Rebel leader Francis Ona and the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) fought for independence from PNG. These fast became the greatest contributors to the economy, but also social, environmental and political burdens that, in the 1980s and ’90s, took a heavy toll. The rebellion ended in 1998. A number of Papua New Guineans were decorated for their bravery. A large part of your life has revolved around plantations and the culture that accompanies them in several interesting places, including Papua New Guinea and India. Masses of abandoned war equipment were put to use in developing New Guinea. Ona’s supporters continued to defend the so-called No-Go Zone around the abandoned Panguna mine. It remains Dutch-owned for the next century. Following the passage of the Papua Act of 1905, British New Guinea became the Territory of Papua and formal Australian administration began in 1906. The Madang Resort is ideally located at the entrance of the beautiful Madang Harbor, with almost a kilometer of absolute water frontage onto Dallman Passage and Yamilon Lagoon. because of this diversity they have different expressive forms of art, songs, dances, costumes and many more to give each group th eir cultural identity. New Guinea was now divided into three sections: a Dutch half protecting the eastern edge of the Dutch East Indies; a British quarter to keep the Germans (and everybody else) away from Australia; and a German quarter that would ultimately become a highly profitable outpost of German plantation agriculture. Germany occupied parts of Papua New Guinea in 1884 and ruled over the region for a few decades. It is estimated that almost a third of Tolais from northern New Britain were killed. Upon its invasion by Japan during the Pacific War in 1941, the country’s civil administration was suspended but was restored upon Japan’s surrender to United States forces in 1945. It includes the eastern half of New Guinea and many small offshore islands. There are no longer headhunters in the Highlands, the mountainous region west of Madang. Its neighbours include Indonesia to the west, Australia to the south and Solomon Islands to the south-east. Following the war, New Guinea marched slowly towards self-rule, finally gaining independence in the 1970s. Around 9000 years ago, Papua New Guineans began cultivating local crops, becoming some of the world’s earliest farmers. They travelled vast distances in small canoes. Despite being in decline elsewhere, slavery was thriving in New Guinea during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s not known when pigs and more productive starch crops (Asian yams, taro and bananas) were introduced, but New Guineans have had domesticated pigs for at least 10,000 years. The discovery of large deposits of gold at Edie Creek and the Bulolo Valley in the 1920s brought men and wealth to the north coast. Australia enacted legislation aimed at restricting the commercial exploitation of Eastern New Guinea to British nationals and, more particularly, Australians. They were wise and able Papua New Guineans. Human occupation of the island of New Guinea happened around 42,000 years back when people from Africa migrated here. From 1977 when the national election was held, leadership changed hands continuously through votes of confidence, culminating in a nine-year rebellion by secessionist rebels that claimed the lives of 20,000 from both sides. The following decade, expeditions to the interior led to the jaw-dropping discovery of more than a million Highlanders living unknown to the outside world. The written history began when European navigators first sighted New Guinea in the early part of the 17th century. The islands quickly became notorious as the most dangerous place in the Pacific, inhabited by head-hunters and cannibals. Michael Somare, who helped lead the nation towards self-government, becomes the first prime minister. These developments saw huge rises in population, and an increase in war, slave-trading and head-hunting. In 1997 the government of Sir Julius Chan hired mercenaries to try to crush the separatists. Most Melanesians were initially militarily neutral in the conflict, although they were used extensively on both sides as labourers, guides, carriers and informers – sometimes press-ganged by the Japanese and Australians. Perhaps this was because basic food crops could not be stored long so food couldn’t be stockpiled. The high yield of sweet potatoes in cold climes allowed for the colonisation of still higher altitudes in the Highlands and the domestication of many more pigs. 2014 March - Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court begins a human rights inquiry into Australia's immigration detention centre on Manus Island. Brief History of Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. The last isolated atolls remain unsettled for another 2000 years. 1790s  The British explore the western part of the New Guinea mainland, while sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber) traders and whalers sail through the islands of New Guinea and the Solomons. The country is a constitutional monarchy and a member of the Commonwealth. From the 1980s onward, developers exploited Papua New Guinea’s huge gold and copper deposits. In 1768 Louis-Antoine de Bougainville discovered Buka, Bougainville and Choiseul islands. At Kuk (or Kup) Swamp in the Wahgi Valley in Western Highlands Province, archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation going back 20,000 years and there is evidence of gardening beginning 9000 years ago. In 1885 Germany annexed the northern coast 'New Guinea' and Britain annexed the southern regions 'Papua'. After 1945, the renamed Papua New Guine… Long ago, an earthquake greeted Bro. The Autonomous Bougainville Government was sworn into office on 15 June 2005 with Joseph Kabui as its president. The British East India Company explored parts of western New Guinea in 1793 and even made a tentative claim on the island but in 1824 Britain and the Netherlands agreed the latter’s colonial claim to the western half of the New Guinea island should stand (and it did until 1963). The migrations were made easier by a fall in the sea level during the Pleistocene period, or Great Ice Age, and by a land bridge that linked PNG with northern Australia. The first Europeans arrived in the 16th century; Portugal named the area, while Spain started several colonies that ended in disaster. Meanwhile, the 1990s also saw tragic natural disasters, including a volcanic eruption that buried Rabaul. 