Editing Oceania (section)

====Early interpretations====
[[File:Meyers b12 s0582a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.85|A German map of Oceania from 1884, showing the region to encompass Australia and all islands between Asia and [[Latin America]]]]

French writer [[Gustave d'Eichthal]] remarked in 1844 that, Oceania's boundaries as extending across the entire Pacific Ocean.<ref name="eic">{{cite book |last1=Mortimer |first1=John |title=Polytechnic Review and Magazine of Science, Literature and the Fine Arts: Volume 1 |date=1844 |publisher=The University of Michigan |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LU5AQAAMAAJ&dq=%22BOUNDARIES+OF+OCEANIA%22&pg=PA42 |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Polytechnic_Review_and_Magazine_of_Scien/5LU5AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22BOUNDARIES+OF+OCEANIA%22&pg=PA42&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Conrad Malte-Brun]] in 1824 defined Oceania as covering Australia, New Zealand, the islands of Polynesia (which then included all the Pacific islands) and the Malay Archipelago.<ref>Which includes the present-day countries of Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Malte-Brun |first1=Conrad |title=Universal Geography: Containing the description of part of Asia, of Oceanica, &c. with additional matter, not in the European edition |date=1827 |publisher=Princeton University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXA9AAAAYAAJ |access-date=10 December 2022}}</ref> [[Joseph Emerson Worcester|Worcester]] described Oceania as a collection of numerous Pacific islands, categorizing it as one of the world's five major divisions. He also viewed Oceania as covering Australia, New Zealand, the Malay Archipelago and the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Worcester |first1=Joseph Emerson |title=Elements of Geography, Modern and Ancient with a Modern and an Ancient Atlas |date=1840 |publisher=Lewis and Sampson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmFiAAAAcAAJ |access-date=13 December 2022}}</ref> In 1887, the [[Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland]] referred to Australia as the area's westernmost land,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |title=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: Volume 19 |date=1887 |publisher=Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society |page=370 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=03qFAAAAIAAJ |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064237/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Journal_of_the_Royal_Asiatic_Society_of/03qFAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> while in 1870, British Reverend [[Alexander Murdoch Mackay|Alexander Mackay]] identified the [[Bonin Islands]] as its northernmost point, and [[Macquarie Island]] as its southernmost point.<ref name="mac">{{cite book |last1=Mackay |first1=Alexander |title=Manual of modern geography, mathematical, physical, and political: Volume 2 |date=1970 |publisher=Oxford University |page=602 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHEDAAAAQAAJ&dq=macquarie+islands+bonin+islands+oceania&pg=PA602 |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064237/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Manual_of_modern_geography_mathematical/HHEDAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=macquarie+islands+bonin+islands+oceania&pg=PA602&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> The Bonin Islands at that time were a possession of Britain; Macquarie Island, to the south of [[Tasmania]], is a subantarctic island in the Pacific. It was politically associated with Australia and Tasmania by 1870.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/M/Macquarie%20Island.htm |title=Macquarie Island |work=Utas.edu.au |date= |accessdate=2022-09-25}}</ref>

[[Alfred Russel Wallace]] believed in 1879 that Oceania extended to the [[Aleutian Islands]], which are among the northernmost islands of the Pacific.<ref name="austral"/> The islands, now politically associated with [[Alaska]], have historically had [[Aleut|inhabitants]] that were related to [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous American]]s, in addition to having non-tropical biogeography similar to that of Alaska and [[Siberia]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.arlis.org/docs/vol1/A/1246860.pdf |title=FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA |author1=Olaus J. Murie |author2=Victor B. Scheffer |publisher=Fish and Wildlife service |location= |year=1939 |access-date=3 October 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pandian |first1=Jacob |last2=Parman |first2=Susan |title=The Making of Anthropology: The Semiotics of Self and Other in the Western Tradition |date=2004 |publisher=Vedams |page=206 |isbn=978-8179360149 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RgO8nLql2KwC&dq=%22some+exclude%22+%22ryukyu%22&pg=PA206 |access-date=31 March 2022 |quote=Some exclude from "Oceania" the nontropical islands such as Ryukyu, the Aleutian islands, and Japan, and the islands such as Formosa, Indonesia, and the Philippines that are closely linked with mainland Asia |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064238/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Making_of_Anthropology/RgO8nLql2KwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22some+exclude%22+%22ryukyu%22&pg=PA206&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> Wallace insisted while the surface area of this wide definition was greater than that of Asia and [[Europe]] combined, the land area was only a little greater than that of Europe.<ref name="austral"/> American geographer Sophia S. Cornell claimed that the Aleutian Islands were not part of Oceania in 1857.<ref name="corn">{{cite book |last1=Cornell |first1=Sophia S. |title=Cornell's Primary Geography: Forming Part First of a Systematic Series of School Geographies |year=1857 |publisher=Harvard University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9hizT9tiAC&dq=%22included+in+oceania%22&pg=RA2-PA95 |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064858/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/CORNELL_S_PRIMARY_GEOGRAPHY/1Z9hizT9tiAC?".hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22included+in+oceania%22&pg=RA2-PA95&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> She stated that Oceania was divided up into three groups; Australasia (which included Australia, New Zealand, and the Melanesian islands), [[Malesia]] (which included all present-day countries within the Malay Archipelago, not the modern country of [[Malaysia]]) and Polynesia (which included both the Polynesian and Micronesian islands in her definition).<ref name="corn"/> Aside from mainland Australia, areas that she identified as of high importance were Borneo, Hawaii, Indonesia's [[Java]] and [[Sumatra]], New Guinea, New Zealand, the Philippines, French Polynesia's [[Society Islands]], Tasmania, and Tonga.<ref name="corn"/>

