Editing Oceania (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Oceania|History of the Pacific Islands}}

===Colonisation of Oceania===

====Australia====
{{Main|Prehistory of Australia|History of Indigenous Australians}}
[[File:Native Encampment by Skinner Prout, from Australia (1876, vol II).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A 19th-century engraving of an Aboriginal Australian encampment]]

[[Indigenous Australians]] are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands who migrated from [[Africa]] to [[Asia]] {{circa}} 70,000 years ago<ref name="scimag" /> and arrived in Australia {{circa}} 50,000 years ago.<ref name="illumina.com" /> They are believed to be among the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|earliest human migrations out of Africa]].<ref name="BBSRC" /> Although they likely migrated to Australia through Southeast Asia, they are not demonstrably related to any known Asian or Polynesian population.<ref name="ourcount" /> There is evidence of genetic and linguistic interchange between Australians in the far north and the Austronesian peoples of modern-day [[New Guinea]] and the islands, but this may be the result of recent trade and [[Interracial marriage|intermarriage]].<ref name="germs314" />

They reached [[Tasmania]] {{circa}} 40,000 years ago by migrating across a [[land bridge]] from the mainland that existed during the last [[ice age]].<ref name="prehis" /> It is believed that the first [[early human migration]] to Australia was achieved when this landmass formed part of the [[Sahul continent]], connected to the island of New Guinea via a land bridge.<ref name="perspe81" /> The [[Torres Strait Islanders]] are indigenous to the [[Torres Strait]] Islands, which are at the northernmost tip of [[Queensland]] near [[Papua New Guinea]].<ref name="uow2004" /> The earliest definite human remains found in Australia are that of [[Mungo Man]], which have been dated at {{circa}} 40,000 years old.<ref name="pmid4570638" />

It is estimated that 4% to 6% of the genome in [[Melanesians]] (e.g. Papua New Guinean and Bougainville Islander) derives from the [[Denisovan|Denisova hominin]], an ancient human species discovered in 2010, while no Eurasians or Africans displayed contributions of the Denisovan genes.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Reich|first=D.|author2=Green, R.E.|author3=Kircher, M.|author4=Krause, J.|author5=Patterson, N.|author6=Durand, E.Y.|title=Genetic history of an archaic hominin group from Denisova Cave in Siberia|journal=Nature|year=2010|volume=468|issue=7327|pages=1053–1060|doi=10.1038/nature09710|pmid=21179161|display-authors=etal|bibcode=2010Natur.468.1053R|pmc=4306417|url=http://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/10230/25596/1/Marques_nat_gen.pdf|hdl=10230/25596|archive-date=17 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517024908/https://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/handle/10230/25596/Marques_nat_gen.pdf;jsessionid=35CCDAE27CDE1B5CACE38275BC976DFA?sequence=1|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Melanesia====
{{Main|History of New Guinea}}
The original inhabitants of the group of islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day [[Papuan languages|Papuan]]-speaking people. Migrating from Southeast Asia, they appear to have occupied these islands as far east as the main islands in the [[Solomon Islands (archipelago)|Solomon Islands archipelago]], including [[Makira]] and possibly the smaller islands farther to the east.<ref name="struct2072" />

Particularly along the north coast of New Guinea and in the islands north and east of New Guinea, the [[Austronesian people]], who had migrated into the area somewhat more than 3,000 years ago, came into contact with these pre-existing populations of Papuan-speaking peoples. In the late 20th century, some scholars theorized a long period of interaction, which resulted in many complex changes in genetics, languages, and culture among the peoples.<ref name="malenes" />

====Micronesia====
{{See also|History of the Federated States of Micronesia}}
[[File:HH1883 pg125 Hafen von Jap.jpg|thumb|Stone money transport to [[Yap Island]] in Micronesia (1880)]]
[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian people]] across the Pacific (per Bellwood in Chambers, 2008)]]
Micronesia began to be settled several millennia ago, although there are competing theories about the origin and arrival of the first settlers. There are numerous difficulties with conducting archaeological excavations in the islands, due to their size, settlement patterns and storm damage. As a result, much evidence is based on linguistic analysis.<ref name="lapita" />

The earliest archaeological traces of civilization have been found on the island of [[Saipan]], dated to 1500 BCE or slightly before. The ancestors of the [[Micronesians]] settled there over 4,000 years ago. A decentralized chieftain-based system eventually evolved into a more centralized economic and religious culture centred on [[Yap]] and [[Pohnpei]].<ref name="USDOS" /> The prehistories of many Micronesian islands such as Yap are not known very well.<ref name="books.google" />

