Editing History of Oceania (section)

===Iberian pioneers===
====Early Iberian exploration====
{{See also|Magellan's circumnavigation|Spain in the Age of Discovery|Portugal in the Age of Discovery|Portuguese Empire|Spanish Empire|Spanish East Indies}}

[[File:Ferdinand Magellan.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ferdinand Magellan]]]]
[[File:Magellan Elcano Circumnavigation-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The Magellan–Elcano voyage. ''[[Victoria (ship)|Victoria]]'', one of the original five ships, circumnavigated the globe after the death of [[Ferdinand Magellan]].]]

Oceania was first explored by Europeans from the 16th century onwards. Portuguese navigators, between 1512 and 1526, reached the [[Moluccas]] (by [[António de Abreu]] and [[Francisco Serrão]] in 1512), [[Timor]], the [[Aru Islands Regency|Aru Islands]] (Martim A. Melo Coutinho), the [[Tanimbar Islands]], some of the [[Caroline Islands]] (by [[Gomes de Sequeira]] in 1525), and west [[Papua New Guinea]] (by [[Jorge de Menezes]] in 1526). In 1519 a [[Crown of Castile|Castilian]] ([[Spanish Empire|'Spanish']]) expedition led by [[Ferdinand Magellan]] sailed down the east coast of South America, found and sailed through the [[Strait of Magellan|strait that bears his name]] and on 28 November 1520 entered the ocean which he named "Pacific". The three remaining ships, led by Magellan and his captains [[Duarte Barbosa]] and [[João Serrão]], then sailed north and caught the [[trade winds]] which carried them across the Pacific to the Philippines where Magellan was killed. One surviving ship led by [[Juan Sebastián Elcano]] returned west across the Indian Ocean and [[Trinidad (ship)|the other]] went north in the hope of finding the [[westerlies]] and reaching Mexico. Unable to find the right winds, it was forced to return to the East Indies. The [[Timeline of Magellan's circumnavigation|Magellan-Elcano]] expedition achieved the first [[circumnavigation]] of the world and reached the [[Philippines]], the [[Mariana Islands]], and other islands of Oceania.

====Other large expeditions====
{{See also|Manila galleon}}

From 1527 to 1595 a number of other large Spanish expeditions crossed the Pacific Ocean, leading to the discovery of the [[Marshall Islands]] and [[Palau]] in the North Pacific, as well as [[Tuvalu]], the [[Marquesas Islands|Marquesas]], the [[Solomon Islands (archipelago)|Solomon Islands archipelago]], the [[Cook Islands]] and the [[Admiralty Islands]] in the South Pacific.<ref name="Fernandez-Armesto 2006 305–307">{{cite book |last= Fernandez-Armesto |first= Felipe |title= Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration |date= 2006 |publisher= W.W. Norton & Company |isbn= 0-393-06259-7 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/pathfindersgloba00fern/page/305 305–07] |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/pathfindersgloba00fern/page/305 }}</ref>

In 1565, Spanish navigator [[Andrés de Urdaneta]] found a wind system that would allow ships to sail eastward from Asia, back to the Americas. From then until 1815 the annual [[Manila galleons]] crossed the Pacific from Mexico to the Philippines and back, in the first transpacific trade route in history. Combined with the Spanish Atlantic or [[West Indies Fleet]], the Manila galleons formed one of the first global maritime exchange in human history, linking Seville in Spain with Manila in the Philippines, via Mexico.

Later, in the quest for [[Terra Australis]], Spanish explorers in the 17th century discovered the [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn]] and [[Vanuatu]] archipelagos, and sailed the [[Torres Strait]] between [[Australia]] and New Guinea, named after navigator [[Luís Vaz de Torres]]. In 1668, the Spaniards founded a colony on [[Guam]] as a resting place for west-bound galleons. For a long time this was the only non-coastal European settlement in the Pacific.
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