Rapa Nui By ojk 1200 Polynesian explorers settled Rapa Nui 1400 The Moai statues and Ahu platforms were created 1700 Deforestation 1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen arrived on Rapa Nui 1770 Felipe Gonzalez de Ahedo went to Rapa Nui for five days 1770 Tribal conflicts between Hanau epe and Hanau momoko 1774 British explorer James Cook visited Rapa Nui