Western Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands. West Pacific Islands Association of Fire Chiefs, Mangilao, Guam.

Archipelago, Pacific Islands | Pacific Area

The Pacific Islands, geographical archipelago of the Pacific Ocean. The archipelago includes three ethnographic groups - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia - but traditionally includes the neighboring Australian archipelago, the Indonesian, Philippine and Japan archipelagos related to Asia, and the Ryukyu, Bonin, Volcano and Kuril archipelagos, which leave from Japan on the sea. Nor does it cover the Allute Islands or the Pacific Islands such as the Juan Fernández Group off the South American coastline.

While the broader concept of Oceania includes all the above aspects in its widest sense, this paper uses the concept less severely to cover the Pacific islands above. New Zealand and the New Guinea Islands cover more than 300,000 sq. km (800,000 sq. km) of which New Zealand and New Guinea make up about nine tenth and million sq. km of oceans.

This is a mix of sovereign states, associated states, integrals of non-Pacific islands and dependencies. Melanesia (from the Grecian words meltas, "black" and www. melas.com, "island") is the large archipelago of the islands for the predominantly dark-skinned people of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (the New Hebrides), New Caledonia and Fiji to the northeast and southeast of Australia and to the equator to the southeast.

The Micronesian Islands are located on the northern equator and the Philippines, forming an arch that extends from Palau, Guam and the northern Mariana Islands in the western to the easterly direction through the Federated States of Micronesia (the Caroline Islands), Nauru and the Marshall Islands to Kiribati. The many ( "poly") islands of Polynesia lie in the oriental Pacific, largely surrounded by a gigantic delta from the Hawaii Islands in the northern part, New Zealand in the southwestern part and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the easter.

Further parts of this widely dispersed compilation, also generally from western to eastern, are Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna, Tokelau, Samoa (the former Western Samoa), American Samoa, Tonga, Niue, the Cook Islands and Polynesia of France (including the Society, Tuamotu and Marquesas Islands). There are two large physiographical areas, one of which is made up of the most important Pacific islands, which extend diagonally from northeast to southheast.

The Andes line along the east border of Japan, Mariana Islands, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Zealand is made up of deep-sea ditch. This line divides the basalt volcano islands of the middle and east Pacific from the islands of the wide western Pacific rim, which consist mainly of metamorphic rock, sediments and desitic ore.

Situated southwest of the Andes line, the continent's islands are vaulted and pleated in mountain arches, tending to be higher and bigger than those further eastward, and have lush bottoms that carry almost every type of plantation. In general, mainland islands are bigger (especially the Mariana Islands, New Guinea, the Bismarcks, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia and the North and Southern Islands of New Zealand) and have higher-quality minerals than their oceans mates.

Oceania's initial marine life is made up of bassalt. Oceans are distinguished as high vulcanic islands, like Hawaii, or low islands of corals and oceans, like the Marshalls. While most Pacific islands are formed by corals, they are all located on top of vulcanic or other nuclei. Tropical flat water, both continent and oceans islands attracts reef corals, partly immersed in solidified lime stone beds, with marine corals nourished by wave and current carrying substances.

The islands were slowly inundated by a mixture of sink due to geological influences and floods due to the meltdown of icecaps. When the islands were inundated, reef corals kept growing outwards and barriers were further away from the coastlines and separate from them by the use of watercourses. If more floods bring an entire archipelago into a submerge.

Gradual geological uplift of some islands above see surface has led to a multitude of "elevated" caves. For example, the north half of Guam is a calcareous plain with a general height of about 150 meters, while the mountain peaks in the south half of the islands, which are the result of vulcanic activities, are over 400 meters high.

The Nauru and Banaba (in Kiribati) are elevated islands of corals, which are located at an altitude of 210 and 285ft. respectively (65 and 90m). Pacific Islands are generally quite tropic (except in New Zealand, which has a moderate climate), with relatively even temperature, moisture and year-round rain.

Temperatures vary from the low 80's F (about 28°C) on Nauru and Kiribati to the low 60's F (about 15°C) on Norfolk Island, one of the most southern Pacific islands. The majority of the plant life comes from Indonesia and New Guinea, and its genus is declining in the east of the Pacific.

Introducing new endemic varieties from all over the globe has also significantly changed the insular fauna. Farmland is only a small part of the country's territory and outside New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, coconuts and manioc are the main crops. Many of the bigger islands also have some animal sponsors.

Up to two third of the entire Pacific Islands' surface area is covered with forests. The most islands are lacking in natural resource. It has a predominantly Papua New Guinea, New Zealand (with a large proportion of the populations of Europe), Hawaii, Fiji and the Solomon Islands. The most Pacific islands are heavily settled, and settlement is usually along the coast.

