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Pacific Islands
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Map of the Pacific Islands region showing political boundaries, major island groups, and countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, French Polynesia, and Kiribati. The map uses color shading to indicate elevation and ocean depth, with key islands and capitals labeled throughout the central and southwestern Pacific Ocean. houses on stilts, Papua New Guinea Map of the Pacific Ocean region showing three major culture areas highlighted in different colors: Micronesia in purple, Melanesia in green, and Polynesia in yellow. The map includes labeled islands and island groups such as Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Guam, and the Marshall Islands, with the culture area boundaries spanning across the central and southern Pacific. Aerial view of Bora-Bora showing green volcanic peaks surrounded by a turquoise lagoon and a narrow strip of land, with deep blue ocean beyond, in French Polynesia. islet of Bairiki, Kiribati traditionally dressed dancers, Solomon Islands Population-density map of Pacific island countries and territories, with darker shading indicating more people per square kilometer. Naoero is the most densely populated, while many larger island groups, including Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and French Polynesia, have lower densities. Thatched hut on stilts over clear blue water in Bora-Bora, French Polynesia, with an island and palm trees in the background. Lapita pottery
Oceanic voyages of Ferdinand Magellan and his crew, 1519–22
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Map of the Pacific Islands region showing political boundaries, major island groups, and countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, French Polynesia, and Kiribati. The map uses color shading to indicate elevation and ocean depth, with key islands and capitals labeled throughout the central and southwestern Pacific Ocean.
Pacific Islands

Pacific Islands

region, Pacific Ocean
Written by
Francis James West
Emeritus Professor of History and Government, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia. Author of Political Advancement in the South Pacific and others.
Francis James WestAll
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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Pacific Islands, island geographic region of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises three ethnogeographic groupings—Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia—but conventionally excludes the neighbouring island continent of Australia, the Asia-related Indonesian, Philippine, and Japanese archipelagoes, and the Ryukyu, Bonin, Volcano, and Kuril island arcs that project seaward from Japan. Neither does the term include the Aleutian chain or such isolated islands of the Pacific Ocean as the Juan Fernández group off the coast of South America. The more...

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