South Island, New Zealand

AD 1000

Maori arrive in New Zealand from other parts of Polynesia

AD 1000

Around this time Polynesians begin to build stone temples