Oceania

"South West Pacific" redirects here. For the World War II theatre, see South West Pacific theatre of World War II.

For other uses, see Oceania (disambiguation).

An orthographic projection of the Pacific Ocean showing much of Oceania.

Map of Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean.^[1] Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific (ethnologically divided into the subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia^[2]) to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago.^[3] The term is sometimes used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone (Wallacea and Australasia) or the Pacific ecozone (Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia apart either from New Zealand^[8] or from mainland New Guinea^[9]).

Etymology

The term was coined as Océanie ca. 1812 by geographer Conrad Malte-Brun.^[3] The word Océanie derives from the Greek word ὠκεανός (ōkeanós), ocean.

Definitions

Oceania

Geopolitical Oceania

Demonym	Oceanic; Oceanian
Area	8,536,716 km2 (3,296,044 sq mi)
Population	35,670,000
Countries	14 Australia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Micronesia Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Dependencies	25 American Samoa Ashmore and Cartier Islands Baker Island Clipperton Island Cook Islands Coral Sea Islands Easter Island French Polynesia Guam Hawaii Howland Island Jarvis Island Johnston Atoll Juan Fernández Islands Kingman Reef Midway Atoll New Caledonia Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Palmyra Atoll Pitcairn Islands Tokelau Wake Island Wallis and Futuna
Languages	28 Official Official languages: Bislama Carolinian Chamorro Cook Islands Maori English Fijian French Futunan Gilbertese Hawaiian Hindi Hiri Motu Māori Marshallese Nauruan Niuean Palauan Pitkern Rotuman Samoan Spanish Tahitian Tokelauan Tongan Tok Pisin Tuvaluan Wallisian
Time Zones	UTC+8 (Australian Western Standard Time) to UTC-6 (Easter Island) (West to East)
Largest Cities	Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Perth Auckland Adelaide

See also: List of Oceanian countries by population and List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania

Physiography

Oceania was originally conceived as the lands of the Pacific Ocean, stretching from the Straits of Malacca to the coast of the Americas. It comprised four regions: Polynesia, Micronesia, Malaysia (now called the Malay Archipelago), and Melanesia (now called Australasia).^[10] Included are parts of three geological continents, Eurasia, Australia, and Zealandia, as well the non-continental volcanic islands of the Philippines, Wallacea, and the open Pacific. It extends to Sumatra in the west, the Bonin Islands in the northwest, the Hawaiian Islands in the northeast, Rapa Nui and Sala y Gómez Island in the east, and Macquarie Island in the south, but excludes Taiwan and the Ryukyu, Japanese, and Aleutian Islands of the margins of Asia.^[11][12]

The states that occupy Oceania that are not included in geopolitical Oceania are Indonesia, Malaysia (through Malaysian Borneo), Brunei, the Philippines, and East Timor. The islands of the geographic extremes are politically integral parts of Japan (Bonin), the United States (Hawaii), and Chile (Easter Island). A smaller geographic definition also exists, which excludes the land on the Sunda Plate, but includes Indonesian New Guinea as part of the Australian continent.

Biogeography

Biogeographically, Oceania is used as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone (Wallacea and Australasia) or the Pacific ecozone (Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia apart either from New Zealand^[8] or from mainland New Guinea^[9]).

Ecogeography

Oceania is one of eight terrestrial ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet. The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. New Zealand, New Guinea, Melanesia apart from Fiji, and Australia constitute the separate Australasia ecozone. The Malay Archipelago is part of the Indomalaya ecozone. Related to these concepts are Near Oceania, that part of western Island Melanesia which has been inhabited for tens of millennia, and Remote Oceania, which is more recently settled.^[13]

Geopolitics

Economic zones of the Pacific, outlining Oceania

In the geopolitical conception used by the United Nations, International Olympic Committee, and many atlases, Oceania includes Australia and the nations of the Pacific from Papua New Guinea east, but not the Malay Archipelago or Indonesian New Guinea.^[14][15][16]

Other definitions

• The term is sometimes used more specifically than in the geopolitical conception, to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands.^[6][7]
• New Zealand forms the south-western corner of the Polynesian Triangle. Its indigenous Māori constitute one of the major cultures of Polynesia. It is also, however, considered part of Australasia.^[14]
• The widest definition of Oceania includes the entire region between continental Asia and the Americas, thereby including islands in the Pacific Rim such as the Japanese Archipelago, Taiwan, and the Aleutian islands.^[17]

Satellite image of Oceania

Ethno-cultural definition of Oceania

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Oceania

Oceania

Wider Geographic Oceania.
Little of the South Pacific is apparent at this scale, though Hawaii is just visible near the eastern horizon.

