Archeologists believe that
human beings first arrived in what is now Papua New Guinea some 50,000
years ago, presumably by sea from South East Asia. These are presumed to
be the ancestors of the present inhabitants. A Spanish navigator, Don
Jorge de Meneses, is credited with naiming the southern coast of the
mainland "Papua", a Malay word for the frizziness of Melanesian
hair. The term "New Guinea" was applied to the island in 1545 by
another Spaniard, Ynigo Ortis de Retez, because of a similarity between he
island's indigenous people and those found on the Guinea coast in West
Africa.
European traders, adventurers and gold explorers from
various countries visited the area during the 17th and 18th centuries, but
no territorial claims were made until 1828 when the Dutch took control of
the western half of New Guinea (now Irian Jaya or West Papua which was
ceded to Indonesia in 1962). British and German colonists and settlers
followed, but due to the rugged terrain and isolated village communities,
the impact of colonisation was varied through the region.
Prior to the First World War PNG consisted of two
separate colonial territories. The territory of Papua was a British colony
from 1884 and was later ceded to Australia to administer. New Guinea was
part of the German Empire until the First World War when it was occupied
by Australian forces in 1914. The territory was given to Australia to
administer after the end of the War as part of Treaty of Versailles.
During the Second World War Japanese forces occupied
large parts of PNG from 1942 onwards. There was fierce fighting along the
Kokoda Trail over the Owen Stanley Ranges as the Japanese sought
unsuccessfully to capture Port Moresby. After the end of the War in 1945
the two territories were formally amalgamated into the Territory of Papua
New Guinea (TPNG).
The Australian administration focused its efforts on
developing the cash economy of TPNG through investment in agriculture and
mining and the democratisation of the central government. The Papua and
New Guinea Act of 1949 provided for a Leglislative Council, a judicial
system, a civil service and a local government system. In 1964 the first
House of Assembly was established to provide Papua New Guineans with a
greater role in the country's decision-making process. Preparations for
political independence began in the late 1960s. In 1972 Michael Somare
became Chief Minister of a democratically elected government and in 1973
the country was unified administratively and renamed Papua New Guinea. PNG
became fully independent on September 16, 1975.
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