Which of the following statements with reference to Easter Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is/are correct? 1. It is part of Polynesia group of islands. 2. It is a territory of the South American nation Chile. Select the answer using the code given below:

Q: What is the answer to CDS (I) 2025 GK Q11?

C. Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Easter Island, Rapa Nui to its own people, sits at the south-eastern corner of the Polynesian Triangle, the vast ocean region bounded by Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island itself — so statement 1 is right, and the island's Polynesian settlers, language and the moai they carved all belong to that cultural world. Statement 2 is right too, but for political rather than geographical reasons: Chile annexed the island in 1888 and it has been Chilean ever since, holding the constitutional status of a special territory since 2007. There is no contradiction between the two statements even though the distances feel odd — the nearest point on the South American mainland is some 3,512 kilometres away, which makes this one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 1995, most of it protected inside Rapa Nui National Park. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer

Why

Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Easter Island, Rapa Nui to its own people, sits at the south-eastern corner of the Polynesian Triangle, the vast ocean region bounded by Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island itself — so statement 1 is right, and the island's Polynesian settlers, language and the moai they carved all belong to that cultural world. Statement 2 is right too, but for political rather than geographical reasons: Chile annexed the island in 1888 and it has been Chilean ever since, holding the constitutional status of a special territory since 2007. There is no contradiction between the two statements even though the distances feel odd — the nearest point on the South American mainland is some 3,512 kilometres away, which makes this one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 1995, most of it protected inside Rapa Nui National Park.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 only — Correct on Polynesia but wrong to reject Chilean sovereignty. The island has been Chilean territory since 1888 and is administered as a special territory of Chile.
(b)2 only — Correct on Chile but wrong to reject Polynesia. Cultural and geographical classification put Rapa Nui firmly in Polynesia — it is the eastern vertex of the Polynesian Triangle.
(d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are correct. The apparent tension between a Polynesian island and a South American ruler is the point of the question, not a reason to reject either half.

Concept

The Pacific islands are conventionally grouped into three divisions — Melanesia in the south-west, Micronesia in the north-west and Polynesia in the great triangle to the east. Polynesia's corners are Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south-west and Easter Island in the south-east, and the peoples within it share closely related Austronesian languages and a common voyaging tradition. Political sovereignty cuts across those cultural divisions freely: Hawaii is American, New Zealand independent, French Polynesia French and Easter Island Chilean.

The trap is a habit of assuming that a cultural region and a political map must agree. They rarely do in the Pacific, and this item is built precisely on that mismatch — an island that is Polynesian by geography and culture yet Chilean by sovereignty. The distances are worth internalising because they make the remoteness concrete: about 3,500 kilometres to the South American coast and about 2,000 kilometres to the nearest inhabited island, Pitcairn. When a question offers a cultural claim and a political claim about the same island, check them separately; they are independent facts.

Key facts

Easter Island lies at the south-eastern point of the Polynesian Triangle, whose other corners are Hawaii and New Zealand.
It has been Chilean territory since 1888 and has held the constitutional status of a special territory of Chile since 2007.
The nearest continental point is in central Chile, about 3,512 km away, making it one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands.
UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1995; much of the island is protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
The island is known for the moai, the monumental stone figures carved by its Polynesian inhabitants.

Study next

The three divisions of the Pacific islands — Melanesia, Micronesia and PolynesiaOverseas and special territories in the Pacific and the states that hold themUNESCO World Heritage Sites in Oceania and South AmericaAustronesian expansion and the peopling of the PacificIsland types — volcanic, coral atoll and continental — and how each forms

Common traps

Assuming that because the island is Chilean it must be geographically or culturally South American.
Confusing Easter Island with the Galapagos, which belong to Ecuador and lie much closer to the mainland.
Treating 'special territory' as independence; the island remains part of Chile.

As a two-statement item pairing an island's cultural or physical region with its sovereignty, or as a match list linking islands to the countries that hold them.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
The three corners of the Polynesian Triangle are Hawaii, New Zealand and which one of the following?
- (a)Fiji
- (b)Easter Island
- (c)Guam
- (d)New Caledonia
Answer(b) Easter Island — it marks the south-eastern vertex of the triangle; Fiji and New Caledonia are usually grouped with Melanesia and Guam with Micronesia.
practice — not a real PYQ
Rapa Nui National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its monumental stone figures, lies in the territory of which one of the following countries?
- (a)Peru
- (b)New Zealand
- (c)Chile
- (d)France
Answer(c) Chile — Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, has been Chilean since 1888 and the park was inscribed by UNESCO in 1995.