Guinea [gi ne ː a], English New Guinea [ nju ː g ɪ n ɪ ], Indonesian Irian, the second largest island in the world, north of Australia, 2100 kilometers long and nearly 800 km wide, 785,800 km 2, around (2014) 11.3 million residents; the western part belongs to Indonesia as Papua (until 2002 Irian Jaya), the eastern part forms the main part of Papua New Guinea.
National nature: The island, which is tectonically connected to Australia by the Sahul shelf, lies on the edge of the Australian plate against the deep sea-covered Pacific plate in a very mobile zone of the earth’s crust, which is characterized by young fold mountain formations, volcanism and earthquakes. Active volcanism can be found in the east of the island, at Mount Lamington (1,785 m above sea level). Pronounced tectonic processes show up v. a. in the northern coastal mountains. Vigorous uplift (3 m per 1,000 years) created stair-like marine terraces, v. a. on the Huon Peninsula. The coast is divided by many bays (Geelvink Bay, MacCluergolf, Papuagolf, Huongolf). Almost its entire length of the island is traversed by several parallel mountain ranges, which unite in the extreme south-east to form the chain of the Owen Stanley Mountains, which forms the peninsula extending to the southeast; in the Vogelkop peninsula in the west, the mountains end in a mountainous and hilly country. In the Maoke Mountains in the west of the island lies the highest mountain, the Puncak Jaya volcano (4,884 m above sea level). To the south of the mountain ranges, the alluvial plain of the Digul, Fly River, etc., is up to 500 km wide and largely marshy in the west. on. On the northern edge there are smaller river plains (Sepik in the east, Mamberamo headwaters in the west), which in turn are bounded by lower mountain ranges in the north; the eastern mountain range drops steeply to the coast, the western is the alluvial fan of the Mamberamo. There are also lowlands in the south of the Vogelkop Peninsula and in the center of the Bomberai Peninsula. The longest rivers are the Sepik and Fly River (approx.
The climate is tropical with high precipitation and low seasonal and daily temperature differences. The precipitation falls all year round, it is caused by the northwest monsoon from December to April and by the southeast trade wind from May to November; however, there is a local dry season during the southeast trade winds around Port Moresby and Merauke (both on the south coast), so that these regions only receive 1,000 and 1,500 mm of precipitation annually, in contrast to the mountains with 7,000–8,000 mm and the north coast with 2,000–3,000 mm annually. Visit sunglassestracker.com for Papua New Guinea as a destination.
The vegetation is characterized by thick forest (two thirds of the island). Mangrove vegetation on the coasts and in wetlands; The sago palm, which is important for food, thrives in non-brackish swamp areas. The mountainous area is covered by tropical rainforest (up to about 1,000 m above sea level), followed by tropical mountain forest with dense undergrowth of moss and herbs. Above 3,300 m above sea level, there are conifers and tree ferns, which give way to alpine mats at a height above 3 800 m above sea level.
In the animal world, there is the proximity to Australia and the formerly existing him land link a series of matches. Of the more than 900 bird species in the territory of Australia and New Guinea found more than half of New Guinea. The birds of paradise and the large, flightless cassowary live Torre road on both sides, like the echidna and various marsupial species.
The population is cultural and v. a. linguistically very differentiated. There are two main language families, the Melanesian and the Papuan languages. The majority of the population consists of Papuans, the descendants of the indigenous people who invaded the highlands at least 30,000 years ago; In addition to hunting and collecting, they lived here for at least 9,000 years from farming and pig farming. The carriers of the Melanesian languages (Melanesians) immigrated from the west about 5,000 years ago (Lapita culture, Oceania), settled before Christ. a. on the coasts, the Papuans displaced or mingled with them. Modern immigrants include Europeans and Chinese as well as Indonesians.
History: New Guinea was discovered by the Spaniards in 1526 and recognized as an island in 1606. In 1828 the Netherlands took possession of the western half of the island, in 1884 Germany the north-eastern part (German New Guinea, Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land) and Great Britain the south-eastern part (Papua). The British part became territory of the Australian Confederation in 1946. In September 1914, Australian troops occupied the German part, which also included the Bismarck Archipelago. In 1921 the Australian Confederation received this area as a mandate from the League of Nations, and in 1946 as a trust area of the UN. The coastal areas of New Guinea in the north and south were occupied by Japanese troops in 1942-44. In 1949, the Australian government of Papua and the trust territory merged to form the administrative unit of Papua New Guinea.
When the Dutch East Indies became independent under the name Indonesia in 1949, Dutch New Guinea (Western New Guinea) remained as an overseas part of the empire linked to the Netherlands under constitutional law. The Dutch New Guinea claim made by Indonesia was rejected by the Netherlands. A Dutch-Indonesian conference (1955/56) failed because of this problem. Since January 1962, Indonesia tried to forcibly incorporate Dutch New Guinea into its territory by landing troops. Through the mediation of the USA and the UN, the Netherlands and Indonesia signed a treaty on August 15, 1962 on the constitutional and international status of this area. After that, the UN took over on October 1, 1962, and Indonesia took over the administration of the island on May 1, 1963. After a referendum agreed in the treaty, the majority of the population decided in 1969 to remain with Indonesia.
