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The historical reality is not "ecocide," but colonial homicide. Early visitors, like the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen on his flagship, recorded a lush, cultivated island with a healthy population. The Rapa Nui did not commit suicide; they were liquidated by globalized profit-seeking:
• The Invasive Vanguard: Ecology was first destabilized by invasive rats that arrived with European ships.
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• The Slave Trade: In the 1860s, brutal slave raids captured over a thousand inhabitants. Those repatriated brought smallpox, turning the island into a "vast charnel-house."
• Capitalist Extraction: European traders later burned huts and destroyed crops to force the starving survivors off the land.
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