The Melanesian tribe accounts for more than three quarters of the entire Pacific Island tribe. With New Zealand as a whole, up to a third of the Pacific Islands' populations are of Pacific descent, and less than a dime if not; outside New Zealand, Hawaii has the highest concentrations of Europeans.

The Pacific Islands speak several hundred different tongues, most of which are of austronese descent. The majority of the island' s inhabitants are familiar with English or French; some of them are the main English or French of almost all Pacific islands. Christendom has largely suppressed conventional convictions and practice, although in some areas such as Papua New Guinea the Christendom is often mixed with conventional practice.

Generally speaking, the Pacific Islands have a growing economy involving both the general government and non-governmental sector. In general, the agricultural, fisheries and service industries are the main industries, and some of the islands have important mines. On the smaller islands, the sub-sistence economy dominates. Nearly all islands cultivate coconut, which with coprah is an important exporter.

Willows are only found on the bigger islands, where pig, beef and chicken are bred for commercial purposes and enough dairy and meats are grown to meet the needs of the home. People on some smaller islands and New Guinea raise hogs and geese for use. Substantial fisheries are important everywhere except Hawaii and New Zealand and are an important component of the nutrition.

We also have industrial fisheries, particularly in the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Fiji, which represent a large proportion of the region's catches. Comercially viable woodlands in Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu manufacture timbers, trimmed timbers and wooden goods for personal use and exports. Other islands usually have to bring in top grade logs.

Minerals are produced only on some of the continent's islands such as New Caledonia, New Guinea and New Zealand. With the exception of Hawaii and New Zealand, the process industry is largely untapped and is restricted to the manufacture of seafood, farm produce and handicraft work. Besides Hawaii and New Zealand, Guam, Fiji, the northern Mariana Islands, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are among the islands with significant output.

The majority of the Pacific islands (except New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii) import far more than their export volume each year. In the Pacific Islands, only a small part of foreign transactions are intra-regional. The Pacific Ocean islands are very important for tourists. France-Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Fiji and New Zealand have the most advanced touristic industries, but many of the other islands attach importance to the development of institutions.

The majority of the Pacific islands, which are foreign sub-regions, are receiving budget and trans-national assistance, mainly from the mainland governments, while the smaller islands are receiving assistance from Australia and New Zealand, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States in particular. Most of the archipelagos have airport facilities.

The vast network of roads is restricted to the bigger islands. You can find more information about the country and its inhabitants in the following articles: American Samoa, Caroline Islands, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Lineage Islands, Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, Federal States of Micronesia, Midway Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Iceland, Samoa, Salomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake Isla, Wallis and Futuna.

areal area ( (excluding Indonesia-New Guinea and the Hawaii Islands, butcluding Papua New Guinea) 317,739 sq. mt. (833,926 sq. km). Indonesia New Guinea and the Hawaii Islands, but incl. Papua New Guinea) 13,518,070. Pre-history of the Pacific Islands, the time before the beginning of writing, dates back at least 33,000 years, after archeological remnants in the Bismarck archipelago, and migrations to the area may have started more than 40,000 years ago.

By the second millenium, the colonists had arrived on every inhabitable islet. In the early sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, since the Europeans arrived, the Pacific Islands' culture, population and economy have changed to different degrees, first through exposure to the discoverers who passed by and then from the later eighteenth centuries onwards.

Today, missionsaries and migrants still represent a significant part of the island populations, although Europe's leaders, with the sole exceptions of France, have completely retreated from the area. Due to the distance, contacting the islands has never been simple. Furthermore, the islands' natural environment is remote and diverse.

Melanesia's large mainland islands have a wide variety of scenery, climate zones and soils, and their jagged terrains have helped them to become socially isolated. Smaller high-lying islands have a greater uniformity and slightly improve livelihood. It was not the kind of company that evolved that was determined by the natural surroundings, but they restricted it.

Melanesia's large islands form the basis for deep and deep cultures between coastal and inland populations, especially in the more remote canyons. Polynesia's high volcano islands did not offer such obstacles to economic and civic inertia. The geographical and culturally contrasting Pacific Islands, which were evident to early Europeans, hid a similarity: companies were all based on the mutuality concept.

Be it a small company to gain control instead of an inherited one, or a large one, chieftains who were viewed with respect and honored with respect, every present or ministry had to be returned. César Dumont d'Urville, a young sailor and discoverer of the early nineteenth centuries, classifies the inhabitants of the island as Melanesic, micronesic and Polynesian.