Area	10,975,600 km2 (4,237,700 sq mi)
Population	378 million (2010)
Time Zones	UTC+7 (Western Indonesian Time) to UTC-6 (Easter Island)
Largest Cities	Jakarta Manila Sydney Bandung Melbourne Surabaya Medan

Narrower Geographic Oceania.
Island Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia apart from New Zealand)

Area	183,000 km2 (71,000 sq mi)
Population	5.2 million (2008)
Time Zones	UTC+9 (Palau) to UTC-6 (Easter Island)
Largest Cities	Honolulu Nouméa Suva Papeete Honiara

Geographic map of islands of Oceania

The demographic table below shows the subregions and countries of geopolitical Oceania.^[14] The countries and territories in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations. The information shown follows sources in cross-referenced articles; where sources differ, provisos have been clearly indicated. These territories and regions are subject to various additional categorisations, of course, depending on the source and purpose of each description.

Name of region, followed by countries and their flags[18]	Area (km²)	Population	Population density (per km²)	Capital	ISO 3166-1
Australasia[19]
Australia	7,686,850	22,028,000	2.7	Canberra	AU
New Zealand[20]	268,680	4,108,037	14.5	Wellington	NZ
External territories of Australia:
Ashmore and Cartier Islands	199
Christmas Island[21]	135	1,493	3.5	Flying Fish Cove	CX
Cocos (Keeling) Islands[21]	14	628	45.1	West Island	CC
Coral Sea Islands	10	4
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	372
Norfolk Island	35	2,114	53.3	Kingston	NF
Melanesia[22]
Fiji	18,270	856,346	46.9	Suva	FJ
New Caledonia (France)	19,060	240,390	12.6	Nouméa	NC
Papua New Guinea[23]	462,840	5,172,033	11.2	Port Moresby	PG
Solomon Islands	28,450	494,786	17.4	Honiara	SB
Vanuatu	12,200	240,000	19.7	Port Vila	VU
Micronesia
Federated States of Micronesia	702	135,869	193.5	Palikir	FM
Guam (USA)	549	160,796	292.9	Hagåtña	GU
Kiribati	811	96,335	118.8	South Tarawa	KI
Marshall Islands	181	73,630	406.8	Majuro	MH
Nauru	21	12,329	587.1	Yaren (de facto)	NR
Northern Mariana Islands (USA)	477	77,311	162.1	Saipan	MP
Palau	458	19,409	42.4	Melekeok[24]	PW
Wake Island (USA)	2	12		Wake Island	UM
Polynesia
American Samoa (USA)	199	68,688	345.2	Pago Pago, Fagatogo[25]	AS
Cook Islands (NZ)	240	20,811	86.7	Avarua	CK
Easter Island (Chile)	163.6	3,791	23.1	Hanga Roa	CL
French Polynesia (France)	4,167	257,847	61.9	Papeete	PF
Hawaii (USA)	16,636	1,283,388	72.8	Honolulu	US
Niue (NZ)	260	2,134	8.2	Alofi	NU
Pitcairn Islands (UK)	5	47	10	Adamstown	PN
Samoa	2,944	179,000	63.2	Apia	WS
Tokelau (NZ)	10	1,431	143.1	Nukunonu	TK
Tonga	748	106,137	141.9	Nukuʻalofa	TO
Tuvalu	26	11,146	428.7	Funafuti	TV
Wallis and Futuna (France)	274	15,585	56.9	Mata-Utu	WF
Total	8,536,716	35,669,267	4.2
Total minus mainland Australia	849,866	13,641,267	16.1

North Pacific Ocean South Pacific Ocean Australia New Zealand NZ Hawaii WK Micronesia Palau Papua New Guinea Indonesia Easter Island French Polynesia Cook Islands New Caledonia Fiji Tuvalu Kiribati Solomon Islands Tokelau Marshall Islands Nauru Galápagos Islands Vanuatu Tonga PN Guam NF Northern Mariana WS AS WF Niue CC CX

Map of Nations and territories of Oceania incl Australia and New Zealand

Religion

The predominant religion in Oceania is Christianity.^{[citation needed]} Traditional religions are often animist and prevalent among traditional tribes is the belief in evil spirits (masalai in Tok Pisin), which are blamed for "poisoning" people, causing calamity and death. In recent Australian and New Zealand censuses, large proportions of the population say they belong to "No religion" (which includes humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and rationalism). In Tonga, everyday life is heavily influenced by Polynesian traditions and especially by the Christian faith. The Bahá'í House of Worship in Tiapapata, Samoa is one of seven designations administered in the Baha'i faith.

