The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the

Islands Region The New Guinea Islands Region is one of four regions of Papua New Guinea (PNG), comprising the Bismarck Archipelago and north-western Solomon Islands Archipelago, located north-east of New Guinea island (the mainland). This is the least populo ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Its area is about 50,000 square km.

History

The first inhabitants of the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arch ...

arrived around 30–40,000 years ago. They may have traveled from New Guinea, by boat across the Bismarck Sea or via a temporary land bridge, created by an uplift in the Earth's crust. Later arrivals included the Lapita people. The first European to visit these islands was Dutch explorer

Willem Schouten Willem Cornelisz Schouten ( – 1625) was a Dutch navigator for the Dutch East India Company. He was the first to sail the Cape Horn route to the Pacific Ocean. Biography Willem Cornelisz Schouten was born in c. 1567 in Hoorn, Holland, S ...

in 1616. The islands remained unsettled by western Europeans until they were annexed as part of the German

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over most of its in ...

of German New Guinea in 1884. The area was named in honour of the

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Otto von Bismarck. On 13 March 1888, a

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

erupted on Ritter Island causing a megatsunami. Almost the entire volcano fell into the ocean, leaving a small crater lake. First Wave at Admiralty Islands

Following the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

, the

Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) was a small volunteer force of approximately 2,000 men, raised in Australia shortly after the outbreak of World War I to seize and destroy German wireless stations in German New Gui ...

seized the islands in 1914 and Australia later received a

League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...

for the islands. They remained under Australian administration—interrupted only by Japanese occupation during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

—until Papua New Guinea became independent in September 1975.

Geography

The Bismarck Archipelago includes mostly

volcanic island Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

s with a total land area of . The archipelago encompasses the Bismarck Sea and sits upon the North Bismarck Plate, the Manus Plate and the South Bismarck Plate. Islands are grouped here according to administrative province: Bismarck Archipelago within Papua New Guinea provinces (numbers) 2012

Bismarck Archipelago within Papua New Guinea provinces (numbers) 2012

* Manus Province (''see 9 on the map'') ** Admiralty Islands, group of 18 islands including: *** Manus Island, main island *** Los Negros Island ***

Lou Island Lou Island is an island of the Admiralty Islands, part of the Bismarck Archipelago, located in northern Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State ...

***

Ndrova Island Big Ndrova Island, sometimes called simply Ndrova Island,Boyd D. Peterson, William R. Garren, and Charles M. Heyda, United States Board on Geographic Names, ''Gazetteer of Papua New Guinea: Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic N ...

***

Tong Island Haijiao (海礁), also known as Tong Island (童岛), Taibujiao (泰簿礁) or Taijiao (泰礁), is located at 30°44'6"N, 123°9'24"E in the northeast corner of the Zhoushan Islands and belongs to Shengsi County of Zhoushan city. The name Haijiao ...

*** Baluan Island *** Pak Island *** Purdy Islands *** Rambutyo Island *** St. Andrews Islands ** Western Islands, with: *** Aua Island ***

Hermit Islands The Hermit Islands are a group of 17 islands within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Their coordinates are . History The first sighting by Europeans of Hermit islands was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz ...

***

Kaniet Islands The Kaniet Islands are the easternmost group islands within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. It consists four islands and one islet. Their coordinates are , located north-east of the Hermit Islands. Sae Island ...

(Anchorite) ****

Sae Island Sae Island is the northernmost island within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. It is located just north-west of the Kaniet Islands, under which it is often subsumed, although the two are distinct. Another name fo ...

***

Ninigo Islands The Ninigo Islands are a group of 31 islands within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. Their coordinates are . History The first settlers on the Ninigo Islands were the Melanesians. Other groups later settled in ...

***

Wuvulu Island Wuvulu Island (also known as Mary Island, Matty, Maty Island, Tiger Island, Tiger-Inseln and Wuwulu) is part of the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the west ...

