St. Matthias Islands
| St. Matthias Islands | ||
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| Waters | Bismarcksee | |
| archipelago | Bismarck Archipelago | |
| Geographical location | 1 ° 35 ′ S , 149 ° 49 ′ E | |
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| Number of islands | approx. 10 | |
| Main island | Mussau | |
| Total land area | approx. 480 km² | |
| Residents | 3600 | |
The St. Matthias Islands (also Mussau Islands ) are an archipelago of around 10 volcanic islands , located north of New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago . Politically, they belong to the province of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea . The largest and northernmost island is Mussau ; Emirau lies to the east and Eloaua to the south of Mussau.
The archipelago was discovered for Europe in 1616 by the Dutch navigators Jacob Le Maire and Willem Cornelisz Schouten . From 1885 to 1899 the St. Matthias Islands belonged to the so-called " German Protected Area " and from 1899 to 1914 to the colony of German New Guinea .
On April 1, 1901, Bruno Mencke, the financier and leader of the Mencke expedition , and three of his companions died in an attack by locals on Mussau . It remained unclear whether one of the companions fell victim to cannibalism . As a reaction to the death of Mencke and his companions, members of the German police force and a landing department of the cruiser SMS Cormoran under the command of Corvette Captain Max Grapow carried out a "punitive expedition" on Mussau to massacre the island's inhabitants.
In 1914 the islands were conquered by Australian troops, and after the First World War they were administered as a mandate of the League of Nations of Australia. Since 1975 they have been part of the independent state of Papua New Guinea.
The St. Matthias Islands have been classified by BirdLife International as a bird sanctuary for endemic bird species (Endemic Bird Areas, EBA). A subspecies of the woodpecker parrots, the St. Matthias woodpecker parrot (Micropsitta meeki proxima) is only known from Mussau and Emirau. The white-backed monarch or St. Matthias monarch (Monarcha menckei) and the black-breasted fan tail (Rhipidura matthiae) are both endemic and classified as "almost threatened".
literature
- Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . Volume 2: H - O. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, p. 606.
- Simon Haberberger: Colonialism and Cannibalism. Cases from German New Guinea and British New Guinea, 1884-1914 . Sources u. Research on the South Seas. Series B. Research 3. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007. ISBN 3-447-05578-2
Web links
- Saint Matthias Islands on oceandots.com ( Memento from December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Simon Haberberger: Colonialism and cannibalism. Cases from German New Guinea and British New Guinea 1884-1914 Sources and research on the South Seas. Series B. Research 3. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007. S. 74 / S. 75 ISBN 3-447-05578-2
- ↑ Simon Haberberger, Kolonialismus und Kannibalismus, pp. 73–76 (see lit.)