Area and Population GR.Major Divisions of the Region

HA.Why Are Foreign Powers Interested in the Pacific?

HB.Oceania’s Environmental Future

The Pacific Ocean is the world’s largest ocean, bigger than all land area on earth combined. The Pacific covers one-third of the earth’s surface. The Pacific World region, called simply Oceania, contains Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and a host of much smaller islands and island groups. Many islands in this region are still colonies or dependencies of foreign countries. Most islands are tropical, though Australia contains large desert areas and New Zealand has a largely marine west coast climate.

Pacific islands are usually divided into three groups. Melanesia (“black islands”) in the southwest Pacific comprises the largest islands such as New Guinea and New Caledonia. Micronesia (“tiny islands”) is made up of thousands of small islands scattered throughout the western and central Pacific. Polynesia (“many islands”), the largest division, is also comprised of mostly small islands in the central and eastern Pacific. There are three main types of islands: continental islands, which are continents or were attached to continents before sea levels or tectonic plates changed; high islands, which are mostly volcanic in origin; and low islands, which are made of coral that surrounded high islands that have since eroded away. Pacific islands have unique ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by human activities and introduced exotic species. Some low- lying islands are threatened by rising waters, which are caused by global warming.

Only 34 million people live in this vast region today, with the bulk of them living in Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. About 80 percent of Oceania’s population is indigenous, with Asians and Europeans making up the remainder. European languages are widely spoken in the region, while the multitudes of indigenous languages are usually only spoken by a few thousand people each.

Europeans arrived in the region in the sixteenth century, but did not begin full-scale colonization until the mid-nineteenth century. Europeans introduced foreigners, especially Asians, to serve as laborers, and introduced many animal and plant species to the islands. Japan overran much of the area in World War II. Today, there are numerous ethnic conflicts in the Pacific that reflect demographic changes Europeans introduced to meet their economic interests. The Solomon Islands and Fiji are examples of this kind of strife. Other conflicts in the Pacific World stem from economic inequality, such as those on New Caledonia and Bougainville.

Much of the Pacific World aside from Australia and New Zealand is less developed economically. There is very limited manufacturing. Tourism is the most important source of revenue, though there are some exports of minerals, fish, and agricultural products. Offshore banking and unique information technology niches are gaining prominence. Western military interests also are important to the region; the

United States and France continue to have a strong military presence in the region, and have historically used islands such as Bikini Atoll and Mururoa for nuclear weapons testing. New Zealand declared it would be a nuclear-free country in 1987, which strained its relations with its ANZUS security alliance partners, Australia, and the U.S.

Key Terms and Concepts

1. 
   The three principal divisions of the Pacific are Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Melanesia, the large islands of the western Pacific, includes Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and the French colony of New Caledonia. Micronesia, composed of thousands of small islands in the western and central Pacific, includes Nauru, Palau, the Marshall Islands, the nation of Micronesia, and the U.S. possessions of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Polynesia is also composed mainly of small islands, widely scattered over the central Pacific. It includes Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tonga, and numerous colonial entities such as American Samoa and French Polynesia. [pp. 415-416]
   

2. 
   High islands are usually volcanic in nature, with a steep central peak with ridges and valleys radiating outward to the sea. High islands often have fertile soils good for agriculture. Low islands are formed from coral, usually after the central peak of a high island has eroded away leaving the surrounding atoll behind. Low islands generally have infertile, leached soils unsuitable for crops. The main cities and highest populations in the region are found on high islands, while low islands have lower populations and are often economically based around coconuts. Tom McKnight noted that high islands tend to have few power struggles or clashes over resources because the ridges surrounding the drainage basins made for natural boundaries. Resource-poor low islands have had a long history of violence and war, with social and political units less structured than on high islands. [pp. 417-421]
   

3. 
   A hot spot is an area in the mantle where molten magma is relatively close to the crust. When tectonic plates slide over the hot spot, magma rises through the crust creating chains of volcanic islands. Hawaii is an example of a chain of islands created by a stationary hot spot as the Pacific plate slides over it in a northwesterly direction. [pp. 419-420]
   

4. 
   Island ecosystems usually have a higher percentage of endemic species (species that are found nowhere else on Earth) than mainland ecosystems do, but the total number of species on islands tends to be lower because of natural environmental hazards in the region, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and typhoons. The effect of humans upon these island ecosystems is much more pronounced than natural hazards. One of the biggest problems is the introduction of exotic species (species brought in purposefully or accidentally from elsewhere) that compete with and sometimes wipe out the native island species. Habitat destruction from practices such as intensive logging also poses serious threats to island ecosystems. [pp. 421-422]
   

5. 
   An atoll is a low, circular island formed from coral with a central lagoon. They are formed when a high volcanic island develops a surrounding coral reef. Erosion wears away at the central peak, and the coral reef builds up to become a barrier island. Eventually the central island disappears completely leaving behind the surrounding atoll. [pp. 420-421]
   

7. 
   The mineral-rich islands of Bougainville and New Caledonia have suffered ethnic conflicts since the 1980s. Bougainville was a former Australian colony that was later given to Papua New Guinea instead of the more ethnically and culturally related Solomon Islands. In 1989 the island declared independence from Papua New Guinea, which responded with an economic blockade and led to nearly a decade of fighting before a cease-fire went into effect. In the 1980s, some separatists in the French colony of New Caledonia clashed with French police. France agreed to hold a referendum in 1998 to allow the island’s residents to vote for independence or continued union with France. But New Caledonia’s nickel is valuable to France, and in 1998 France postponed the referendum until 2014 to retain that resource. [p. 429]
   

7. 
   Nauru had a very rich phosphate resource and its mining and exporting was lucrative for the tiny island nation. The phosphate is now almost depleted, however, and the country has been forced to seek out alternate sources of revenue. Money laundering, particularly by Russian organized crime gangs, has become important to the Nauruan economy. After 2001, the island became an unlikely detention center for Afghan war refugees trying to escape to Australia. The Australian government paid Nauru $15 million per year to hold the Afghans while Australian courts reviewed their cases. [p. 428]
   

7. 
   Tourism is the most important industry in Oceania, providing most countries and territories in the region with substantial revenue and employment. Other major economic activities in the region, excluding Australia and New Zealand, include the export of plantation crops, fishing, mining, and Western military interests. [p. 428]
   

11. In recent years sea levels have risen at a rate of 0.1 inches (3 mm) annually, and several Pacific nations comprised of low islands, such as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu, might disappear underwater entirely. Other Pacific nations would lose large amounts of their land area to the encroaching sea. Many Pacific nations argued in favor of a more stringent version of the Kyoto Protocol, and Tuvalu went so far as to place a lawsuit against the United States and Australia when those countries did not sign the Kyoto Protocol to prevent further global warming. [p. 432]