Much has been written about Easter Island, a lot of it through the lens of our European feeling of superiority. Through that prism, we scornfully looked at the island as a failed state: they chopped down all the trees for their useless statues, and ended up starving to death. For many decades, this view was popular and remained virtually unchallenged.

Thankfully, in the past several years, a lot has changed, and it’s now clear that this version of “history” was in fact sheer colonialism that wasn’t based on facts.

For an up-to-date understanding of the history of Easter Island, I can only recommend the marvellous documentary made by Paul Cooper, “Easter Island – Where Giants Walked“. It is thorough, eloquent and most importantly, factual. You may feel like you already know the history of this remote island, but please do yourself a favor and watch this video. You will be astonished by what you learn. Thank you to the Fall of Civilization Podcast for shattering these old preconceived notions in such spectacular fashion.