New Guinea

HISTORY

New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753 km2, and the largest wholly or partly within the southern hemisphere.

The island is divided among two countries: Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west.

Political divisions of New Guinea Wikipedia Commons

The first European contact with New Guinea was by Portuguese and Spanish sailors in the 16th century. In 1526-27, the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses saw the western tip of New Guinea and named it ilhas dos Papuas.

The Spaniard Íñigo Ortíz de Retes sailed along the north coast of New Guinea as far as the Mamberamo River, near which he landed on June 20, 1545, naming the island 'Nueva Guinea'.

The first map showing the whole island (as an island) was published in 1600 and shows it as 'Nova Guinea'.

Map of New Guinea, 1600

In 1905, the British government transferred some administrative responsibility over southeast New Guinea to Australia (which renamed the area "Territory of Papua"). The following year, it transferred all remaining responsibility to Australia.

On June 23, 1938, American explorer Richard Archbold flew over the Grand Valley of the Baliem River for the first time, where he found 50,000 hitherto unknown Stone Age farmers living in orderly villages. The people, known as the Dani, were the last society of its size to make first contact with the rest of the world.

Kurulu Village War Chief at Baliem Valley..By Paul from Working & living in Jayapura 

The Battle of Rabaul was fought around the port of Rabaul on the island of New Britain, part of the Australian Territory of New Guinea, from January 23 into February 1942.  Following the Japanese capture of Rabaul, it became its main base of military and naval activity in the South Pacific.

The capture of Rabaul was followed with further Japanese operations on mainland New Guinea. By mid-1943, the tide turned in favor of the Allies, who began an offensive in the Pacific,

Once freed from Japanese occupation in 1945, the two territories of Papua and New Guinea were administered by Australia.

On September 16, 1975, Australia granted full independence to Papua New Guinea.

FUN NEW GUINEA FACTS

According to the journal Nature, the most biodiverse island for plants in the world is New Guinea. It is home to 13,634 species of vascular plant, with one-fifth of those plants being orchids.

The smallest living amphibian is a frog from New Guinea with a length of just 7.7 mm (0.3 in).

The wingspan of the world's largest butterfly, the female Queen Alexandria's Birdeing from Papua New Guinea is 11 inches.

Papua New Guinea has more than 800 languages.

The Rotokas language of Papua New Guinea has a 12-letter alphabet, the world's smallest.

There is a 99% chance that two randomly selected people from Papua New Guinea would speak different languages.

Acne affects 79-95% of western adolescents, yet a study of non-westernized tribes in Papua New Guinea found no cases of acne.

Source Wikipedia