* New Ireland Province (12) ** New Ireland or also Niu Ailan, main island ** New Hanover or Lavongai **

St Matthias Islands The St Matthias Islands (also known as the Mussau islands) are a small archipelago group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, in northern Papua New Guinea. They are within New Ireland Province. Geography There are at least 10 islands. The larg ...

Tabar Group The Tabar Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north of New Ireland. It is a part of the Bismarck Archipelago. The Tabar group consists of a short chain of three main islands - Tabar Island (a.k.a. Big Tabar) in the south, Tat ...

Lihir Group Lihir Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea, located north of New Ireland, at . It is a part of Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific O ...

** Tanga Group ** Feni Islands ** Dyaul Island Sun, Sea, Sand And Volcano

East New Britain East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely des ...

Province (4) **

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...

or also Niu Briten, main island ** Duke of York Islands ***

Kabakon Kabakon or Kaka Kon Island is a small island in group of Duke of York Islands in the Bismark Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. August Engelhardt chose Kabakon as the island to establish his Sun-worshipping sect, notable for only eating coconuts ...

***

Ulu An ulu ( iu, ᐅᓗ, plural: ''uluit'', 'woman's knife') is an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit, Iñupiat, Yupik, and Aleut women. It is utilized in applications as diverse as skinning and cleaning animals, cutting a child's hair, cu ...

West New Britain West New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea on the islands of New Britain. The provincial capital is Kimbe. The area of the province is 20,387 km² with a population of 264,264 as of the 2011 census. The province's only land border is ...

Province (18) **

or also Niu Briten, main island **

Vitu Islands The Vitu Islands are a volcanic group with an area of 37 sq mi (96 km²) located in the Bismarck Sea off New Britain, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. They are not technically part of the Bismarck Archipelago. Administratively they are pa ...

Morobe Province Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands ...

(11) **

Umboi Island Umboi (also named Rooke or Siassi) is a volcanic island between the mainland of Papua New Guinea and the island of New Britain. It is separated from New Britain by the Dampier Strait and Huon Peninsula, and New Guinea by the Vitiaz Strait. It h ...

** Tolokiwa Island **

Sakar Island Sakar Island is a volcanic island north-west of New Britain in the Bismarck Sea, at . It is a stratovolcano with a summit crater lake. No recorded eruptions are known. See also * List of volcanoes in Papua New Guinea This is a list of active ...

** Ritter Island ** Malai Island ** Tuam Island * Madang Province (8) **

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

** Crown Island ** Karkar Island ** Bagabag Island **

Manam Manam, known locally as Manam Motu, is an island located in the Bismarck Sea across the Stephan Strait from Yawar on the northeast coast of mainland Papua New Guinea's Bogia District. The island is 10 kilometers wide, and was created by ...

* East Sepik Province (5) ** Schouten Islands The passage of water between the islands of New Britain and New Ireland is called ''St. George's Channel'' after St. George's Channel in the British Isles between Wales and Ireland.

Notes

Bibliography

* Firth, Stewart (1983). ''New Guinea Under the Germans''. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press. . * Howe, K. R., Robert C. Kiste, Brij V. Lal, eds. (1994). ''Tides of History: The Pacific Islands in the Twentieth Century''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. . * King, David ''et al.'' (1982). ''Papua New Guinea Atlas: A Nation in Transition''. Bathurst, Australia: R. Brown and the University of Papua New Guinea. . * Moore, Clive (2003). ''New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. . * Ryan, Peter, ed. (1972). ''Encyclopedia of Papua New Guinea''. 3 volumes; Vol I: A – K, maps, black and white illustrations, xv + 588pp. Vol II: l – Z, maps, black and white illustrations, 589–1231pp. Vol III: Index, folding colour map in rear pocket, map, colour illustration, v + 83pp. Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press. .

External links

* * {{Authority control Archipelagoes of Papua New Guinea Islands Region (Papua New Guinea) Bismarck Sea Archipelagoes of Oceania Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean Lists of islands of Papua New Guinea 1884 establishments in German New Guinea 1914 disestablishments in German New Guinea 1914 establishments in Australia 1975 disestablishments in Australia 1975 establishments in Papua New Guinea Freshwater ecoregions