States of Oceania - Papua New Guinea

Modern Papua New Guinea (Oceania)
AD 1975 - Present Day
Incorporating Heads of State (1975-2024), the Republic of the North Solomons, & Bougainville

The mainly watery 'continent' of Oceania starts where South-East Asia ends, to the south-east of Indonesia and East Timor. With agreement over that status as a continent still lacking in some quarters, its territory is also somewhat debatable. Generally this consists of the water of the Pacific Ocean, dotted with some two thousand islands, some of which are independent states and others either parts of countries or colonies.

Australasia, of which the island of New Guinea is a part, is an ill-defined portion of Oceania which usually is considered to consist of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea itself, and a few other surrounding islands. New Guinea is also part of Melanesia, the southwestern part of Oceania. Proceeding from the west, this begins with the island of New Guinea and is followed in turn by the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Fiji.

Officially the 'Independent State of Papua New Guinea,' modern Papua New Guinea consists of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. This itself constitutes the easternmost major island of the Indonesian Archipelago. The western half of the island belongs to Indonesia.

Papua New Guinea includes the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, New Britain, and Bougainville, all to the north-east of New Guinea, and the D'Entrecasteaux Islands and Louisiade Archipelago immediately off the eastern tip of New Guinea. It lies to the south of the federated states of Micronesia, to the west of the Solomon Islands, and to the north of Queensland in Australia.

The Torres Strait separates western Papua New Guinea from Queensland's Cape York peninsula. The Pacific Ocean surrounds Papua New Guinea to the north, east, and south. Nearly eight hundred and fifty languages are spoken on these islands.

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of human existence in the highlands of modern Papua New Guinea which have been dated as far back as 50,000 BC, at higher altitudes and earlier in time than previously thought. Anatomically modern humans probably entered the region in their search for food. They cleared land at a higher altitude to grow pandanus trees (which produce a pineapple-like fruit and whose leaves are edible) and yams. Evidence of this activity comes from the charred remains of pandanus nuts, stone tools, and starch grains from yams which people probably gathered from the lower reaches.

Arrivals may have used one of two water crossings to get from South-East Asia to the ice-age land mass of Sahul (ancient New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania combined). These migrations would have occurred over a large span of time, taking place before Sahul was largely submerged between about 6000-5000 BC. Today's Papuans are descendants of these early inhabitants.

Agriculture developed independently in what is now Papua New Guinea, with the cultivation of taro beginning around 8000 BC and the cultivation of bananas between 4950-4440 BC. The cultivation of sugar cane originated in New Guinea around 6000 BC. By about 1000 BC that cultivation had begun to spread to South-East Asia, India, and eastwards into the Pacific.

A second migratory wave, this time of Austronesians, arrived in New Guinea around 1600 BC to settle along the coast but not the interior in which the Papuans still thrived. These new immigrants introduced dogs and pigs.

Modern history in this region involved two major European powers from 1884 onwards: imperial Germany and the United Kingdom of Queen Victoria (notwithstanding the brief existence of French New Guinea). They vied for supremacy but, lacking Britain's naval power and losing two worlds wars in the twentieth century, Germany's interest was soon ended. At the end of the Second World War the two territories of Papua and the former German New Guinea (Australian New Guinea since the First World War) were united under Australian administration into the 'Territory of Papua and New Guinea'.

The territory became independent on 16 September 1975 as the state of Papua New Guinea. It is governed as a parliamentary democracy on the modern British style, with the monarch of the United Kingdom as head of state, represented locally by a governor-general. A prime minister heads the government.

Immediately prior to independence being achieved, on 1 September 1975 the island of Bougainville and a total of one hundred and sixty-five other local islands spread over 450,000 square miles of ocean, the north-westernmost part of the Solomon Islands, seceded as the republic of the North Solomons, although this secession was never recognised. Bougainville was restored to Papua New Guinea the next year (immediately after independence had been achieved) and was given autonomous status.

The people of Bougainville culturally, geographically, and ethnically have always been closer to the inhabitants of the Solomon Islands than to Papua New Guinea. When Germany and the United Kingdom divided the Solomon Islands between them, Bougainville was divided from the rest of the islands and given to 'German New Guinea'. Each subsequent change in status left Bougainville apart from the other Solomon Islands.

The Bougainvilleans and their matrilineal society depend largely upon subsistence agriculture, fishing, and cocoa growing. Bougainville, though, is also home to the world's largest copper mine. Following its opening in 1969, Australian authorities began confiscating land and evicting local inhabitants. The mine's detrimental environmental impact and the importation of non-Bougainvellean Papuans has produced tensions and resentment at the same time as the economy has flourished and an efficient government has been formed.

Today Bougainville one of the most efficient and prosperous parts of Papua New Guinea. The initial hostility against New Guinea led first to its failed secession in 1975, then to a protracted and bloody civil war which started in 1988, the closing of the mine in 1989, and a 2019 decision by the Bougainvilleans to achieve legitimate independence, something which is scheduled to take place in 2027.

Far East Kingdoms

Oceania

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