Sport

Pacific Games

The Pacific Games (formerly known as the South Pacific Games) is a multi-sport event, much like the Olympics, (albeit on a much smaller scale), with participation exclusively from countries around the Pacific. It is held every four years and began in 1963.

Rugby League

Rugby league is a popular sport throughout Oceania, and is the national sport of Papua New Guinea^[26] (the second most populous country in Oceania after Australia) and is very popular in Australia^[27] and attracts significant attention across New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.^[28]

Australia and New Zealand are two of the most successful sides in the world.^[29] Australia has won the Rugby League World Cup a record nine times while New Zealand won their first World Cup in 2008. Australia hosted the second tournament in 1957. Australia and New Zealand jointly hosted it in 1968 and 1977. New Zealand hosted the final for the first time in 1985 - 1988 tournament and Australia hosted the last tournament in 2008.

Rugby Union

Fiji playing the Cook Islands at seven-a-side rugby

Rugby union is one of the region's most prominent sports,^[30] and is the national sport of New Zealand,^[31] Samoa,^[31] Fiji and Tonga.^[31] Fiji's sevens team is one of the most successful in the world, as is New Zealand's.

New Zealand and Australia have won the Rugby World Cup a record two times (tied with South Africa who have also won it two times). New Zealand won the inaugural World Cup in 1987. Australia and New Zealand jointly hosted the World Cup in 1987. Australia hosted it in 2003 and New Zealand also hosted it in 2011, which they then went on to win.

Cricket

Fans' welcome to the Australian team after winning 2007 Cricket World Cup

Cricket is a popular summer sport in Australia and New Zealand. Australia had ruled International cricket as the number one team for more than a decade, and have won four Cricket World Cups and have been runner-up for two times, making them the most successful cricket team. New Zealand is also considered a strong competitor in the sport, with the New Zealand Cricket Team, also called the Black Caps, enjoying success in many competitions. Both Australia and New Zealand are Full members of the ICC. Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea are some of the Associate/Affiliate members of the ICC from Oceania that are governed by ICC East Asia-Pacific. Beach Cricket, a greatly simplified variant of cricket played on a sand beach, is also a popular recreational sport in Australia.

Cricket is culturally a significant sport for summer in Oceania. The Boxing Day Test is very popular in Australia, conducted every year on 26 December at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne.

Australian rules football

Main article: Australian rules football in Oceania

Australian rules football is the national sport in Nauru^[32] and is the most popular football code in Australia.^[33] It is also popular in Papua New Guinea.^[34]

Association football (soccer)

The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of six association football confederations^[35] under the auspices of FIFA, the international governing body of the sport. The OFC is the only confederation without an automatic qualification to the World Cup Finals. Currently the winner of the OFC qualification tournament must play off against an Asian confederation side to qualify for the World Cup.^[36][37]

Currently, Vanuatu is the only country in Oceania to call football (soccer) its national sport.

Oceania has been represented at four World Cup finals tournaments — Australia in 1974, 2006 and 2010, and New Zealand in 1982 and 2010. In 2006, Australia joined the Asian Football Confederation and qualified for the 2010 World cup as an Asian entrant. New Zealand qualified through the Oceania Confederation, winning its playoff against Bahrain. 2010 was the first time two countries from Oceania had qualified at the same time, albeit through different conferences.

See also

	Geography portal
	Oceania portal

Main article: Outline of Oceania

Art of Oceania Economy of Oceania Europeans in Oceania Festival of Pacific Arts       Flags of Oceania Geography of Oceania History of Oceania

List of cities in Oceania Military history of Oceania Oceania (journal) Pacific Islands Forum Pacific Union Secretariat of the Pacific Community United Nations geoscheme for Oceania

