Australia and Oceania - Southern mysterious land. Australia and Oceania: Overview

Oceania In 1831, the French navigator Jules Dumont-Durville proposed the name "Oceania" for the islands of Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. He included Oceania and Australia, but the term "Australia and Oceania" is now more commonly used, since

Australia and Oceania AUSTRALIA, the official name of the Commonwealth of Australia - a state located on the mainland of Australia and a number of nearby islands, the largest of which is the island of Tasmania. In addition, Australia owns the Antarctic Territory (sector

Australia and Oceania Which country occupies an entire continent? Australia occupies a whole continent and the island of Tasmania. This country is located in the Southern Hemisphere, so the seasons are opposite in relation to the inhabitants of Eurasia. For example, New Year's Eve

What is Oceania? If you look at the map of the Pacific Ocean, you can see the largest cluster of islands on our planet - Oceania. Islands - and large, and small, and very tiny - there are more than ten thousand. They are divided into Polynesia (in Greek this means

Oceania is a part of the world, which consists of the largest cluster of islands and atolls in the world, located in the Pacific Ocean. Quite often, Australia is attached to this part of the world.

The countries of Australia and Oceania include 4 regions:

1. Australia;
2. Melanesia;
3. Micronesia;
4. Polynesia.

On the territory of each of the districts there are independent and dependent states.

The Australian continent can be briefly described as follows:

Melanesia

The Melanesia region consists of the following countries:

The country is part of the British Commonwealth. The entire economy of Vanuatu is built on the agricultural sector. It is in agriculture that more than 80% of all working residents of this island republic are employed.

micronesia

Micronesia is made up of the following states:

1. . The capital is the city of Hagatna. The island of Guam is known in the world as a resort. More than 20 hotels with a high level of service have been built on the territory of the state. Most of the tourists in Guam are Japanese.

   Guam is the largest of the Mariana Islands located in the Western Pacific Ocean.

2. Kiribati is an island nation resembling lost World. For many centuries indigenous people country adheres national traditions. Kiribati is an exceptional place where there is no TV and Internet.
3. The Marshall Islands cover only 181 sq. km. This archipelago is famous for growing coconut trees, breadfruit and exotic tropical fruits. The capital of the republic is the city of Majuro. Not in the archipelago a large number natural resources and developed industry. The entire budget of the country is formed by foreign financial assistance and income from the tourism sector.
4. Nauru is a country without a capital. This state is striking in its miniature size. The area of ​​Nauru is only 21 square meters. km. The island is not in demand among vacationers because of the very hot climate. This dwarf country is located almost on the equator. During the day the air temperature reaches +40. Today, this state can hardly be called developed. Phosphorites were previously mined on the territory of Nauru, but today the extraction of this natural resource has been suspended.
5. Palau is an archipelago of over 200 small islands. But people live only on 8 of them. The population does not exceed 19,000 people. Palau is one of the most famous resorts diving.
6. - This administrative territory who did not join America. This community occupies only 477 square meters. km. It is famous for highly developed tourism and colorful national traditions.

   Mariana Islands - a paradise for tourists

7. Atoll Wake. total area The territory of the island is only 6.5 sq. km. This small state is subordinate to the United States of America. An American military base, so it is practically closed to tourists.

Australia is the most small mainland Earth. Together with the adjacent islands, it is entirely located in the southern hemisphere. The name of this continent, discovered and settled later than others, comes from the Latin word australis - southern.

The southern tropic crosses Australia so that a smaller part of the mainland is located to the north of it. extreme points mainland in the north - Cape York (10 ° 41 "S), in the south - South East Point Cape (39 ° 11" N), in the west - Cape Steep Point (113 ° 05 "E .d.), in the east - Cape Byron (153 ° 34 "E). The length of Australia from north to south is 3200 km, from west to east about 4100 km, the area is 7614.5 thousand km 2.

Rice. 133. Physiographic zoning of Australia
The red circles on the map indicate the regions for which there are photos on our website
natural landscapes, geographical and biological objects (in the section Natural landscapes of the world).
By clicking on the red circle you will be taken to the main page of photos of this geographical region.

The modern name of the mainland appeared on maps relatively recently- at the beginning of the 20s. 19th century Prior to this, separate parts of the continent were called by the names received from the discoverers. So, northern lands The Dutch called New Holland, the first English colony in the east became known as New South Wales. And only when the captain of the Royal Navy Matthew Flinders sailed around the mainland, the name "Australia" appeared.

In the north off the coast of Australia are islands Melville, Bathurst, Groote Island and other smaller ones in the south - located within the continental shelf of the island of Tasmania, King, Flinders and Kangaroo. In the west, the largest island is Derk Hartog, in the east, Fraser.

