The settlement patterns of Oceania were limited by the physical geography of the region. Isolated valleys, such as those on the larger islands of Melanesia, created an environment of cultural differences between people living on the coast and those living inland.
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How does tourism affect Oceania’s island nations?
Tourism is the continent’s largest industry, measured by the number of jobs it creates and the money it spreads throughout the Pacific Islands. Tourism, however, also can negatively affect the economies and ecosystem s of Australia and Oceania’s island nations. It can lead to overcrowding and depletion of isolated islands’ scarce resources.
Why study Oceania?
Due to colonial neglect and historical isolation, the Pacific Islands, home to the world's most diverse range of indigenous cultures, continue to sustain many ancestral life-ways. Fewer than 6.5 million in all, the peoples of Oceania possess a vast repository of cultural traditions and ecological adaptations.
Why Oceania has the most to lose from globalization?
Oceania thus has the most to lose, culturally speaking, from the pressures of global political and economic change. Spread across a vast expanse of ocean, Pacific Island peoples occupy an array of environments, from Papua New Guinea's massive mountains to the atolls and lagoons of European fantasy to Auckland New Zealand's urban jungles.
What is the economy like in Oceania?
Australia, in particular, has many raw minerals and energy sources, and manufacturing is a large part of its and Oceania's economy. The rest of Oceania and specifically the Pacific islands are not well developed. Some of the islands have rich natural resources, but the majority do not.
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Why is Oceania important to the world?
Due to colonial neglect and historical isolation, the Pacific Islands, home to the world's most diverse range of indigenous cultures, continue to sustain many ancestral life-ways. Fewer than 6.5 million in all, the peoples of Oceania possess a vast repository of cultural traditions and ecological adaptations.
What is the geography of Oceania?
Oceania is a region made up of thousands of islands throughout the Central and South Pacific Ocean. It includes Australia, the smallest continent in terms of total land area.
Why is agriculture difficult in Oceania?
Much of Oceania lacks ----- land, which in turn limits agriculture. Farmers on smaller islands use traditional farming and fishing. On some islands, the village or island ------owns the land and rents or leases it to farmers.
What is the climate of Oceania?
Oceania is generally hot and humid year-round. The islands have no true winter or summer, but many areas experience seasonal changes in winds, ocean currents, and rainfall.
What factors affect the climates of Oceania?
In Australia and Oceania, an island's overall land area, latitude, relation to different winds, and geographic isolation determine its climate.
Which of the following statements best describes the early human settlement of Oceania?
Which of the following statements best describes the early human settlement of Oceania? New Zealand was one of the last areas of Oceania to be settled by humans.
Why are the low islands of Oceania particularly at risk due to climate change?
Why is global action to address climate change a particular concern for the low islands of the Pacific? Climate change causes sea levels to rise, which causes loss of land on the islands. plantation agriculture.
Are farmers rich in Australia?
Agriculture accounts for 3 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product, with a gross farm-gate value estimated at $60 billion at last count, but it hasn't made a lot of people rich, relative to other sectors.
What are two types of renewable resources in Oceania?
Options include household photovoltaic (PV) systems and hydroelectricity on the hillier islands.
What is the economy like in Oceania?
The area known as Oceania has a widely varied economy, with the large nations of Australia and New Zealand having modern, industrial economies, while the smaller island nations depend largely on agriculture, fishing, and tourism.
What are some of the environmental threats to Oceania?
The state of the environment report, published by Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand on behalf of the region, tracks five key environmental issues affecting the lives of Oceania's peoples. These issues are coastal erosion/sea level rise; food and water; extreme weather; offshore mining and drilling; and climate finance.
What is the population of Oceania?
43,843,052Oceania Population (LIVE) The current population of Oceania is 43,843,052 as of Saturday, August 20, 2022, based on the latest United Nations estimates. Oceania population is equivalent to 0.54% of the total world population.
What is Oceania region?
Oceania is a region made up of thousands of islands throughout the Central and South Pacific Ocean. It includes Australia, the smallest continent in terms of total land area.
What is considered Oceania?
Oceania, collective name for the islands scattered throughout most of the Pacific Ocean. The term, in its widest sense, embraces the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas. A more common definition excludes the Ryukyu, Kuril, and Aleutian islands and the Japan archipelago.
Which can be found in Oceania?
Countries in Oceania:#CountrySubregion1FijiMelanesia2Papua New GuineaMelanesia3Solomon IslandsMelanesia4Marshall IslandsMicronesia10 more rows
What is a fact about Oceania?
Oceania is the smallest continent in the world by land area. At 3,291,903 square miles (8,525,989 km2), Oceania is the smallest continent in the world in terms of land area. And its population of just over 40 million people makes it the 6th least populous continent in the world, behind Antarctica.
Why did European powers claim Australia and Oceania's lands as their own?
European powers claimed Australia and Oceania’s lands as their own because they considered them terra nullius, or a “no man’s land” inhabited by heathen natives. Colonizers implemented their own systems of governance, land management, and trade. These efforts had severe consequence s that continue to affect indigenous groups and their cultural systems today.
