History of Oceania

In the late 20th century, some academics proposed a long period of interaction that led to numerous complex changes in the peoples' genetics, languages, and cultures.

Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BCE, with inter-island navigation made possible using traditional stick charts.

Within a mere three or four centuries between about 1300 and 900 BCE, the Lapita archaeological culture spread 6,000 kilometres eastwards from the Bismarck Archipelago, until it reached as far as Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.

[43] Modern archeology, anthropology and linguistic studies confirm widespread Tongan cultural influence ranging widely[44][45] through East 'Uvea, Rotuma, Futuna, Samoa and Niue, parts of Micronesia (Kiribati, Pohnpei), Vanuatu, and New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands,[46] and while some academics prefer the term "maritime chiefdom",[47] others argue that, while very different from examples elsewhere, ..."empire" is probably the most convenient term.

One surviving ship led by Juan Sebastián Elcano returned west across the Indian Ocean and the other went north in the hope of finding the westerlies and reaching Mexico.

[58] In 1565, Spanish navigator Andrés de Urdaneta found a wind system that would allow ships to sail eastward from Asia, back to the Americas.

His navigator François Visscher, and his merchant Isaack Gilsemans, mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and the Fijian islands.

The expedition sailed from England on 26 August 1768,[65] rounded Cape Horn and continued westward across the Pacific to arrive at Tahiti on 13 April 1769, where the observations of the Venus Transit were made.

Once the observations were completed, Cook opened the sealed orders which were additional instructions from the Admiralty for the second part of his voyage: to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated rich southern continent of Terra Australis.

[66] With the help of a Tahitian named Tupaia, who had extensive knowledge of Pacific geography, Cook managed to reach New Zealand on 6 October 1769, leading only the second group of Europeans to do so (after Abel Tasman over a century earlier, in 1642).

After a grounding mishap on the Great Barrier Reef, the voyage continued, sailing through Torres Strait before returning to England via Batavia, the Cape of Good Hope, and Saint Helena.

Although he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, showing it to be continental in size, the Terra Australis was believed by the Royal Society to lie further south.

Furneaux made his way to New Zealand, where he lost some of his men during an encounter with Māori, and eventually sailed back to Britain, while Cook continued to explore the Antarctic, reaching 71°10'S on 31 January 1774.

After his initial landfall in January 1778 at Waimea harbour, Kauai, Cook named the archipelago the "Sandwich Islands" after the fourth Earl of Sandwich—the acting First Lord of the Admiralty.

In a single visit, Cook charted the majority of the North American north-west coastline on world maps for the first time, determined the extent of Alaska, and closed the gaps in Russian (from the West) and Spanish (from the South) exploratory probes of the Northern limits of the Pacific.

The body was disembowelled, baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages.

[82] Following the death of Clerke, Resolution and Discovery returned home in October 1780 commanded by John Gore, a veteran of Cook's first voyage, and Captain James King.

In 1887, King Fata-a-iki, who reigned Niue from 1887 to 1896, offered to cede sovereignty to the British Empire, fearing the consequences of annexation by a less benevolent colonial power.

[86] On 24 September 1853, under orders from Napoleon III, Admiral Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of New Caledonia and Port-de-France (Nouméa) was founded 25 June 1854.

They were later named by Krusenstern, after English explorer John Marshall, who visited them together with Thomas Gilbert in 1788, en route from Botany Bay to Canton (two ships of the First Fleet).

This expedition landed on Isla de San Carlos (Easter Island) and signed a treaty of annexation with Rapa Nui king Atamu Tekena.

In December 1914, one German officer near Angorum attempted resist the occupation with thirty native police but his force deserted him after they fired on an Australian scouting party and he was subsequently captured.

Following a landing near Gona, on the north coast of New Guinea, Japanese forces attempted to advance south overland through the mountains of the Owen Stanley Range to seize Port Moresby as part of a strategy of isolating Australia from the United States.

A number of Japanese attacks were subsequently fought off by the Australian Militia, yet they began to withdraw over the Owen Stanley Range, down the Kokoda Track.

Further fighting continued into November and December as the Australian and United States forces assaulted the Japanese beachheads, in what later became known as the Battle of Buna–Gona.Due to its low population, Oceania was a popular location for atmospheric and underground nuclear tests.

The world's first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike", was tested at the Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands on 1 November (local date) in 1952, by the United States.

All were ultimately due to ethnic tension between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians, who originally came to the islands as indentured labor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The 1987 coup followed the election of a multi-ethnic coalition, which Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka overthrew, claiming racial discrimination against ethnic Fijians.

In 2006 the then Australia Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, warned Fijian officials of an Australian Naval fleet within proximity of Fiji that would respond to any attacks against its citizens.

Further BRA activity led to the declaration of a state of emergency and the conflict continued until about 2005, when successionist leader and self-proclaimed King of Bougainville Francis Ona died of malaria.