Editing History of Oceania (section)

====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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