What were the islands that the seafarers colonized?
By 1000 CE, these seafarers had colonize d the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. In the process, they established a unique, ocean-oriented culture that persists today. Indigenous cultures of Australia and Oceania also changed the environments in which they lived.
What are the conflicts between indigenous groups, the government, and corporations?
Conflicts over land use and resource rights continue to occur between indigenous groups, the government, and corporations. Cultural practices, especially in sports and the arts, aim to unite Australia and Oceania’s isolated peoples at a regional level.
How does tourism affect Australia?
It can lead to overcrowding and depletion of isolated islands’ scarce resources. Tourism often focuses on fishing and other recreational water sports.
Which countries were the most important colonial powers in the region?
England, France, Germany, and Spain became the most important colonial powers in the region. Today, many countries, especially Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia, have majority European populations and a strong European culture. English is the dominant language throughout most of the continent.
What is the name of the Pacific Ocean?
The name “Oceania” justly establishes the Pacific Ocean as the defining characteristic of the region. Oceania is dominated by the nation of Australia. The other two major landmasses are the microcontinent of Zealandia, which includes the country of New Zealand, and the western half of the island of New Guinea, made up of the nation ...
How does migration affect the Mariana Islands?
Adaptation to life abroad necessarily challenges island patterns of kinship and family life , although many migrant communities sustain their identity through vigorous church organizations and other, less formal methods. In the rotating credit associations of Honolulu's Tongan community, people gather around the kava bowl weekly to raise money for members, often to support travel back to Tonga.
Why is the Pacific Islands important?
Due to colonial neglect and historical isolation, the Pacific Islands, home to the world's most diverse range of indigenous cultures, continue to sustain many ancestral life-ways. Fewer than 6.5 million in all, the peoples of Oceania possess a vast repository of cultural traditions and ecological adaptations. Papua New Guinea alone is home to one-third of the world's languages - about 780 distinct vernaculars. Oceania thus has the most to lose, culturally speaking, from the pressures of global political and economic change.
How do islanders encounter the world?
Even where tourists are scarce, Islanders now encounter the world through videotape and television. In most Pacific Islands, these technologies are too recent to judge their effects. Their spreading popularity, however, and the appearance of Rambo and Kung Fu on the most remote atolls and reefs, testify to the importance of concerns for the state of the indigenous peoples of Oceania.
Why is migration necessary in the Pacific?
In part, it is the way small island states must deal with rapid population growth and limited economic development. Economic remittances from migrants to their families back home provide a significant part of the gross national product of several Pacific states .
How does tourism affect indigenous people?
Tourism's effects on indigenous peoples vary. Tourism can endanger the environment, provide poorly paid service jobs, and bastardize traditional arts. On the other hand, tourists can bring income and information to rural communities. Various Pacific states are working to promote informed, controlled tourism that doesn't undermine indigenous cultures or tip the environmental balance.
What are the threats of typhoons?
Environmental forces pose a major threat to island communities. A typhoon can denude an atoll of living vegetation and ruin all sources of groundwater. In Fiji and Samoa, the damage from recent major storms to villages and national infrastructure will take years to rebuild.
What is the theme of the Bougainville rebellion?
Just as "culture" and cultural survival are themes in an armed rebellion on Bougainville seeking separation from Papua New Guinea, cultural identity and integrity are invoked by the military government of Fiji to rationalize its denial of rights to Indo-Fijians.
Which islands are part of the Oceania?
Migration to far-flung Oceania islands, which includes modern-day Tonga, Samoa and Micronesia as well as Hawaii and New Zealand , continues to baffle scientists.
Where did the settlers move from?
Researchers led by Alvaro Montenegro from Ohio State University in the US put together detailed data on climate events, ocean currents and wind to create computer simulations of oceanic voyages, and found settlers moved from the Pacific to remote Oceania islands with the wind.
Where did the voyages to Micronesia start?
The simulations show central and eastern Micronesia were probably reached by downwind voyages starting from the eastern and western Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji, while Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island were likely reached from the Marquesas or Society Islands.
What problems did Europeans face in Fiji?
Problems became more serious after permanent European settlers arrived. In Fiji, for example, following Cakobau’s first offer to cede the islands to Great Britain in 1858, Europeans began to establish plantations of coconuts and then, during the American Civil War, of cotton and afterward of sugarcane. Developments in Samoa were similar. But planters needed land on a much larger scale than did traders, and they needed labour in much greater quantities to work the plantations. Land sales caused friction because “ownership” was not an Oceanian concept, and land titles were thus disputed or resented. Labour recruiting often caused the breakup of traditional societies if too many males left their communities and the creation of immigrant labour communities if they did not. By 1870 there were 2,000 such permanent European residents in Fiji.
What did the French do to protect the Society Islands?
Dissidents and heretics looked to these Europeans for leadership, and they turned to their own national governments for protection. The French took control of the Society Islands and nearby archipelagoes beginning in 1842. They also established missionary control of Wallis and Futuna.
