Source: MAPS IN MINUTES™ © RH Publications (1997)

A country consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea north of Australia, together with the Bismarck Archipelago and other adjacent islands in the south-west Pacific Ocean. The western half of the island of New Guinea forms the province of Irian Jaya, part of Indonesia.

Physical

The mainland is divided by a central range of mountains rising to 4509 m (14,762 feet) at Mount Wilhelm. A low-lying plain is drained by the Fly River in the south-west, and there are active volcanoes in the east. The climate is tropical and monsoonal.

Economy

Papua New Guinea exploits extensive copper, gold, and oil deposits, and together these account for almost two-thirds of the country’s export earnings. About five-sixths of the workforce are engaged in agriculture; much of it is subsistence, but palm oil, coffee, and cocoa are exported. The predominant industries are food processing and mining. Recent major discoveries of natural gas will make the country a major exporter to the Asian market by 2020.

History

Contact with Europe goes back to the 16th century, when the Portuguese Jorge de Meneses named the island Ilhas dos Papuas (Malay, ‘frizzy-haired’) and the Spaniard Ortiz Retes christened it New Guinea because he was reminded of the Guinea coast of Africa. In 1828 the Dutch annexed the western half of the island, followed, in 1884, by the German and British division of the eastern half. In 1904 the British transferred their territory, now called Papua, to Australia, and at the outbreak of World War I an Australian expeditionary force seized German New Guinea (Kaiser-Wilhelmsland). During World War II Australian troops fought off a determined Japanese invasion. Formal administrative union of the area as Papua New Guinea was achieved in 1968. Self-government was attained in 1973 and in 1975 Papua New Guinea became an independent nation within the Commonwealth. Secessionist demands from some of the offshore islands, especially Bougainville, became a key issue facing the coalition government of Rabbie Namaliu (1990–92), troops being landed on Bougainville in May 1992. Namaliu’s government was defeated in the 1992 general election and Paias Wingti was elected Prime Minister of another coalition government. During the early 1990s relations between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which had been strained throughout the 1980s over the conflict in Irian Jaya, improved. In 1994 Wingti was forced from office and replaced by Julius Chan. In 1997 the use of foreign mercenaries to suppress the rebellion on Bougainville led to a mutiny by the army and the resignation of Chan; Bill Skate replaced him as Prime Minister. In 1998 a permanent ceasefire was signed with the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. In 1999 Mekere Morauta became Prime Minister. However, his coalition government’s proposed economic reforms led to widespread protest and its defeat in the 2002 election, after which Michael Somare became Prime Minister. He was re-elected in 2007 but in 2011 was removed from office because of ill health; his successor, Peter O’Neill, was confirmed in office by the 2012 elections. In 2013 Papua New Guinea agreed to host an Australian-funded detention centre on Manus island for asylum seekers trying to enter Australia; those whose claims were accepted would be settled in Papua Guinea, not Australia. The centre closed in late 2017.