History of Oceania

The history of Oceania began with the immigration of the first humans at least 40,000 years ago, who came from Southeast Asia to the edge of Oceania and landed in Australia. Except for New Guinea and a few neighboring Melanesian islands, Oceania itself remained unpopulated.

The actual settlement began around 1500-1300 BC. BC presumably from the Philippines and Taiwan . In the course of many centuries the immigrants reached one island after another and expanded the settlement area further and further east. Above all, the Polynesians embarked on impressive voyages of discovery from their core area, the island triangle Tonga - Fiji - Samoa . With their outrigger canoes they reached Hawaii , New Zealand and in the east of the Pacific to Easter Island .

The history of this pre-European colonization is difficult to research because the peoples of Oceania had no writing. Only a few oral traditions have survived into modern times, such as B. the settlement of New Zealand by Tama Te Kapua . Written records only existed with the European voyages of discovery from the 16th century.

16th Century

Magellan's journey around the world, an example of the spirit of discovery of the 16th century

The spirit of discovery of the 16th century is decisive for numerous expeditions. The first focus is on exploring a western route across the Pacific to the rich trading centers of Asia. Later, mainly Spanish and Portuguese adventurers search for the hypothetical southern continent Terra Australis Incognita or hope to find legendary riches such as the mines of King Solomon. Due to inadequate navigation techniques, some of the island groups discovered, e.g. B. the Solomon Islands , can no longer be found and fell into oblivion. At the end of the 16th century, the Dutch began exploring Oceania too.

Since the visits by Europeans were still comparatively rare, the negative effects on the local population were still limited.

Timeline - 16th century

1513 Vasco Núñez de Balboa crosses the Isthmus of Panama coming from the north. He calls the Pacific Ocean Mar del sur ("South Sea", "South Sea"). 1520 Ferdinand Magellan crosses the strait named after him (the Strait of Magellan ) in the direction of the South Pacific and sails on the western route to the Moluccas . He gives the ocean the name "mar pacifico" ("peaceful sea"). 1521 Magellan lands on Guam and calls the archipelago "Islas de Ladrones" ("Islands of Thieves", today's Marianas and Micronesia ). 1526 Jorge de Meneses discovers New Guinea . 1527-1529 Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron tries to sail from the Moluccas to Mexico. This initially ridiculed project ends with the discovery of the Admiralty Islands (Melanesia and the eastern areas of the Carolines (Micronesia)). 1537 Fernando Grijalva discovers the Gilbert Archipelago (Micronesia). 1542-1545 Ruy López de Villalobos crosses the Pacific from Mexico. He lands in the central Marshall Islands and the western Carolines. The return trip was very unfortunate, both he and his successor did not survive the trip. His fleet, first led by Bernaldo de la Torre and then by Íñigo Ortiz de Retez , failed on the northeast trade wind , but first found the northern Marianas (Micronesia) and the Ninigo group ( Melanesia ). 1568 Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra meets the Ellica Islands and the Solomon Islands . 1579 Francis Drake crosses the North Pacific on his circumnavigation of the world on his way back to England. 1595 Alvaro de Mendaña discovers the Marquesas . But he is driven out by the armed indigenous population and sails on to the Philippines. 1599 Olivier van Noort reaches the Ladrones (Islas de Ladrones, Mariana Islands ).

17th century

Much is still undiscovered in the Pacific and, above all, the stories of those returning home from Paradise attract more and more seafarers. The motivation to travel to new worlds is great, but goes hand in hand with the greed for the pristine natural resources of the new world. Meanwhile, the church worries about the "mixing" with the heathen peoples, but is nevertheless interested in the salvation of the "savages". She reacts by publicly discrediting the fornication with the inhabitants and delegating missionaries to assist with the trips.

Timeline - 17th century

1606 Luiz Vaéz de Torres discovers the Tuamotu Archipelago , the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the strait between New Guinea and Australia, which he gives the name Torres Strait . 1609 Pedro Fernández de Quirós discovers the Banks Group , the Duff Group and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu ). 1642-1643 Coming from Batavia, Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Tasmania , New Zealand and New Britain ( Melanesia ). 1699 William Dampier sailed around New Britain and found the passage named after him between New Britain and New Guinea , the Dampier Strait .

18th century

Explorations by European explorers until 1812

1606 Willem Jansz

1606 Luiz Váez de Torres

1616 Dirk Hartog

1619 Frederick de Houtman

1644 Abel Tasman

1696 Willem de Vlamingh

1699 William Dampier

1770 James Cook

1797-1799 George Bass

1801-1803 Matthew Flinders

German map of "Australien oder Polynesien" (1795), with the different journeys of seafarers in the South Pacific.

There is less and less available on undiscovered islands, but circumnavigators like Louis Antoine de Bougainville , James Cook and others still find some unexplored areas. In addition, some of the discoveries made in the 16th century were forgotten again. Some now set about mapping the islands using modern means.

