New Guinea

The first humans to reach New Guinea arrived at least 40,000 years ago. New Guinea was attached to Australia and to Indonesia’s easternmost islands by a land bridge, although it was separated from Indonesia’s central islands by water. These immigrants, who were hunter-gatherers, therefore traveled to New Guinea in early boats. Thousands of years later, other waves of people from Southeast Asia moved through or settled in New Guinea. These immigrants were agriculturists, and the people who had migrated earlier gradually lost their hunter-gatherer lifestyles and adopted the ways of these later groups. Chinese, Malay, and Indonesian traders and seafarers traveled to New Guinea centuries before Europeans sighted the island in the 16th century. The Chinese and Southeast Asian traders exchanged goods with New Guineans and brought some islanders back to their homes as slaves.

In 1512 the Portuguese navigator Antonio d’Abreu sighted New Guinea, but the first European to land on the island was the Spanish explorer Jorge de Meneses in 1526. The Spanish claimed the island in the mid-16th century and named it New Guinea because they thought the islanders resembled those of Africa’s Guinea coast. Many later explorers visited New Guinea, and their reports—as well as scientific interest in the region—led to several private and government-funded expeditions on the island. In 1828 the Dutch East India Company took possession of the western half of New Guinea.

Germany annexed the northeastern section of New Guinea in 1884. That same year Britain took over the southeastern portion, but it was transferred to Australia as part of the Territory of Papua in 1906. In 1914, during World War I, an Australian military force occupied German New Guinea. After Germany’s defeat in the war, the League of Nations granted Australia a mandate over the former German territory and renamed it the Territory of New Guinea. Japan invaded the island during World War II (1939-1945). A large Japanese force remained in the interior until the war ended.

In 1946 the Territory of New Guinea was made a trust territory of the United Nations (UN), with Australia as the administering power. In 1949 Australia joined the Trust Territory of New Guinea and the Territory of Papua to form the Territory of Papua New Guinea. In 1975 Papua New Guinea became an independent nation.

The Dutch, who had relinquished its claim on Indonesia in 1949 but retained control of Papua, finally turned Papua over to the UN in 1962. A special vote held in 1969 made Papua a province of the Republic of Indonesia, which renamed it West Irian (the Indonesian name for New Guinea is Irian). The name was changed again in 1972 to Irian Jaya (Victorious Irian) in 1972 and then to the locally preferred name, Papua, in 2002. A strong movement for Papuan independence emerged in the early years of the 21st century, resulting in occasional skirmishes between Indonesian forces and local militants. Papua was divided into two provinces, Papua and Papua Barat (West Papua) in 2003.