colony · North America and Oceania

Pitcairn Islands

1838 CE – present · capital Adamstown

Britain's smallest and most remote overseas territory, settled by the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions in 1790.

Origins

Fletcher Christian and eight other mutineers from HMS Bounty, with Tahitian men and women, landed on uninhabited Pitcairn in 1790 and burned the ship. Violence killed most of the men, and the survivors were discovered in 1808. In 1838 Captain Russell Elliott of HMS Fly drew up laws that made the island a British possession and gave women the vote.

Rule and society

The tiny community of mixed English and Tahitian descent was governed by an elected magistrate and council under British oversight, latterly through the High Commissioner in New Zealand. The islanders converted to Seventh-day Adventism in the 1890s. They live by fishing, gardening, selling handicrafts and stamps to passing ships, and they speak Pitkern, a creole of English and Tahitian.

To the present

The whole population moved to Norfolk Island in 1856, but some families returned from 1858. Pitcairn remains a British Overseas Territory with about 40 to 50 residents, shaken in 2004 by trials for historical sexual abuse.

Connections (2)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Pitcairn Islands. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pitcairn-islands
MLA
“Pitcairn Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pitcairn-islands. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Pitcairn Islands.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pitcairn-islands.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Pitcairn Islands’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/pitcairn-islands (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