American geographer [[Jesse Olney]]'s 1845 book ''A Practical System of Modern Geography'' defined Oceania as consisting of the many islands of the Pacific located southeast of Asia. Olney divided up Oceania into three groups; Australasia (which included Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand), Malesia and Polynesia (which included the combined islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia in his definition).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olney |first1=Jesse |title=A Practical System of Modern Geography |date=1845 |publisher=Pratt, Woodford & cr. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JE9SAQAAMAAJ |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref> Publication ''Missionary Review of the World'' claimed in 1895 that Oceania was divided up into five groups; Australasia, Malesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It did not consider Hawaii to be part of Polynesia, due to its geographic isolation, commenting that Oceania also included, "isolated groups and islands, such as the Hawaiian and [[Galápagos Islands|Galápagos]]."<ref name="missionary">{{cite book |title=Missionary Review of the World: Volume 18 |date=1895 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |page=533 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZRVy7TO2nTsC |access-date=31 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064354/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Missionary_Review_of_the_World/ZRVy7TO2nTsC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1876, French geographer [[Élisée Reclus]] described Australia’s plant life as highly distinctive and noted that Hawaii and the Galápagos had significant numbers of unique, endemic plant species.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Reclus |first1=Élisée |title=The Earth and Its Inhabitants: Australasia |date=1876 |publisher=Oxford University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DzEBAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22hawaiian+archipelago+also+constitutes%22&pg=PA32-IA6 |access-date=9 January 2023}}</ref> [[Rand McNally|Rand McNally & Company]], an American publisher of maps and atlases, defined Oceania as including Australia and the Pacific islands while classifying the Malay Archipelago as part of Asia.<ref>{{cite book |title=Rand, McNally & Co.'s Universal Atlas of the World |date=1892 |publisher=Rand McNally and Company |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lixEAQAAMAAJ&q=%22the+110th%22+%22universal+atlas%22 |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064354/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/RAND_MCNALLY_CO_S_UNIVERSAL_ATLAS_OF_THE/lixEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22the+110th%22+%22universal+atlas%22&dq=%22the+110th%22+%22universal+atlas%22&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> British linguist [[Robert Needham Cust]] argued in 1887 that the Malay Archipelago should be excluded since it had participated in Asian civilization.<ref name="ess">{{cite book |last1=Cust |first1=Robert Needham |title=Linguistic and Oriental Essays: 1847-1887 |date=1887 |publisher=Trübner & Company |page=518 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZ4KtNU2-PMC |access-date=27 March 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064357/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Linguistic_and_Oriental_Essays_1847_1887/vZ4KtNU2-PMC?hl=en&gbpv=0 |url-status=live }}</ref> Cust considered Oceania's four subregions to be Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.<ref name="ess"/> New Zealand was categorized by him as being in Polynesia; and the only country in his definition of Australasia was Australia.<ref name="ess"/> His definition of Polynesia included both Easter Island and Hawaii, which had not yet been annexed by either Chile or the United States.<ref name="ess"/>

