Easter Island - competing narratives

[Aletheia]

Why did the population of Easter Island decline so massively?

It turns out there are quite a few competing narratives.

Was it ecocide, with a growing population meaning trees were cut down for farming, which left not enough wood to make canoes, in turn leading to even more intense logging and farming, eventually resulting in the top soil blowing away?

Was it religion, with wood being used to make rollers to move 75 tonne statues, and the worse things got the more they prayed and the more statues they built?

Was it the Europeans, introducing rats and sexually transmitted diseases to the island?

Was it tribal warfare? Cannibalism? Slavery?

Have a read of the competing narratives:

https://rainforests.mongabay.com/09easter_island.htm
https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2 ... r-scenario
https://theconversation.com/the-truth-a ... mise-85563

Just how much is our view shaped by the desire of others to pick simple stories that support a point they wish to spread, or by what their worldview tells them is "plausible"?

[Lotus]

it seems to me the documentary I watched a few months back indicated all of those things happened and in the end they had no food and no means to leave the island.

[Deleted User 670]

I would imagine one bad draught where they couldn't get fresh water would make them leave the island.