Australia is bordered by the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is not connected by land to any other continent. Therefore, Australia, also referring to its small size, is sometimes called mainland-island.

Australian nature peculiar to a greater extent than the nature of all other continents except Antarctica. It is distinguished by the antiquity of landscapes, originality, endemism and antiquity of the organic world, features of the development and change of natural conditions by man.

To the north and east of Australia, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, there are many large and small islands of mainland, coral and volcanic origin. All of these islands are called Oceania. The total area of ​​the islands of Oceania is approximately 1.3 million km2.

Oceania is usually divided into several parts.

The largest western islands, closest to Australia, excluding New Zealand, are called Melanesia. Melanesia includes New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and others.

New Zealand, located much to the south, is highlighted especially.

Small islands north of Melanesia and west of 177° E (Marian, Caroline, Marshall, etc.) are called micronesia.

All other islands in the central and southern parts of the Pacific Ocean east of 177 ° E belong to Polynesia. These are the islands of Hawaii, Line, Society, etc.

The division is historical and ethnographic, it does not match with the division of Oceania according to genetic and physical-geographical features.

The island arc from New Guinea to New Zealand, including the Fiji Islands in the east with water basins separating the islands and the mainland, is a continuation of the Pacific island arcs (Fig. 123).

Rice. 123. Belt of island arcs of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Asia and Australia

Climate formation and the formation of the organic world, these islands closely associated with Australia, being in relation to it approximately in the same position as the East Asian islands in relation to Eurasia, although in this case the similarity of the nature of the islands with the nature of the mainland is expressed to a somewhat lesser extent. The islands of the open part of the Pacific Ocean are genetically related to the oceanic crust and have never experienced the influence of large areas of land during their existence. Their nature is distinguished by great originality and typically oceanic features.

Australia is washed from the north epicontinental seas Timor and Arafura. In addition, in the north is one of the largest bays within the mainland - Carpentaria. A strip of shallow water stretches along the western and southern coasts of the mainland, which are washed by the waters of the Indian Ocean. In the east, the Coral and Tasman Seas adjoin Australia, which are deep basins with oceanic or transitional type crust and with great depths (over 5000 m). The Melanesian, New Caledonian, and other basins are no less deep, separating underwater uplifts and ridges with continental and coral islands located on them. From the outside, and partly from the side of the seas, troughs stretch along the island arcs (Vityaz, Tonga, Karmadek, etc.) with maximum depths more than 9 and even 10 thousand m.

see also photos of the nature of Australia and Oceania: Northern Australia, Central Plain, North East, South East, New Zealand - North Island, New Zealand - South Island (from the section Natural landscapes of the world).

• Australia and Oceania

1. Area - 8.5 million km. sq., population - 29 million people, 16 sovereign states and 15 dependent territories. Continent + more than 10 thousand islands.

2. Sub-regions - Australia and New Zealand, Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia.

I. Australia and New Zealand:
Commonwealth of Australia (Canberra - constitutional omnarchy), New Zealand (Wellington - constitutional monarchy), coconut islands- Keeling (West Island - constitutional omnarchy), Norfolk Island (Kingston - KM), Christmas Island.

2. Micronesia:
Republic of the Marshall Islands (Majuro), Republic of Kiribati (South Tarawa - presidential republic), Nauru (no official capital), Republic of Palau (Ngerulmud), federal states Micronesia (Palikir - Republic), Guam (Hagatna - US territory), Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan - US territory), Wake Island.

3. Melanesia:
Vanuatu (Port Vila - parliamentary republic), Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby - constitutional monarchy), Solomon Islands (Honiara - KM), Republic of the Fiji Islands (Suva - republic), New Caledonia (Numea).

4.Polynesia:
Independent State of Samoa (Apia - parliamentary republic), Kingdom of Tonga (Nukualofa - KM), Tokelau (Nukunonu - KM), Tuvalu (Funafuti - monarchy), American Samoa (Pago Pago - unorganized territory of the USA), Niue (Alofi - KM) , Cook Islands (Avarua), Easter Island (Hanga Roa), Pitcairn (Adamstown - overseas territory WB), Milway, Johnston, Wallis and Futuna (Mata Utu - overseas community of France), French Polynesia (Papeete - overseas community of France).