Seemingly different island inhabitants were seen as proof of separated ethnic groups from Southeast Asia. Recent research indicates that the disparities have arisen within the islands themselves, by mixing an initial population of non-Austrian spokespersons (see Papua languages) from Southeast Asia with a later stream of Austro-Hungarian spokespersons (see Austro-Hungarian languages).

In Melanesia, the previous flood of settlements happened at least 33,000 years ago and probably, since New Guinea and Australia were connected by road at the time, at the same time as the data on settlements in Australia, which date back some 40,000 years or more. New Guinea's internal data are approaching 30,000 years ago.

After that they expanded to Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, which were considered to be Polynesia's home. However, recent proofs have caused disagreements among pre-historians about the Lapita heritage complex: it could have come to Fiji with a later surge of seagoing migrants. Disagreements also reigned over the pace at which the Lapita civilization associated with the Polynesians migrated from Southeast Asia via Melanesia to Fiji and from there to East Polynesia.

The Marquesas may have been inhabited as early as the 2 st millennium BC, and not just since 300 BC, a date on which the Hawaiian settlement could have taken place. Societal Islands were invaded at least in the ninth centuries. Hereditary research has shown that some of the crops were indigenous to larger areas, new Guinea included.

Shipping between the nearby islands was well established and there may have been frequent trading between several islands. While the Pacific Islands were not a statistically stable place, the changes were gradual in comparison with those that took part in the contacts in Europe. Ferdinand Magellan was the first American to see the Pacific in 1513; seven years later he circumnavigated South America and crossed the Atlantic and missed the most important archipelagos, but probably met the Pukapuka atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago and Guam.

The Spaniards continued to explore these islands in the north when they built up a galleon business between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in western Mexico. The first one left Peru in 1567 to explore the great South Pacific from which it was thought to be. 1606 his chef-driver Quirós arrived in the Cook Islands, Tikopia (a small Solomon Islands atoll) and the New Hebrides (today Vanuatu) after he had found a part of the Tuamotu archipelago.

A companion of his, Luis Váez de Torres, mapped the southeast of New Guinea and then the straits (later called after him ) between this isle and Australia, although the discoveries were not known to the later seafarers. After that, the Hollanders, who were already resident in Indonesia, came to the Pacific. Abel Janszoon Tasman, who sailed from Batavia (now Jakarta), the Netherlands headquarter in East India, saw New Zealand, Tasmania, Tonga, some of the Fiji Islands and New Britain in 1642.

Taskman thought New Zealand was part of the great South African continen. The people they contacted were simply bartered, but the requirements they made on the supply of foods often led to hostility, killing some Europeans and many of the island' s inhabitants, such as on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands and in the Marquesas during Mendaña's missions.

Dampier's trip was a precursor of subsequent exploratory expeditions, and he demonstrated that these islands were separate from each other and from Australia. 1722 the Netherlandish naval commander Jacob Roggeveen traversed the Pacific from eastern to western Europe on a expedition that also had business goals.

It arrived on Easter Island, more from the Tuamotu archipelago, the islands of the North of the social group and some of the Samoan islands. 1767 Samuel Wallis and Philip Carteret followed, but their vessels were disconnected when they stepped into the Pacific. Valais arrived in Tahiti, more of the Tuamotus and the Society Islands, while Carteret found the island of Pitcairn and returned to the Solomon Islands that Mendaña had been visiting, although he did not recognize them as such.

After Louis-Antoine de Bougainville's 1768 trip to France, where he also mapped some of the New Hebrides and Rossel Island in the Louisiade Archipelago, this was given to the people. Her travels aroused interest that was partly to blame for the directions given to the greatest of all ocean researchers of the eighteenth centuries, James Cook.

In 1769 (1768-71) Cook was sent to Tahiti to watch the passage of the Venus star and then to look for the great continent of the south. But he also circled New Zealand and established the borders of East Australia. On his second journey (1772-75) he demonstrated that there was no Mediterranean continents, but he also mapped other countries in Oceania: the Tuamotus, the cooks, the Marquesas, Fiji, Niue, Tonga, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Norfolk Island.

On his third journey (1776-79), which was mainly devoted to the North Pacific, he found some of the Tongan groups, the Christmas Island (Kiritimati Atoll) and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where he was murdered in 1779. Though his contact with the island' s inhabitants did not differ significantly from that of his ancestors, his relationships with them were still longer and more human.

In Oceania, his discovery of East Australia by his natural scientist Joseph Banks was of great importance, as it resulted in the foundation of cities on the coastline of Australia, relatively inland.