- American Samoa
- Ashmore and Cartier Islands
- Australia
- Fiji
- Guam
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Micronesia
- Nauru
- New Zealand
- Palau
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
- Vanuatu
Vanuatu
Introduction Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceding European exploration in the 18th century. This sett ...
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Tuvalu
Introduction In 1974, ethnic differences within the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands caused the Polynesians of the Ellice Islands to vote for separation from the Microne ...
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Tonga
Introduction Tonga - unique among Pacific nations - never completely lost its indigenous governance. The archipelagos of "The Friendly Islands" were united into a Polynesian kingdom in ...
Read More »Solomon Islands
Introduction The UK established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in the 1890s. Some of the most bitter fighting of World War II occurred on this archipelago. Self-government was ...
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Samoa
Introduction New Zealand occupied the German protectorate of Western Samoa at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. It continued to administer the islands as a mandate and then as a trus ...
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Palau
Introduction After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the Caroline Islands opted for independence in 197 ...
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New Zealand
Introduction The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sover ...
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Nauru
Introduction The exact origins of the Nauruans are unclear since their language does not resemble any other in the Pacific region. Germany annexed the island in 1888. A German-British c ...
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Micronesia
Introduction The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean; they became part of a UN Trust Territory under US administration following World War I ...
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Marshall Islands
Introduction After almost four decades under US administration as the easternmost part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands attained independence in 19 ...
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Kiribati
Introduction The Gilbert Islands became a British protectorate in 1892 and a colony in 1915; they were captured by the Japanese in the Pacific War in 1941. The islands of Makin and Tara ...
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Guam
Introduction Spain ceded Guam to the US in 1898. Captured by the Japanese in 1941, it was retaken by the US three years later. The military installation on the island is one of the most ...
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Fiji
Introduction Fiji became independent in 1970 after nearly a century as a British colony. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987 caused by concern over a governmen ...
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United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
Introduction All of the following US Pacific island territories except Midway Atoll constitute the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex and as such are managed ...
Read More »Australia
Introduction Prehistoric settlers arrived on the continent from Southeast Asia at least 40,000 years before the first Europeans began exploration in the 17th century. No formal territor ...
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