The ''[[Journal of the Royal Statistical Society]]'' stated in 1892 that Australia was a large island within Oceania rather than a small continent. It additionally commented: <blockquote>It is certainly not necessary to consider the Hawaiian Islands and Australia as being in the same part of the world, it is however permissible to unite in one group all the islands which are scattered over the great ocean. It should be remarked that if we take the Malay Archipelago away from Oceania, as do generally the German geographers, the insular world contained in the great ocean is cut in two, and the least populated of the five parts of the world is diminished in order to increase the number of inhabitants of the most densely populated continent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Royal Statistical Society (Great Britain) |title=Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Volume 55 |date=1892 |publisher=Royal Statistical Society. |page=309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hujWAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22OCEANIA%22%27&pg=PA309 |access-date=13 April 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064359/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Journal_of_the_Royal_Statistical_Society/hujWAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22OCEANIA%22%27&pg=PA309&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote> Regarding Australia and the Pacific, ''Chambers's New Handy Volume American Encyclopædia'' observed in 1885 that, the term "Oceania" has been used interchangeably with "Australasia," though often excluding the Malay Archipelago, which some writers referred to as "[[Malesia]]."<ref name="chambers"/> It added there was controversy over the exact limits of Oceania, saying that, the encyclopaedia mentioned the lack of agreement among geographers about the exact boundaries of Oceania.<ref name="chambers">{{cite book |title=Chambers's New Handy Volume American Encyclopædia: Volume 9 |date=1885 |publisher=The University of Virginia |page=657 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2NRAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22easter+island%22+%22oceania%22+%22galapagos%22&pg=PA657 |access-date=13 March 2022 |quote=the whole region has sometimes been called Oceania, and sometimes Australasia—generally, however, in modern times, to the exclusion of the islands in the Indian archipelago, to which certain writers have given the name of Malaysia [...] we have the three geographical divisions of Malesia, Australasia and Polynesia, the last mentioned of which embraces all the groups and single islands not included under the other two. Accepting this arrangement, still the limits between Australasia and Polynesia have not been very accurately defined; indeed, scarcely any two geographers appear to be quite agreed upon the subject; neither shall we pretend to decide in the matter. The following list, however, comprises all the principal groups and single island not previously named as coming under the division of Australasia: 1. North of the equator—The Ladrone or Marian islands. the Pelew islands, the Caroline islands, the Radack and Ralick chains, the Sandwich islands, Gilbert's or Kingstnill's archipelago. and the Galapagos. 2. South of the equator—The Ellice group, the Phoenix and Union groups. the Fiji islands, the Friendly islands, the Navigator's islands. Cook's or Harvey islands, the Society islands. the Dangerous archipelago, the Marquesas islands, Pitcairn island, and Easter island. |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064400/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Chambers_s_New_Handy_Volume_American_Enc/J2NRAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22easter+island%22+%22oceania%22+%22galapagos%22&pg=PA657&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> British physician and ethnologist [[James Cowles Prichard]] stated that the Aleutian and [[Kuril Islands]], along with the coasts of Asia and America, marked the northern boundary of Oceania. However, Prichard argued that these islands were generally not considered part of Oceania because their inhabitants were not connected to the indigenous peoples of the more remote Pacific islands. He added that Hawaii was the most northerly area to be inhabited by races associated with Oceania.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Prichard |first1=James Cowles |title=Researches Into the Physical History of Mankind: Researches into the history of the Oceanic and of the American nations |date=1847 |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign }}</ref>

The 1926 book ''Modern World History, 1776&ndash;1926'', by Alexander Clarence Flick, considered Oceania to include all islands in the Pacific, and associated the term with the Malay Archipelago, the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, the Aleutian Islands, Japan's [[Ryukyu Islands]], Taiwan and the Kuril Islands.<ref name="flick">{{cite book |last1=Flick |first1=Alexander Clarence |title=Modern World History, 1776-1926: A Survey of the Origins and Development of Contemporary Civilization |date=1926 |publisher=A.A. Knopf |page=492 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhGHAAAAMAAJ&q=Modern%20World%20History,%201776-1926A%20Survey%20of%20the%20Origins%20and%20Development%20of%20Contemporary%20Civilization |access-date=10 July 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064936/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Modern_World_History_1776_1926/PhGHAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Modern+World+History%2C+1776-1926A+Survey+of+the+Origins+and+Development+of+Contemporary+Civilization |url-status=live }}</ref> He further included in his definition [[Sakhalin]], an island which is geologically part of the [[Japanese archipelago|Japanese Archipelago]], but that has been administered by Russia since [[World War II]]. Hong Kong, partly located in another marginal sea of the Pacific (the [[South China Sea]]) was also included in his definition. Australia and New Zealand were grouped together by Flick as Australasia, and categorized as being in the same area of the world as the islands of Oceania. Flick described the demographic composition of Oceania, stating that the majority of the population consisted of "brown and yellow races," while whites were primarily "owners and rulers."<ref name="flick"/> Hutton Webster's 1919 book ''Medieval and Modern History ''also defined Oceania broadly, stating that it encompassed all islands in the Pacific. Webster broke Oceania up into two subdivisions; the continental group, which included Australia, the Japanese archipelago, the Malay Archipelago and Taiwan, and the oceanic group, which included New Zealand and the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Webster |first1=Hutton |title=World History: Volume 1 |date=1921 |publisher=D. C. Heath |page=563 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cboXAAAAIAAJ&q=the+term+Oceania,+or+Oceania,+in+its+widest+sense+applies+to+all+the+Pacific+Islands. |access-date=3 November 2022}}</ref>

