page_title: Tamaeva V
section_title: Rule as regent
hierarchical_section_title: Tamaeva V / Rule as regent
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Famille royale et chefs de Rimatara en 1889. La jeune reine, la régente et principaux personnages de Rimatara. (Coll. Ch. Gleizal). English: Royal family and chiefs of Rimatara in 1889. The young Queen, the Regent and the principal personage of Rimatara. (Coll. Ch. Gleizal).
context_page_description: Tamaeva V or Temaeva V, formally Heimataura Tamatoa Tamaeva V, was the Arii vahine no Rimatara or queen of the island kingdom of Rimatara, an island within the larger Austral Islands archipelago, from 1892 to 1901. She served as regent for her predecessor Queen Tamaeva IV.
  Tamaeva V's reign was disrupted by ongoing French expansionism in the Pacific. She and her predecessor Tamaeva IV had previously attempted in vain to request a British protectorate to hold off French colonial aggression. This action resulted in the declaration of a French protectorate over Rimatara on 29 March 1889. In 1900, the neighboring kingdom of Rurutu was annexed to bring it economically closer to French controlled Tahiti. As the last monarch in the Austral Island group, Tamaeva V ceded Rimatara to the French on 6 June 1901 and the island was formally annexed on 2 September 1901 and incorporated into the territory of French Oceania, today part of the overseas country of French Polynesia.
  Tamaeva V was responsible for saving the Rimatara lorikeet from extinction during the early 20th century. The species was threaten by overhunting and the introduction of black rat.
context_section_description: Rimatara and its neighbor Rurutu were unique because they remained independent while the other Austral Islands, and even Tahiti to the north, fell to the French colonial empire.
  Tamaeva II died in 1865. It is assumed that a brother or a male relative of Heimataura succeeded to the throne as Tamaeva III. Tamatoa III was later succeed by his daughter Queen Tamaeva IV. Heimataura served as regent for the teenage Tamaeva IV. In 1892, French Protestant missionary Frédéric Vernier, of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, visited Rimatara at the invitation of the adolescent queen and queen regent. During his stay, Vernier witnessed the restoration and reopening of the church in the capital, Amaru, which was celebrated with much fanfare.
  Rimatara and Rurutu attempted in vain to request a British protectorate to hold off French colonial aggression. The French responded immediately to what they presumed to be a threat to their interests in the Pacific. On 29 March 1889, the French warship Dives landed on Rimatara with the colonial governor of French Oceania, Étienne Théodore Lacascade, on board, and he had Rimatara and its dependency Îles Maria declared a French protectorate.
  The French sources state that the queen, regent and chiefs had personally petitioned Governor Lacascade to take over the islands, but British sources believed the whole affair to be largely contrary to the desire of the majority of the islanders. The protectorate treaty was signed by Lascarde and five French officials and countersigned by the queen, Heimataura, and seven other chiefs or councilors.
  As a sign of the newly declared protectorate, the French tricolor was added to the canton of the kingdom's flag in 1891.
caption: The young queen Tamaeva IV, the regent, group of chiefs and inhabitants of Rimatara, c. 1889
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