Why did the pearl shell trade decline?
Pearl shell attracted traders to the Tuamotus in 1807, and the sandalwood trade declined as supplies were exhausted. However, Europeans in both trades were harsh and sometimes committed atrocities, and pearling declined as islanders began to take reprisals.
Why did the trading community grow?
Beachcombers and castaways preceded missionaries in many of the islands, but trading communities grew partly because of the missionaries’ work in restraining native violence. Those individuals were initially pork traders in Tahiti, but European captains followed valuable cargoes from island to island.
What did missionaries do to the Pacific Island?
Missionaries thus altered political structures, introduced both European goods and the desire for them, and acted as intermediaries between Pacific Island societies and other Europeans —as political advisers, as agents, and as interpreters.
How did the missionary kingdoms address the problems of European lawlessness in the islands?
The missionary kingdoms addressed problems of European lawlessness in the islands by attempting to enforce a scriptural code of law. Although missionaries could not prevent the sale of arms, they could at least ensure that these passed into the hands of friendly chiefs.
How did labour recruiting affect Fiji?
Labour recruiting often caused the breakup of traditional societies if too many males left their communities and the creation of immigrant labour communities if they did not. By 1870 there were 2,000 such permanent European residents in Fiji.
Why are Australia and Oceania unique?
After sea levels rose, species adapted to the environment of each island or community of islands, producing multiple species that evolved from a common ancestor. Due to its isolation from the rest of the world, Australia and Oceania has an incredibly high number of endemic species, or species that are found nowhere else on Earth.
What are the three islands of Oceania?
Oceania also includes three island regions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (including the U.S. state of Hawaii). Oceania’s physical geography, environment and resource s, and human geography can be considered separately.
What is the name of the continent that is dominated by Australia?
The name “Oceania” justly establishes the Pacific Ocean as the defining characteristic of the continent. Oceania is dominated by the nation of Australia. The other two major landmasses of Oceania are the microcontinent of Zealandia, which includes the country of New Zealand, and the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, ...
How do atolls form?
An atoll forms when a coral reef builds up around a volcanic island, then the volcanic island erode s away, leaving a lagoon. Atolls are defined as one island even though they are made up of multiple communities of coral. The island regions of Micronesia and Polynesia are dominated by low islands.
Why is Melanesia a high island?
The island region of Melanesia contains many high islands because it is a major part of the “ Ring of Fire ,” a string of volcano es around the boundary of the Pacific Ocean. This part of the Ring of Fire is on the boundary of the Pacific plate and the Australian plate.
How are high islands created?
High Islands. High islands, also called volcanic islands, are created as volcanic eruptions build up land over time. These eruptions begin under water, when hot magma is cooled and hardened by the ocean. Over time, this activity creates islands with a steep central peak—hence the name “high island.”.
Which continent is made up of thousands of islands throughout the South Pacific Ocean?
A variety of whale, tortoise, and fish species also inhabit this realm. Australia and Oceania is a continent made up of thousands of islands throughout the South Pacific Ocean. Map by the National Geographic Society. Most Renewable Electricity Produced. New Zealand (73%; hydropower, geothermal, wind, biomass)
Why is Australia separated from Oceania?
It is separated because of its location in the middle of the Indo-Australian Plate and the fact that, due to its location, there was no mountain building during its development. Instead, Australia's current physical landscape features were formed mainly by erosion. The second landscape category in Oceania is the islands found on ...
How many people live in Oceania?
Most recently in 2018, Oceania's population was around 41 million people, with the majority centered in Australia and New Zealand. Those two countries alone accounted for more than 28 million people, while Papua New Guinea had a population of over 8 million.
What is the last type of landscape in Oceania?
Finally, coral reef islands and atolls such as Tuvalu are the last type of landscape found in Oceania. Atolls specifically are responsible for the formation of low-lying land regions, some with enclosed lagoons.
What is the name of the region consisting of island groups within the Central and South Pacific Ocean?
Oceania is the name of the region consisting of island groups within the Central and South Pacific Ocean. It spans over 3.3 million square miles (8.5 million sq km). Some of the countries included in Oceania are Australia, New Zealand, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Palau, Micronesia, ...
What are the three landscape types found in Oceania?
Volcanic islands such as Fiji are the third category of landscape types found in Oceania. These islands typically rise from the seafloor through hotspots in the Pacific Ocean basin. Most of these areas consist of very small islands with high mountain ranges. Finally, coral reef islands and atolls such as Tuvalu are the last type ...
Why is tourism important in Oceania?
Tourism is also important to Oceania because many of the tropical islands like Fiji offer aesthetic beauty, while Australia and New Zealand are modern cities with modern amenities. New Zealand has also become an area centered on the growing field of ecotourism . Rosenberg, Matt. "The Geography of Oceania.".
How many sub-regions are there in Oceania?
In terms of its physical geography, the islands of Oceania are often divided into four different sub-regions based on the geologic processes playing a role in their physical development.
