What Makes Oceania a Region?
Oceania is made up of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the many small islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean (see Figure 11.3). It is a unique world region in that it is composed primarily of ocean and covers the largest portion of Earth’s surface of any region, yet it is home to only 38.7 million people, the vast majority of whom live in Australia (22.7 million), Papua New Guinea (6.9 million), and New Zealand (4.4 million). In this book, we also include the U.S. state of Hawaii (1.7 million) in Oceania. The thousands of other Pacific islands are home to only 3 million people. The Pacific Ocean is the link that unites Oceania as a region, profoundly influencing life even on dry land; but across the region, the ocean also acts as a biological and cultural barrier.
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Terms in This Chapter
Some maps in this chapter show different place-names for the same locations. This reflects the political evolution of the region, where some islands previously were grouped under one name that remains in everyday use but are now grouped into country units with another name. For example, the Caroline Islands, located north of New Guinea, still go by that name on maps and charts, but they have been divided into two countries: Palau (a small group of islands at the western end of the Caroline Islands) and the Federated States of Micronesia, which extends over 2000 miles west to east, from Yap to Kosrae. In addition, there are three names commonly used to refer to large cultural groupings of islands: Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia (see Figure 11.13). These groupings are not political units; rather, they are based on ancient ethnic and cultural links.