Timeline - 18th century

1722 Jakob Roggeveen discovers Easter Island and the Samoa Archipelago . 1766-1769 Louis Antoine de Bougainville explores the South Pacific. He believes that he discovered Tahiti , but does not know that Samuel Wallis had previously found the Society Islands and mapped Tahiti as "King George Island". 1769 Philip Carteret discovers the Carteret Strait between New Ireland and New Britain . 1768-1771 James Cook's first Pacific voyage leads to the discovery of the Austral Islands and the Cook Strait . 1770 The Spaniard Francisco González found and sailed around the forgotten Easter Island and took possession of it for Spain. 1772-1775 James Cook's second Pacific voyage: discovery of the Cook Islands, visits to Tonga and the Marquesas, discovery of New Caledonia . Domingo de Boenechea discovers several islands in the Tuamotu group. 1780-1781 Francisco Antonio Maurelle discovers Latte ( Late ). 1776-1780 James Cook discovered Hawaii with other British explorers, where he died on February 14, 1779 . 1791 Joseph Ingraham discovers the northern Marquesas . 1798 Edmund Fanning discovers Fanning , Washington Island and Kingman Reef (Polynesia).

19th century

Oceania around 1890

The mapping of the 18th century continues. The imperialism has started to be. Foreign island groups are increasingly being divided among the great powers. The colonization of the South Pacific is becoming a race. Above all Germans, British, French, Dutch and Americans fight over every island. The Spanish-American War leads at the end of the 19th century to a wild castling colonial territories.

Timeline - 19th century

1820 First comprehensive mapping of the Tuamotu Archipelago during a Russian Antarctic expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen . 1826-1829 Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke leads a Russian research trip through the Pacific and maps the Marianas . 1839 New Zealand is subordinated to the British colonial administration in Australia ( 1840 colony and 1907 Dominion). 1842 The Marquesas and Tuamotus are claimed as colonies of France. 1843 Tahiti becomes a French colony and will remain so well into the 20th century. 1858 American companies begin to exploit the guano deposits in the Phoenix Islands. 1860-1861 The German botanist Berthold Seemann is visiting the Fiji Islands on behalf of the British government , among other things to assess the possibilities of cotton growing. 1874 Fiji becomes part of the British colonial empire . 1874-1876 British "Challenger" expedition - start of systematic marine research; the ship visited several South Sea islands in 1875. 1875-1876 German "Gazelle" expedition under Baron Georg von Schleinitz : Research in the Bismarck Archipelago . 1877 The Gilbert Islands and the Ellice Islands come under British colonial administration. 1884-1885 Great Britain annexes southeast New Guinea . 1885 Northeast New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago become part of the German colonial empire . Spain takes possession of the Carolines and subdues them as a colony. The northern Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands become German, the southern Solomon Islands British. 1886 Holland declares western New Guinea a colony. 1887 The New Hebrides come under British-French colonial rule (so-called Anglo-French Naval Commission); the atoll groups Futuna and Alofi fall to France. 1889 Annexation of the Tokelau group by Great Britain and the Austral Islands by France. 1897 Hawaii becomes an American protectorate area. The last Hawaiian queen had previously been overthrown. 1898 Great Britain annexes the Santa Cruz Islands . 1898-1900 The Spanish-American War caused a wild change in ownership of the colonies.

20th century

Colonies in Oceania around 1914

The First World War ended the German colonial power. German colonies around the world are divided among the victorious powers in the course of the creation of the League of Nations .

When the Second World War struck Oceania, it was the site of many naval battles between the United States of America and Japan. The war is carried as far as Australia through alliance politics. The imperial colonial power of Japan collapses shortly before its defeat.

At the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, the USA began to release their colonies into self-administration, subject to certain political intervention rights and military privileges - such as the construction and maintenance of military bases. Other island states later became independent from the British Commonwealth and the French overseas departments on similar terms . In rare cases the transition to self-employment occurs with bloodshed.

Timeline - 20th Century

1900 Hawaii becomes American territory. 1914-1918 In the course of the First World War, the victorious powers divided up the German colonies in the South Seas as a mandate of the League of Nations . 1937 Great Britain annexes the Phoenix Islands. 1945 Japan has to give up its colonial empire after the surrender on September 2nd. 1946-1947 The United Nations has granted the United States the former Japanese mandates as trust territories. 1946-1969 The US is relocating the population of Bikini , Kwajalein and Eniwetok in order to carry out nuclear tests on the atolls. 1948 Great Britain hands over the token assembly to New Zealand. 1959 Hawaii becomes a state in the USA. 1962 Western Samoa gains independence. 1966-1974 France conducts nuclear tests on the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia . 1968 Nauru becomes an independent republic. 1970 Tonga and Fiji become independent. 1975 Papua New Guinea forms a sovereign state together with the Bismarck Archipelago, the Admiralty Islands, Louisiades and northern Solomon Islands. The northern Marianas form the so-called " Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands ". 1978 The central and southern Solomon Islands as well as the Ellice Islands achieve independence. 1979 The Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati ) become independent. 1980 The New Hebrides form the independent state of Vanuatu . 1981 Palau declares his separation from the rest of the Caroline Islands . 1987 Fiji becomes a republic through two successive military coups. 1994 Palau becomes 185th UN member. 1996 After violent protests, France decides to finally cease all nuclear tests in the South Pacific.