Papua, New Guinea

Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. It has a land border with Indonesia to the west and neighbours Australia to the south and the Solomon Islands to the east. Its capital, on its southern coast, is Port Moresby. The country is the world's third largest island country, with an area of .

The nation was split in the 1880s between German New Guinea in the North and the British Territory of Papua in the South, the latter of which was ceded to Australia in 1902. All of present-day Papua New Guinea came under Australian control following World War I, with the legally distinct Territory of New Guinea being established out of the former German colony as a League of Nations mandate. The nation was the site of fierce fighting during the New Guinea campaign of World War II. Papua New Guinea became an independent Commonwealth realm in 1975 with Elizabeth II as its Queen. Since Elizabeth II's death in 2022, Charles III has been the King.

There are 840 known languages of Papua New Guinea (including English), making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world. It is also one of the most rural countries, with only 14% of its population living in urban centres in 2023. Most of its people live in customary communities. Although government estimates reported the country's population to be 11.8 million, it was reported in December 2022 that its population was in fact closer to 17 million. Papua New Guinea is the most populous Pacific island country. The country's wildlife is considered megadiverse, and it is believed that there are many further undocumented species of plants and animals.

Papua New Guinea is classified as a developing economy by the International Monetary Fund; nearly 40% of the population are subsistence farmers, living relatively independently of the cash economy. Their traditional social groupings are explicitly acknowledged by the Papua New Guinea Constitution, which expresses the wish for "traditional villages and communities to remain as viable units of Papua New Guinean society" and protects their continuing importance to local and national community life. Papua New Guinea has been an observer state in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since 1976, and has filed its application for full membership status. It is a full member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Pacific Community, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the United Nations.

Etymology

''Papua'' is derived from a local term of uncertain origin, that may have already been used locally to refer to at least parts of the island now called New Guinea. In 1526 Portuguese explorer Jorge de Menezes named the island '. The word "Papua" has applied to various areas of New Guinea since then, with its inclusion in "Papua New Guinea" coming from its use for the Territory of Papua.

"New Guinea" (''Nueva Guinea'') was the name coined by the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez. In 1545, he noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa. Guinea, in its turn, is etymologically derived from the Portuguese word '' Guiné''. The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies, which likely means "of the burnt face" or similar, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. Its use in the country name comes from German New Guinea, later the Territory of New Guinea, which was united with the territory of Papua.

History

First settlement

Archaeological evidence indicates that anatomically modern humans first arrived in what became New Guinea and Australia, as well as the Bismarck Archipelago, around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago. Bougainville was settled by 28,000 years ago, and the more distant Manus Island by 20,000 years ago. These migrations were part of one of the earliest migrations of humans from Africa, and resulting populations remained relatively isolated from the rest of the world throughout prehistory. Rising sea levels isolated New Guinea from Australia about 10,000 years ago, although Aboriginal Australians and New Guineans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years ago.

Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 7000 BC, making it one of the few areas in the world where people independently domesticated plants. Archaeological evidence shows that Austronesian-speaking peoples of the Lapita culture reached the Bismarck Archipelago by 3,300 years ago. It is unknown whether they also settled on the mainland at this time, however there is strong evidence of their presence in coastal areas from around 500 BC. These communities interacted with larger trade networks. It is likely through these trading networks that banana and sugarcane moved from New Guinea to other areas of the world.

Trade reduced by around 300 AD, as demand for goods shifted to the Maluku Islands and Timor. After European interest in the region grew in the 16th century, Dutch influence grew over the Sultanate of Tidore, and through this Sultanate Dutch authorities extended claims over western New Guinea. Renewed trade began to spread to the Eastern parts of New Guinea in the late 17th century, driven by demand for goods including dammar gum, sea cucumbers, pearls, copra, shells, and bird-of-paradise feathers.

On New Guinea, communities were economically linked through trading networks, however aside from some political alliances each community functioned largely independently, relying on subsistence agriculture. Goods were often traded along established chains, and some villagers would be familiar with and sometimes know the languages of the immediately neighbouring villages (although language by itself was not a marker of political allegiance). Some wider trading networks existed in maritime areas. While people did not move far along these routes, goods moved long distances through local exchanges, and cultural practices likely diffused along them. Despite these links, the creation of larger political entities under European rule had no precedent, and in many cases brought together communities who had historically antagonistic relationships, or no relationship at all.

European influence

It is likely that some ships from China and Southeast Asia visited the island at times, and that there was some contact with New Guinean communities. The Portuguese explorer António de Abreu was the first European to discover the island of New Guinea. Portuguese traders introduced the South American sweet potato to the Moluccas. From there, it likely spread into what is today Papua New Guinea sometime in the 17th or 18th century, initially from the southern coast. It soon spread inland to the highlands, and became a staple food. The introduction of the sweet potato, possibly alongside other agricultural changes, transformed traditional agriculture and societies and likely led to the spread of the Big man social structure. Sweet potato largely supplanted the previous staple, taro, and resulted in a significant increase in population in the highlands.

By the 1800s, there was some trade with the Dutch East Indies. Beginning in the 1860s, people from New Guinea were effectively taken as slaves to Queensland and Fiji as part of the blackbirding trade. This was stopped in 1884. Most of those taken were from coastal Papua. Those who returned to New Guinea brought their interactions with the west with them, but the largest impact was the creation of what became the Tok Pisin language.

Christianity was introduced to New Guinea on 15 September 1847 when a group of Marist missionaries came to Woodlark Island. Missions were the primary source of western culture as well as religion. The western half of the island was annexed by the Netherlands in 1848. The nearby Torres Strait Islands were annexed by Queensland in 1878, and Queensland attempted to annex some of New Guinea in 1883. The eastern half of the island was divided between Germany in the north and the United Kingdom in the south in 1884. The German New Guinea Company had initially tried to develop plantations, but when this was not successful began to engage in barter trade. In the British area, gold was found near the Mambare River in 1895.

In 1888, the British protectorate was annexed by Britain. In 1902, Papua was effectively transferred to the authority of the newly federated British dominion of Australia. With the passage of the Papua Act 1905, the area was officially renamed the Territory of Papua, and the Australian administration became formal in 1906, with Papua becoming fully annexed as an Australian territory.

Under European rule, social relations amongst the New Guinean population changed. Tribal fighting decreased, while in new urban areas there was greater mixing as people moved to partake in the cash crop economy. The large inequality between colonial administrators and locals led to the emergence of what colonial governments called cargo cults. One of the most significant impacts was to changes in local travel. Colonial authorities outlawed tribal warfare, and it became normal to move for work, while roads increased the connectivity between inland areas.

Colonial authorities generally worked with individual village representatives, although neither German nor British authorities developed an effective system of indirect rule. In German New Guinea, Tok Pisin, an already existing pidgin language, began to spread through local adoption, and was reluctantly used by German authorities. In areas under British and then Australian governance, Hiri Motu, a pidgin version of the Motu language, became established as a ''de facto'' official language.

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Australian forces captured German New Guinea and occupied it throughout the war. After the end of the war, the League of Nations authorised Australia to administer this area as a Class "C" League of Nations mandate territory from 9 May 1921, which became the Territory of New Guinea. The Territory of Papua and the new Mandate of New Guinea were administered separately. Gold was discovered in Bulolo

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