The first people of the Northern Mariana Islands navigated to the islands and discovered it at some period between 4000 BCE to 2000 BCE from [[Southeast Asia]]. They became known as the [[Chamorro people|Chamorros]]. Their [[Chamorro language|language]] was named after them. The ancient Chamorro left a number of megalithic ruins, including [[Latte stone]]. The Refaluwasch or [[Carolinian people]] came to the Marianas in the 1800s from the [[Caroline Islands]]. Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the [[2nd millennium BC]]E, with inter-island navigation made possible using [[Marshall Islands stick chart|traditional stick charts]].<ref name="races165" />

====Polynesia====
{{Main|History of Hawaii|History of New Zealand}}
{{Further|Polynesian navigation}}
[[File:AhuTongariki.jpg|thumb|left|[[Moai]] at Ahu Tongariki on [[Easter Island|Rapa Nui (Easter Island)]]]]

The Polynesian people are considered to be by linguistic, archaeological and human genetic ancestry a subset of the sea-migrating [[Austronesian people]] and tracing [[Polynesian languages]] places their [[Prehistory|prehistoric]] origins in the [[Malay Archipelago]], and ultimately, in [[Geography of Taiwan|Taiwan]]. Between {{circa}} 3000 and 1000 BCE, speakers of [[Austronesian languages]] began spreading from Taiwan into [[Island Southeast Asia]],<ref name="matrilineality2003" /><ref name="Kayser, M. 2006" /><ref name="polyori8225" /> as tribes whose [[Taiwanese aborigines|natives]] were thought to have arrived through South China {{circa}} 8,000 years ago to the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia.

In the archaeological record there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with some certainty. It is thought that by roughly 1400 BCE,<ref name="wings" /> "[[Lapita culture|Lapita]] Peoples", so-named after their pottery tradition, appeared in the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] of north-west Melanesia.<ref name="Leach & Green 1989"/><ref name="burley128" />

Easter Islanders claimed that a chief [[Hotu Matuꞌa]]<ref name="vikings228" /> discovered the island in one or two large canoes with his wife and extended family.<ref name="hawaii" /> They are believed to have been [[Polynesians|Polynesian]]. Around 1200, [[Tahitians|Tahitian]] explorers discovered and began settling the area. This date range is based on [[Glottochronology|glottochronological]] calculations and on three [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dates]] from charcoal that appears to have been produced during forest clearance activities.<ref name="failor89" /> Moreover, a recent study which included radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be very early material suggests that the island was discovered and settled as recently as 1200.<ref name="scimag23874" />

===European exploration===
{{See also|Magellan expedition|Spanish East Indies|History of Australia (1788–1850)|Colony of New Zealand}}
[[File:1852 Bocage Map of Australia and Polynesia - Geographicus - Oceanie-bocage-1852.jpg|thumb|1852 map of Oceania by J. G. Barbié du Bocage. Includes regions of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and [[Malesia]].]]

Oceania was first explored by Europeans from the 16th century onwards. Portuguese navigators, between 1512 and 1526, reached the [[Maluku Islands]] (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 [[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.

From 1527 to 1595, a number of other large Spanish expeditions crossed the Pacific Ocean, leading to the arrival in [[Marshall Islands]] and [[Palau]] in the North Pacific, as well as [[Tuvalu]], the [[Marquesas Islands]], 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" />

In the quest for [[Terra Australis]], Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator [[Pedro Fernandes de Queirós]], sailed to [[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn]] and [[Vanuatu]] archipelagos, and sailed the [[Torres Strait]] between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator [[Luís Vaz de Torres]]. [[Willem Janszoon]], made the first completely documented European landing in Australia (1606), in [[Cape York Peninsula]].<ref name="discos19" /> [[Abel Tasman]] circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and discovered [[Van Diemen's Land]] (now [[Tasmania]]), New Zealand in 1642, and [[Fiji]].<ref name="primary" /> He was the first known European explorer to reach these islands.<ref name="tearag" />

On 23 April 1770, British explorer [[James Cook]] made his first recorded direct observation of [[Aboriginal Australians]] at [[Brush Island]] near [[Bawley Point, New South Wales|Bawley Point]].<ref name="cook22470" /> On 29 April, Cook and crew made their first landfall on the mainland of the continent at a place now known as the [[Kurnell, New South Wales|Kurnell Peninsula]]. It is here that James Cook made first contact with an aboriginal tribe known as the [[Gweagal]]. His expedition became the first recorded Europeans to have encountered its eastern coastline of Australia.<ref name="herald86292" />

====European settlement and colonisation====
{{See also|History of Australia (1788–1850)|History of New Zealand}}
[[File:New Guinea (1884-1919).png|thumb|New Guinea from 1884 to 1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea, [[German Empire|Germany]] the north-eastern part, and Britain the south-eastern part.]]
In 1789, the [[mutiny on the Bounty]] against [[William Bligh]] led to several of the mutineers escaping the [[Royal Navy]] and settling on [[Pitcairn Islands]], which later became a British colony. Britain also established colonies in Australia in 1788, New Zealand in 1840 and [[Colonial Fiji|Fiji]] in 1872, with much of Oceania becoming part of the [[British Empire]]. The [[Gilbert Islands]] (now known as [[Kiribati]]) and the Ellice Islands (now known as [[Tuvalu]]) came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century.<ref name="TAHNPT" /><ref name="cinderella1" />