Charles Marion Tyler's 1885 book ''The Island World of the Pacific Ocean'' considered Oceania to ethnographically encompass Australia, New Zealand, the Malay Archipelago, and the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. However, Tyler included other Pacific islands in his book as well, such as the Aleutian Islands, the Bonin Islands, the Japanese archipelago, the Juan Fernández Islands, the Kuril Islands, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, [[California]]'s [[Channel Islands (California)|Channel Islands]] and [[Farallon Islands]], [[Canada]]'s [[Vancouver Island]] and [[Haida Gwaii|Queen Charlotte Islands]] (now known as Haida Gwaii), Chile's [[Chiloé Island]], Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, Mexico's [[Guadalupe Island]], [[Revillagigedo Islands]], [[Islas San Benito|San Benito Islands]] and [[Islas Marías|Tres Marías Islands]], and Peru's [[Chincha Islands]].<ref name="tyler">{{cite book |last1=Charles Marion |first1=Tyler |title=The Island World of the Pacific Ocean |date=1885 |publisher=Howard & Pariser |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8D5CAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22vancouver+island%22+%22pacific+islands%22+%22australia%22&pg=PR6 |access-date=5 November 2022}}</ref> Islands in marginal seas of the Pacific were also covered in the book, including Alaska's [[Pribilof Islands]] and China's [[Hainan]]. Tyler additionally profiled the [[Anson Archipelago]], which during the 19th century was a designation for a widely scattered group of purported islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean between Japan and Hawaii. The Anson archipelago included [[phantom island]]s such as [[Ganges Island]] and [[Los Jardines]] which were proven to not exist, as well as real islands such as Marcus Island and Wake Island.<ref>{{cite book | last = Stommel | first = Henry | title = Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts | publisher = University of British Columbia Press | location = Vancouver | year = 1984 | isbn = 0-7748-0210-3 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/lostislands00henr/page/ xvii, 105ff] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/lostislands00henr/page/ }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FzhjAAAAMAAJ|title=Maritime Geography and Statistics ...|first=James Hingston|last=Tuckey|date=13 November 1815|publisher=Black, Parry & Company|via=Google Books}}</ref> Tyler described Australia as "the [[leviathan]] of the island groups of the world".<ref name="tyler"/> In his 1857 book ''A Treatise on Physical Geography'', Francis B. Fogg defined Oceania, or "the Maritime World," as being divided into three major subregions: Australasia, Malesia, and Polynesia. Fogg defined Polynesia as covering the combined islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, as well as the Ryukyu Islands. He listed additional significant islands in the Pacific beyond those in the standard subregions of Oceania.<ref>{{cite book |last1=B. Fogg |first1=Francis |title=A Treatise on Physical Geography ... |date=1857 |publisher=Ivison & Phinney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQgAAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22hainan%22+%22galapagos%22+%22aleutian%22&pg=PA3 |access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref> Scottish academic [[John Merry Ross]] in 1879 considered Polynesia to cover the entire South and Central Pacific area, not just islands ethnographically within Polynesia. He wrote in ''The Globe Encyclopedia of Universal Information'' that, in its broadest sense, Polynesia could include islands spanning from Sumatra to the Galápagos, along with Australia.<ref name="suma">{{cite book |last1=Ross |first1=John Merry |title=The Globe Encyclopedia of Universal Information: Volume 6 |year=1879 |publisher=The University of Michigan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rBaRjHkYy1cC&dq=%22literally%22+%22galapagos%22+%22sumatra%22&pg=PA166 |access-date=5 February 2023}}</ref> Ross acknowledged that Oceania had historically been applied to this vast region but noted that, by his time, the Malay Archipelago was often excluded.<ref name="suma"/>