1526  Jorge de Menezes, Portuguese explorer and governor of Ternate in present-day Indonesia, becomes the first European to land on the New Guinea mainland; he names the region Ilhas dos Papuas. In the 18th century the British and French explored various parts, though it wasn’t until the Germans arrived on the scene in the late 1800s that the Brits got serious, ‘claiming’ most of New Guinea as an official British protectorate in the 1880s. Having raced south through Asia and the Pacific, the Japanese occupied Rabaul in New Guinea in January 1942. The Governor-General is elected directly by Members of the National Parliament and performs mainly ceremonial func… Copra, rubber, coffee and cocoa were the main earners. The eastern half of New Guinea was first explored by Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th century. The prehistory of Papua New Guinea can be traced to about 60,000 years ago, when people first migrated towards the Australian continent. When Mick Leahy ventured inland in 1930 he was looking for gold. Colonialism wasn’t popular in the 1950s and ’60s and Australia was urged to prepare Papua and New Guinea for independence. 1998  On 17 July, a 10m tsunami hits the coastal region west of Aitape in Sandaun Province, killing more than 2200 people and causing injuries to another 1000. 1914  Australia seizes German New Guinea at the outbreak of WWI and is officially given German New Guinea in 1920 as a mandated territory by the League of Nations. New Guinea" (Nueva Guinea) was the name coined by the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez.In 1545, he noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa. Papua New Guinea also belongs to the Pacific Islands Forum, of which the United States is a Dialogue Partner. Around 9000 years ago, Papua New Guineans began cultivating local crops, becoming some of the world’s earliest farmers. A Brief History of Papua New Guinea 1526 = a Portuguese explorer becomes the first European to reach the island of New Guinea , and names it Papua. US soldiers – many of them black – treated locals as equals and shared food with them. In a flanking move, the Japanese landed at Milne Bay but were repulsed after a bloody 10-day battle with Australian troops. Australian troops fought back an advance along the rugged Kokoda Track, which the Japanese were using in an attempt to reach and take Port Moresby, the only remaining Australian stronghold on the island. Papua New Guinea’s constitution was adopted in 1975 and has been amended frequently since then. The country's geography is diverse. Mick Leahy’s meticulous recording of events – in his diary, several hours of 16mm film and more than 5000 photographs – can be seen in the 1983 documentary First Contact. Francis Ona, leader of the BRA and staunch opponent of the BPA, died of malaria barely a month later on 24 July 2005. 30,000 BC  Papuan-speaking hunter-gatherers from New Guinea settle islands in the eastern Solomons before the sea levels rise with the end of the Ice Age in 10,000 BC. By September 1942 the previously undefeated Japanese were in a slow and bloody retreat. March 2005  A diplomatic spat between PNG and Australia erupts after Prime Minister Michael Somare is asked to remove his shoes at a routine security screening in Brisbane airport. Eager to protect incursions into the eastern end of their fabulously profitable Dutch East Indies Empire (modern-day Indonesia), the Dutch East Indies Company claimed sovereignty over unexplored New Guinea in 1660. Due to hostile territory and fierce natives, Europeans weren’t very interested in the region, though in 1660 the Dutch claimed sovereignty over unexplored parts to help protect its Dutch East Indies Empire. During the First World … As surprising as it is, history tends to work this way. Papua New Guinea: Introduction Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island New Guinea and numerous offshore islands. The dawn of the Lutheran Christian Faith in Papua New Guinea came on July 12 1886 through Johann Flierl when he sailed into the quiet beaches of Simbang, Finschhafen. However, the war’s main impact proved to be social and political. 1930  The Leahy brothers walk into and ‘discover’ the Highlands – and about one million people living completely unaware of the outside world. October 2011  Following discoveries of enormous gas fields, work commences on an 850km-long pipeline – part of the US$15 billion LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) project, which could potentially double the country’s GDP. First the giant Ok Tedi gold-and-copper mine poisoned much of the Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers, and then conflict over profits from the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville led to war. The Highlanders, who had only known a barter economy, were quick to adapt to cash. An influx of expatriates to Papua and New Guinea, mainly Australians, fuelled rapid economic growth. Papua and New Guinea used to be separate entities, influenced and colonized over 250 years by the Sultanate of Tidore, Holland, Germany, Britain and Japan. The Head of State is HM Queen Elizabeth II, represented in Papua New Guinea by a Governor-General, currently His Excellency Sir Robert Dadae. This was something that locals had never experienced from their colonial overlords. A History of Papua New Guinea and its Neighbours is the first term's work of the Grade 9 Provincial High School Social Science Course. 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