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The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. During the initial phase in early 1942, the Empire of Japan invaded the Territory of New Guinea on 23 January and Territory of Papua on 21 July and overran western New Guinea (part of the Netherlands East Indies) beginning on 29 March.
The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced to about 50,000–60,000 years ago, when people first migrated towards the Australian continent.The written history began when European navigators first sighted New Guinea in the early part of the 17th century.
The unification of Western New Guinea with Papua New Guinea was official Australian government policy for a short period of time in the 1960s, before Indonesia's annexation of the region. [44] Generally, proposals regarding federation with Papua New Guinea are a minority view in the freedom movement.
Papua New Guinea has been a member of the Forum of Small States (FOSS) since the group's founding in 1992. [73] Papua New Guinea supported Indonesia's control of Western New Guinea, [74] the focus of the Papua conflict where numerous human rights violations have reportedly been committed by the Indonesian security forces. [75] [76] [77]
The Papua New Guinea Independence Act 1975 was an Act passed by the Parliament of Australia. It replaced the Papua and New Guinea Act 1949, and changed the status of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea to that of an independent Papua New Guinea. The Act set 16 September 1975 as the date of Papua New Guinea's independence and terminated all ...
Later that year, Spicer met Chris Haiveta, the Deputy Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, and convinced him of the benefits of using Sandline mercenaries to end the Bougainville conflict permanently, neutralise the Bougainville Revolutionary Army, and reopen the controversial Panguna copper mine. While Singirok still refused to deal with Spicer ...
In 1972, the Panguna mine began production under the management of Bougainville Copper Ltd, with the government of Papua New Guinea as a 20% shareholder. At the time, the Panguna mine was the largest open cut mine in the world and produced more than 45% of Papua New Guinea's export revenue, making it vitally important to the national economy. [5]
Archeological evidence suggests that humans arrived on New Guinea at least 60,000 years ago. These Melanesian people developed stone tools and agriculture. Portuguese and Spanish navigators sailing in the South Pacific entered New Guinea waters in the early part of the 16th century and in 1526–27, Don Jorge de Meneses came upon the principal island, which the locals called "Papua".