Melanesia

Melanesia (UK: /ˌmɛləˈniːziə/, US: /ˌmɛləˈniːʒə/) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east,^[1]^[2]^[3] and includes the Arafura Sea.^{[citation needed]}

The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Maluku islands. It also includes the Indonesian part of New Guinea, the French oversea collectivity of New Caledonia, and the Torres Strait Islands. Almost all of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere; only a few small islands that are not politically considered part of Oceania—specifically the northwestern islands of Western New Guinea—lie in the Northern Hemisphere.

The name Melanesia (in French, Mélanésie) was first used in 1832 by French navigator Jules Dumont d'Urville: he coined the terms Melanesia and Micronesia to go alongside the pre-existing Polynesia to designate what he viewed as the three main ethnic and geographical regions forming the Pacific.

The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Melanesia are called Melanesians. This is a heterogenous set of different genetic groups and ethnicities, different cultural practices (mythology, music, art, etc.), and different unrelated language families. Yet together they form a vast area with a long history of exchanges.

^ Keesing, Roger M.; Kahn, Miriam (21 April 2023). "Melanesian culture". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023. [...] Pacific Islands known as Melanesia. From northwest to southeast, the islands form an arc that begins with New Guinea (the western half of which is called Papua and is part of Indonesia, and the eastern half of which comprises the independent country of Papua New Guinea) and continues through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), New Caledonia, Fiji, and numerous smaller islands.
^ Matthews, P. H. (2014). Melanesia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967512-8. Archived from the original on 1 September 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Group of islands in the south-west Pacific running from New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east.
^ Bedford, Stuart (2014). "Melanesia". In C. Renfrew; P. Bahn (eds.). The Cambridge World Prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 622–631. doi:10.1017/CHO9781139017831.043. ISBN 978-1-139-01783-1. Melanesia, home to some 7 million people, covers a vast geographic region of the Southwest Pacific, comprising more than ten thousand islands, ranging from New Guinea, the world's second largest at some 785,753 km², to a myriad of high volcanic islands through to small low atolls, stretching for thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean.

[1] Keesing, Roger M.; Kahn, Miriam (21 April 2023). "Melanesian culture". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 20 December 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2023. [...] Pacific Islands known as Melanesia. From northwest to southeast, the islands form an arc that begins with New Guinea (the western half of which is called Papua and is part of Indonesia, and the eastern half of which comprises the independent country of Papua New Guinea) and continues through the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), New Caledonia, Fiji, and numerous smaller islands.

[2] Matthews, P. H. (2014). Melanesia. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-967512-8. Archived from the original on 1 September 2024. Retrieved 23 April 2023. Group of islands in the south-west Pacific running from New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east.

[3] Bedford, Stuart (2014). "Melanesia". In C. Renfrew; P. Bahn (eds.). The Cambridge World Prehistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 622–631. doi:10.1017/CHO9781139017831.043. ISBN 978-1-139-01783-1. Melanesia, home to some 7 million people, covers a vast geographic region of the Southwest Pacific, comprising more than ten thousand islands, ranging from New Guinea, the world's second largest at some 785,753 km², to a myriad of high volcanic islands through to small low atolls, stretching for thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean.

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