Definition of Society Islands

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So·ci·e·ty Islands

-s

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An island group of French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean east of Samoa. The group is made up of the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands. First visited by a Portuguese navigator in the early 17th century, the islands were claimed for France by Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1768 and named by Capt. James Cook in 1769. They became a French protectorate in 1843 and a part of the overseas territory of French Polynesia in 1946.

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