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The Vitu Islands / ˈ v iː t uː / are a volcanic group with an area of 37 sq mi (96 km 2) located in the Bismarck Sea off New Britain, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. They are not technically part of the Bismarck Archipelago. Administratively they are part of Papua New Guinea. Formerly called the French Islands, the group is sometimes ...
The island of New Guinea is divided politically into roughly equal halves across a north–south line: The western portion of the island located west of 141°E longitude (except for a small section of territory to the east of the Fly River which belongs to Papua New Guinea) was formerly a Dutch colony, part of the Dutch East Indies.
The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings. [1] Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Oceania. [2] [3] [4] At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, or Japanese, or by the United States.
It was used by allied forces from June 1943 to August 1944 as a staging point for operations in New Guinea and nearby occupied islands. Vivigani airstrip has been open to commercial service since 1963. A US Navy PT-Boat base was established on Fergusson Island in June 1942. [citation needed]
The first European visitor to the islands was the French ship Espérance in 1793. The ship's navigator, Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux , named them after his first lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand . Whaling ships called at the islands for food, water, and wood in the 1850s and 1860s.
It shares a head of state with New Zealand as well as having shared citizenship, but is independent in its internal affairs. English: Cook Islands Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani: Avarua [22] [24] 11,124 [30] 236 km 2 (91 sq mi) Niue [22] Self-governing in free association with New Zealand.
It also includes the Indonesian part of New Guinea and the Maluku islands, the French overseas collectivity of New Caledonia, and the Torres Strait Islands. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere ; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New ...
The Federated States of Micronesia (/ ˌ m aɪ k r oʊ ˈ n iː ʒ ə / ⓘ; abbreviated FSM), or simply Micronesia, is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania.The federation consists of four states—from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae—that span across the western Pacific just north of the equator, for a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km (1,700 mi).