New Guinea

See also: New Guinea (homonymy)

The New Guinea is a island of the close Oceania, in the west of the Pacific Ocean, located at the north of the Australia, in what is called wrongly the Mélanésie since Jules Dumont d' Urville. New Guinea is the third larger island of the world after the Australia and the Greenland.
It is bordered in the south by the Détroit of Torres and the Mer of Arafura, which separate it from the Australia, in the east by the sea of Solomon and the sea of Bismarck and in north by the Pacific Ocean.

New Guinea is divided between two State S.

The Western half of the island (called Irian Barat under Soekarno, then Irian Jaya under Soeharto) is made up of the provinces Indonesia born of Papua and Western Papua.

The Eastern half includes/understands the largest part of the State independent of New Guinea-News-Guinea. Surface of the island east of approximately 829.200 km ², for a population estimated at 5.200.000 inhabitants.

Geography

The island is directed the North-West towards south-east. It is approximately 2.400 km long for 700 km broad, of north in the south. A long assembly line separates the island from is in west in two almost equal halves. It reaches the altitude of 5.030 m to the Puncak Jaya, in the Maoke mounts, the western part of the island. Glaciers recover more the high summits. The coasts are marshy and most of the interior of the grounds is covered with wet and dense forests, composed of a tropical vegetation where one finds ebony, sandalwood, cedar and camphor trees. The plains are fertile, but the absence of an transport infrastructure obstructed their development up to now. The basement contains layers of Or, money, platinum and Cuivre, as well as layers of Pétrole and Natural gas.

Located immediately at the south of the equator, New Guinea has a tropical and wet climate. Annual precipitations are included/understood in the various zones of the island between 760 and 5.840 mm on the mountains, quantify very high. Fauna is similar to that of the Australia; even if the mammals are represented little, it is remarkable for the great number of species of birds magnificiently coloured, and in particular the birds of paradise. The plains and the coastal marshes of the island are infested mosquitos.

History

Approximately 21.000 years ago, the New Guinea was connected to the Australia, forming the continental mass called " Sahul ". Australia had been populated at least 40.000 years ago by migrations from the current continent of Asia. These migrations had been possible because at the time, the sea level was lower than currently, and the Australian continent was then connected to the continent of Asia.

Migrations could also have taken place directly of Asia towards New Guinea and the the Solomon Islands.

There are 5.000 to 6.000 years, the sea level went up to reach the current location, cutting these populations of the continent of Asia and preventing other migrations for a certain time. The lifestyle of certain populations of the interior has only little evolved/moved for this time.

There is 5  000 years (3  000 front J. - C), of the inhabitants of the littoral of the China of the South, farmers of millet and rice, start to cross the strait to settle with Taiwan. Towards 2  000 before J. - C., of the migrations take place of Taiwan towards the Filipino . New migrations start soon of Philippines towards Célèbes and Timor and from there, the other islands of the archipelago Indonesia N.

Towards 1  500 av. J. - C., another movement carries out of Philippines on the coasts and the neighbouring islands of New Guinea and beyond that, the islands of the Pacifique. The Austronésiens are undoubtedly the first navigators of the history of humanity.

See also: Settlement of the insular Southeast Asia, Settlement of Oceania

The first European to discover the island was Antonio de Abreu, a Portuguese navigator, in 1511, and the first to be accosted there was the Spanish explorer Jorge de Menezes in 1526. The Spaniards asserted the island in 1546 and named it Nova Guinea (in Latin), because they thought that the natives were the same ones as those of the tribes of West Africa. New Guinea became a point of fall for many other explorers. The reports/ratios which they submitted of the area and scientific interest that they caused were at the origin of many forwardings which followed. In 1793, the Compagnie of the Eastern Indies asserted the island in the name of the United Kingdom. The claim was disputed by the Netherlands and, in 1828, the Dutch Company of the Eastern Indies took possession of the Western half of New Guinea.

The north-eastern part, including/understanding all the territories which were not under English or Dutch sovereignty, was annexed by the Germany in 1884 under the name of Kaiser-Wilhems-Land. This same year, the the United Kingdom took possession of south-east, but in 1906, this part was conceded with the Australia like belonging to the New Guinea. The Australian troops occupied the German area in 1914, which by decision of the Société of the Nations became later a territory under Australian mandate, and was famous the Territory of New Guinea.

During the Second world war, New Guinea was invaded by the Japan and of many Japanese troops remained until September 1945 there. In 1946, the Territory of New Guinea was declared Trust Territory of the the United Nations, administratively directed by the Australia. The Netherlands gave up the control of the western part in 1962, which became the province indonésienne of Irian Jaya. The oriental party became independent as a New Guinea-News-Guinea in 1975. The interior of the island was really explored only in the current of the 20th century, and certain areas of the interior remain little known.

Simple: New Guinea Zh-min-nan: Sin Guinea

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