French Catholic missionaries arrived on Tahiti in 1834; their expulsion in 1836 caused France to send a gunboat in 1838. In 1842, Tahiti and [[Tahuata]] were declared a [[Protectorate|French protectorate]], to allow Catholic missionaries to work undisturbed.<ref name="KMLA1889" /> On 24 September 1853, under orders from [[Napoleon III]], Admiral [[Auguste Febvrier Despointes|Febvrier Despointes]] took formal possession of New Caledonia.<ref name="ped" />

The Spanish explorer [[Alonso de Salazar]] landed in the Marshall Islands in 1529. They were named by [[Adam Johann von Krusenstern|Krusenstern]], after English explorer [[John Marshall (British captain)|John Marshall]], who visited them together with [[Thomas Gilbert (captain)|Thomas Gilbert]] in 1788, en route from [[Botany Bay]] to [[Guangzhou|Canton]] (two ships of the [[First Fleet]]). In 1905, the British government transferred some administrative responsibility over southeast New Guinea to Australia (which renamed the area "[[Territory of Papua]]"); and in 1906, transferred all remaining responsibility to Australia. The Marshall Islands were claimed by Spain in 1874. Germany established colonies in New Guinea in 1884, and [[German Samoa|Samoa]] in 1900. The United States also expanded into the Pacific, beginning with [[Baker Island]] and [[Howland Island]] in 1857, and with Hawai{{okina}}i becoming a [[Territory of Hawaii|US territory]] in 1898. Disagreements between the US, the UK, and Germany over Samoa led to the [[Tripartite Convention (1899)|Tripartite Convention of 1899]].<ref name="amesagrey" />

===Modern history===
{{Main|Pacific War|Military history of Oceania|Military history of New Zealand|Military history of Australia during World War I|Military history of Australia during World War II|History of Guam|History of Australia (1901–1945)|Decolonisation of Oceania}}
[[File:NZ 3rd Division (USMC photo).jpg|thumb|New Zealand troops land on [[Vella Lavella]], in [[Solomon Islands]]]]

One of the first land offensives in Oceania was the [[Occupation of German Samoa]] in August 1914 by [[New Zealand Defence Force|New Zealand forces]]. The campaign to take Samoa ended without bloodshed after over 1,000 New Zealanders landed on the German colony. Australian forces attacked [[German New Guinea]] in September 1914. A company of Australians and a British warship besieged the Germans and their colonial subjects, ending with a German surrender.<ref name="awm.gov.au" />

The [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] by the Japanese [[Imperial General Headquarters]],<ref name="pearl17ff" /><ref name="operat1315" /> was a surprise [[military strike]] conducted by the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] against the United States [[naval base]] at [[Pearl Harbor]], Hawaii, on the morning of 7 December 1941. The attack led to the [[Military history of the United States during World War II|United States' entry into World War II]]. The Japanese subsequently invaded New Guinea, Solomon Islands and other Pacific islands. The Japanese were turned back at the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]] and the [[Kokoda Track campaign]] before they were finally defeated in 1945. Some of the most prominent Oceanic battlegrounds were the [[Battle of Bita Paka]], the [[Solomon Islands campaign]], the [[Bombing of Darwin|Air raids on Darwin]], the [[Kokoda Track campaign|Kokoda Track]], and the [[Borneo campaign]].<ref name="decode32" /><ref name="reconcil7" /> The United States fought the [[Battle of Guam (1944)|Battle of Guam]] from 21 July to 10 August 1944, to recapture the island from [[Japanese military]] occupation.<ref name="nyt1997" />

Australia and New Zealand became [[British Dominions|dominions]] in the 20th century, adopting the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster Act]] in 1942 and 1947 respectively. In 1946, Polynesians were granted French citizenship and the islands' status was changed to an [[overseas administrative territorial entity|overseas territory]]; the islands' name was changed in 1957 to ''Polynésie Française'' ([[French Polynesia]]). Hawaii became a [[U.S. state]] in 1959. [[Fiji]] and [[Tonga]] became independent in 1970. On 1 May 1979, in recognition of the evolving political status of the [[Marshall Islands]], the United States recognised the constitution of the Marshall Islands and the establishment of the government of the [[Republic of the Marshall Islands]]. The South Pacific Forum was founded in 1971, which became the [[Pacific Islands Forum]] in 2000.<ref name="awm.gov.au" />