Features and main stages of the formation of the region:

1. Pre-colonial period.
2. 42,000 and 48,000 years BC - the ancestors of the Australian aborigines appeared in Australia.
3. 30,000 years BC - Aboriginal art.
4. 30-50 thousand years ago - the settlement of about. New Guinea and the nearby islands of Melanesia.
5. 10-12 thousand years BC - Tasmania is isolated from the mainland.
6. About 2-4 thousand years ago was inhabited most of Micronesia and Polynesia.
7. By the beginning of the 16th century, the peoples of Oceania were undergoing a period of decay primitive communal system.

Colonial period:

1. 1606 - Willem Janszon discovered Australia.
2. 1606 - The Spanish expedition of Pedro Fernandez Quiroso landed on the New Hebrides.
3. In 1642, the Dutchman Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand.
4. In 1644, Abel Tasman explored West Coast Australia.
5. By the 50s of the XVII century - clear map Australia.
6. From the 16th to the 18th centuries - the period of exploration of Oceania by Europeans.
7. April 19, 1770 - J. Cook landed in Australia.
8. January 26, 1788 - the founding of New South Wales.
9. 1825 - Tasmania (became an independent colony), was settled in 1803.
10. 1828 - Western Australia.
11. 1836 - South Australia.
12. 1851 - Victoria.
13. 1859 - Queensland.
14. In the XVIII - XIX centuries - the division of the islands of Oceania between the colonial powers. From the middle of the 19th century, Australian colonies began to develop as free colonies due to the influx of free people, and not convicts, who were no longer exiled by ships. The development of the region was facilitated by gold mining, which caused a "gold fever".

Decolonization:
1. 1901 - the Commonwealth of Australia is created. Granted the status of a dominion - a self-governing colony.
2. 1907 - New Zealand receives the status of a dominion.
4. 1932 - adoption of the Westminster Statute???
3. 1962 - Western Samoa.
4. 1968 - Nauru.
5. 1970 - Fiji, Tonga.
6. 1975 - Papau New Guinea.
7. 1978 - Solomon's Island, Tuvlau.
8. 1979- Kiribati.
9. 1980 - Vanulau.
10. 1986 - Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia.
11. 1994 - Palau.

Resource base of Australia and Oceania:

Remoteness from economic centers has allowed to preserve significant reserves of minerals.

Coal (No. 3 in the world - after the USA and Russia), oil and gas, iron ore (No. 3 in the world after Brazil and China), Bauxite (No. 1 in the world - Papua New Guinea, No. 2 - Australia), Copper ore , tin (Tasmania Island, Queensland in Australia), nickel, uranium ores (No. 1 in the world - Australia), gold (No. 3 in the world), diamonds, titanium ores, manganese ores, rare earth metals.

+ Natural resources - climate (most of the region is in the tropical zone - Australia is considered the hottest zone in the world - 2/3 of the desert), lack water resources, ocean influence, forest resources (an important factor for future development - Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tusmania), endemic (species that are found only in this region) plants and animals, ocean resources.

Population:

1. Australia + New Zealand - the majority of the population are immigrants and their descendants, a fairly small number of natives, the most uneven distribution on the mainland (one of the lowest population densities in the world - 2.4 people per sq. km.). 3/4 of the population of Australia lives on East coast. Despite the large territory and low population density, the country is highly urbanized (80% of the urban population) + highly mobile (they change their place of residence very often). Today, immigration is on a limited scale and the bulk of immigrant arrivals in Australia come from Asia.

2. Islands of Oceania - 90% of the population are aboriginal, low standard of living, high birth rate, density fluctuations, literacy problem, religious diversity.

International economic and political organizations:

1. The leader of the region is Australia.
2. ANZUS - military-political associations - Australia, New Zealand, USA.
3. Pacific Islands Forum.
4. Secretariat of the Pacific Community (South Pacific Commission - original name) - 22 states are members. The United States, France, Australia and NZ are in the lead.
5. Council for the Pacific economic cooperation- Today 26 countries.
6 Commonwealth of Nations.

Regional differences - Western Australia, northern territory, Queensland, New south wales(most developed area), Victoria (most developed area), Tasmania, South Australia.

The problem of the evolution of the region:

1. Rich resource base, as a result, the region plays an important role in the world economy.
2. Less danger of being involved in military conflicts. But in parallel with this, there is a problem from the export of resources.
3. Strong scientific potential in New Zealand and Australia.
4. Powerful potential of recreational resources.
5. Kyoto protocol.
6. Some islands can become an important part of the transport structure of the world - renting out the territory. renting flags.
7. Insurmountable difference in levels of development.
8. Incompleteness of the processes of nation formation.
9. The problem of population development - the problem of poverty, illiteracy, etc.
10. Dependence on the USA. Plus, the interests of China, Japan and France intersect.