New Guinea is a large tropical island in the Pacific Ocean, north of Australia. It is the world’s second largest island. Only the island of Greenland is larger.
New Guinea has an area of about 309,000 square miles (800,000 square kilometers) and a population of about 11 million. Rugged mountains cover much of the interior of the island. Most of this area has a cool climate. In contrast, the lowlands along the northern and southern coasts are hot and humid.
Most New Guineans live in villages in rural areas. Almost half of the island’s people dwell in isolated mountain valleys. Until the 1930’s, these New Guineans had little contact with the outside world.
Political units.
The island of New Guinea contains part of one nation and almost all of another. Papua is part of Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea is an independent country. Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya, covers the western half of New Guinea and some small nearby islands to the north and west. See Indonesia (table: Chief islands of Indonesia).
Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of New Guinea and some islands to the east, including those of the Bismarck Archipelago. Formerly a territory of Australia, Papua New Guinea became an independent nation in 1975. Port Moresby, a city on the southeast coast of New Guinea, serves as the nation’s capital. See Papua New Guinea.
People.
Most New Guineans are Melanesians, a people who are native to the Pacific islands. Thousands of Asians, Australians, and Europeans also live on the island of New Guinea, most of them in coastal towns. Large numbers of people from other Indonesian islands have settled in Papua.
In the highlands, most of the villagers live in round thatched huts and grow sweet potatoes as their main food. Pigs provide most of their meat. Many lowland villagers build their houses on stilts to keep them cool and dry. Their chief food crops are bananas, taro roots, and yams. People who live in the swamps of the coastal lowlands eat mostly sago, a starch that is taken from various kinds of palm trees.
New Guineans speak more than 700 languages. Because of the number of languages, many people cannot communicate with neighbors who live only a short distance away. A growing number of eastern New Guineans speak Pidgin English, or Tok Pisin, as a second language. This lingua franca, or common language, enables speakers of different tongues to communicate with one another. In the west, many people speak Malay as a second language.
Land and climate.
A great mountain system crosses New Guinea from east to west. It includes the Owen Stanley Range in the east and 16,024-foot (4,884-meter) Puncak Jaya, the highest point on the island, in the west. Mountain ridges, grassy plateaus, and deep, forested valleys cover much of the interior. Grasslands and jungles lie along the northern and southern edges of the island. Swamps with mangrove thickets border New Guinea in some areas.
Many streams and rivers flow down the mountain slopes and cross the lowlands. New Guinea’s largest rivers, the Fly and Sepik, have large, swampy areas around them in the lowlands.
New Guinea’s coastal lowlands have a hot, humid climate. The temperature and humidity drop as the altitude increases toward the center of the island. The annual rainfall in parts of New Guinea averages more than 200 inches (510 centimeters).
Native animals of New Guinea include crocodiles, tree kangaroos, and such snakes as the death adder, the Papuan black, and the taipan. The island also has many bright-colored birds and butterflies.
Economy
of New Guinea is one of the least developed of any area in the world. Most of the people farm the land and grow most of their own food. Many farm people also produce goods that they sell, including coconuts, coffee, and cocoa. A few large plantations also produce cocoa, coconuts, and coffee.
New Guinea has some large copper mines, including one near Nabire in Papua. Another is in Papua New Guinea, in mountains just east of the Indonesian border. These mines also yield small amounts of gold. New Guinea also has oil and natural gas deposits.
History.
The earliest settlers in New Guinea probably migrated thousands of years ago from the Asian mainland by way of the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia. In 1526, Jorge de Meneses, the Portuguese governor of the Molucca Islands, became the first European to visit New Guinea. Dutch, English, French, and Spanish explorers stopped there during the next 300 years. The Netherlands claimed western New Guinea in 1828. In 1884, Germany gained the northeastern part of the island, and the United Kingdom took the southeastern part. The United Kingdom gave its territory to Australia in the early 1900’s. After Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918), the League of Nations made northeastern New Guinea a mandated territory under Australian rule (see Mandated territory).
The Japanese seized northern New Guinea in 1942, during World War II, but by 1944 the Allies had reconquered the area. After the war ended in 1945, the northeastern part became the United Nations Trust Territory of New Guinea under Australian administration. Australia put the northeastern and southeastern units (now part of Papua New Guinea) under one government.
Indonesian nationalists declared independence after World War II ended in 1945. Indonesia gained recognition of its independence from the Netherlands in 1949. Both nations claimed western New Guinea. In 1962, the Netherlands agreed to turn over western New Guinea to the United Nations (UN). The UN placed the area under Indonesian administration in 1963, and Indonesia renamed it Irian Barat (West Irian). In 1969, the people of the region voted to remain part of Indonesia.
During the 1960’s, some New Guineans in both Irian Barat and Papua New Guinea began demanding independence. Irian Barat was renamed Irian Jaya in 1973. That same year, Australia granted Papua New Guinea total control over its internal affairs. In 1975, Papua New Guinea gained complete independence from Australia.
The people of Irian Jaya continued to demand independence. In 2002, Indonesia gave the region greater control over local affairs and renamed it Papua, the name preferred by people native to the region.