Notes

1. ^ For a history of the term, see Douglas & Ballard (2008) Foreign bodies: Oceania and the science of race 1750–1940
2. ^ "Oceania". 2005. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Oceania". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
4. ^ Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings, United Nations Statistics Division. Revised August 28, 2007. Accessed on line October 11, 2007.
5. ^ The Atlas of Canada. Revised Date Modified: August 17, 2004. Accessed on line January 31, 2011.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Encarta Mexico "Oceanía"". Mx.encarta.msn.com. Archived from the original on 2009-11-01. http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1257053672622272. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Lewis, Martin W.; Kären E. Wigen (1997). The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 32. ISBN 0-520-20742-4, ISBN 0-520-20743-2. "Interestingly enough, the answer [from a scholar who sought to calculate the number of continents] conformed almost precisely to the conventional list: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania (Australia plus New Zealand), Africa, and Antarctica." 
8. ^ ^{a b} Udvardy. 1975. A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world
9. ^ ^{a b} Steadman. 2006. Extinction & biogeography of tropical Pacific birds
10. ^ D'Urville, Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont; Isabel Ollivier, Antoine de Biran, and Geoffrey Clark. "On the Islands of the Great Ocean". The Journal of Pacific History (Taylor & Francis, Ltd.) 38 (2). http://www.jstor.org/stable/25169637. 
11. ^ MacKay (1864, 1885) Elements of Modern Geography, p 283
12. ^ Douglas & Ballard (2008) Foreign bodies: Oceania and the science of race 1750–1940
13. ^ Ben Finney, The Other One-Third of the Globe, Journal of World History, Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall, 1994.
14. ^ ^{a b c} "United Nations Statistics Division - Countries of Oceania". Millenniumindicators.un.org. http://millenniumindicators.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm#oceania. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
15. ^ Atlas of Canada Web Master (2004-08-17). "The Atlas of Canada - The World - Continents". Atlas.nrcan.gc.ca. http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/international/world/referencemap_image_view. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
16. ^ Current IOC members.
17. ^ Britannica Online Encyclopedia
18. ^ Regions and constituents as per UN categorisations/map except notes 2-3, 6. Depending on definitions, various territories cited below (notes 3, 5-7, 9) may be in one or both of Oceania and Asia or North America.
    
19. ^ The use and scope of this term varies. The UN designation for this subregion is "Australia and New Zealand."
20. ^ New Zealand is often considered part of Polynesia rather than Australasia.
    
21. ^ ^{a b} Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are Australian external territories in the Indian Ocean southwest of Indonesia.
    
22. ^ Excludes parts of Indonesia, island territories in Southeast Asia (UN region) frequently reckoned in this region.
    
23. ^ Papua New Guinea is often considered part of Australasia and Melanesia. It is sometimes included in the Malay Archipelago of Southeast Asia.
    
24. ^ On 7 October 2006, government officials moved their offices in the former capital of Koror to Melekeok, located 20 km northeast of Koror on Babelthuap Island.
    
25. ^ Fagatogo is the seat of government of American Samoa.
    
26. ^ "MSN Groups Closure Notice". Groups.msn.com. 2008-10-23. http://groups.msn.com/PNGKumuls/history.msnw?pgmarket=en-us. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
27. ^ "Football in Australia - Australia's Culture Portal". Cultureandrecreation.gov.au. 2008-03-28. http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/football/. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
28. ^ "Rugby League Football - 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand". Teara.govt.nz. 1908-06-13. http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/R/RugbyLeagueFootball/RugbyLeagueFootball/en. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
29. ^ Wilson, Andy (2009-11-05). "southern hemisphere sides are a class apart". London: guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/nov/05/england-rugby-league-australia-new-zealand. Retrieved 2010-06-17. 
30. ^ "Oceania Rugby Vacations". Real Travel. http://realtravel.com/tag-z3461145-314.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. ^{[dead link]}
31. ^ ^{a b c} "How many national sports are there". WikiAnswers. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_national_sports_are_there. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
32. ^ "Nauru AFL team to play in International Cup". solomonstarnews.com. 2008-04-16. http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1023&change=100&changeown=101&Itemid=42. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
33. ^ "Australian rules football (sport) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44079/Australian-rules-football. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
34. ^ "pure AFL ... purely Papua New Guinea". Afl Png. http://www.afl-png.com/aboutus.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. ^{[dead link]}
35. ^ "FIFA confederations". Fifa.com. http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/confederations/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
36. ^ FIFA world cup 2010 - Oceania preliminary competition
37. ^ "FIFA world cup 2010 - qualifying rounds and places available by confederation". Fifa.com. 2009-04-03. http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/tournament/index.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 

External links

• Oceania at the Open Directory Project
• "Australia and Oceania" from National Geographic