2.5.1 European settlement and colonisationĭefinitions and extent Characteristics ĭefinitions of Oceania vary.1.2.3 Historical and contemporary interpretations.Most Oceanian countries are multi-party representative parliamentary democracies, with tourism being a large source of income for the Pacific Islands nations.

The rock art of Aboriginal Australians is the longest continuously practiced artistic tradition in the world. The Pacific theatre saw major action during the Second World War, mainly between Allied powers the United States, Philippines (a US Commonwealth at the time) and Australia, and Axis power Japan. The arrival of European settlers in subsequent centuries resulted in a significant alteration in the social and political landscape of Oceania. On his first voyage in the 18th century, James Cook, who later arrived at the highly developed Hawaiʻian Islands, went to Tahiti and followed the east coast of Australia for the first time. Portuguese explorers, between 15, reached the Tanimbar Islands, some of the Caroline Islands and west Papua New Guinea. Oceania was first explored by Europeans from the 16th century onward.

The first settlers of Australia, New Guinea, and the large islands just to the east arrived more than 60,000 years ago. Puncak Jaya in Papua is the highest peak in Oceania at 4,884 m (16,024 ft). The largest and most populous country in Oceania is Australia, and the largest city is Sydney. Oceania has a diverse mix of economies from the highly developed and globally competitive financial markets of Australia, French Polynesia, Hawaiʻi, New Caledonia, and New Zealand, which rank high in quality of life and Human Development Index, to the much less developed economies of Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western New Guinea, while also including medium-sized economies of Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, and Tonga. Its major population centres are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, Adelaide and Honolulu. When compared with the continents, the region of Oceania is the smallest in land area and the second least populated after Antarctica. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of 8,525,989 square kilometres (3,291,903 sq mi) and a population of around 44.5 million as of 2021. Oceania ( UK: / ˌ oʊ s i ˈ ɑː n i ə, ˌ oʊ ʃ i-, - ˈ eɪ n-/, US: / ˌ oʊ ʃ i ˈ æ n i ə/ ( listen), /- ˈ ɑː n-/) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

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