The Oceania reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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Oceania

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Oceania is a name used for varying groups of islands of the Pacific Ocean. In its narrow usage it refers to Polynesia (including New Zealand), Melanesia (including New Guinea) and Micronesia. In a wider usage it includes Australia. It may also include the Malay archipelago. Uncommonly usage includes islands such as Japan and the Aleutian Islands. Although the islands of Oceania do not form part of a true continent, Oceania is sometimes associated with the continent of Australia for the purposes of dividing the whole world into continental groupings. As such, it is the smallest "continent" in area and the second smallest, after Antarctica, in population. This article primarily refers to the grouping of Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Australia.

In ecology, Oceania is one of eight terrestrial ecozones, which constitute the major ecological regions of the planet. The Oceania ecozone includes all of Micronesia, Fiji, and all of Polynesia except New Zealand. New Zealand, along with New Guinea and nearby islands, Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, constitute the separate Australasia ecozone.

Every country but one in Oceania is borderless. The exception is Papua New Guinea which borders Indonesia.

Table of contents
1 Map
2 Regions and Countries
3 Population density
4 External Links

Map

Image:Oceania.jpg

See also: World map

Regions and Countries

Micronesia

Melanesia Polynesia Australia

Territories in Oceania that belong to countries of other continents include:

Population density

This is a list of countries/dependencies by population density in inhabitants/km2.

Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here.
country pop. dens. area population
  (/km²) (km²) (2002-07-01 est.)
Nauru 587 21 12,329
Tuvalu 429 26 11,146
Marshall Islands 407 181 73,630
American Samoa (US) 345 199 68,688
Guam (US) 293 549 160,796
Micronesia 194 702 135,869
Northern Mariana Islands (US) 162 477 77,311
Tokelau (N.Z.) 143 10 1,431
Tonga 142 748 106,137
Kiribati 119 811 96,335
Cook Islands (N.Z.) 87 240 20,811
French Polynesia (Fr.) 62 4,167 257,847
Samoa 61 2,944 178,631
Wallis and Futuna (Fr.) 57 274 15,585
Norfolk Island (Aus) 53 35 1,866
Fiji 47 18,270 856,346
Cocos Islands (Aus) 45 14 632
Palau 42 458 19,409
Solomon Islands 17 28,450 494,786
Vanuatu 16 12,200 196,178
New Zealand 15 268,680 3,908,037
Papua New Guinea 11 462,840 5,172,033
New Caledonia (Fr.) 11 19,060 207,858
Niue (1) 8.2 260 2,134
Christmas Island (Aus) 3.5 135 474
Australia 2.5 7,686,850 19,546,792
Pitcairn Islands (UK) 1.0 47 47
(1) Niue has strong ties with New Zealand

See also: History of Oceania

External Links


  Continents of the World
Asia | Africa | North America | South America | Antarctica | Europe | Australia
(The Pacific Islands in Oceania are not part of any continent) 






Oceania is also one of the three super-states in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, and is the location of the novel's version of London where Winston Smith, the main character lives.  It is composed of the two American continents, the British Isles, and the southern half of Africa below the Congo River.  It also controls to a different degree at various times during the course of its eternal war with Eurasia and Eastasia:  polar regions, the islands of the Pacific, Antartic regions; it occasionally conquers the rest of Africa, but is later driven back by Eurasia.  Oceania doesn't have a single capital, although what could be seen as regional capitals such as London are in place.  (See: Goldstein's book.)