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Oceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands but sometimes including Australia—in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The exact scope of Oceania is defined variously, with interpretations including Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and those parts of Indonesia east of the Wallace Line.
For the oceans of the Earth, see Oceans.
Overview
The primary use of the term Oceania is to describe a macrogeographical region that lies between Asia and the Americas, with the Australian continent as the major landmass and consisting of some 10,000 islands in the Pacific. The name Oceania is used because, unlike the other regional groupings, it is the ocean and adjacent seas rather than a continent that link the lands together.
Extent
Originally coined by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville in 1831, Oceania has been traditionally divided into Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Australasia. As with any region, however, interpretations vary; increasingly, geographers and scientists divide Oceania into Near Oceania and Remote Oceania.
Most of Oceania consists of small island nations. Australia is the only continental country; by some definitions, Indonesia has land borders with East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
Territories and regions
Notes:
Other interpretations of Oceania
- Australia is sometimes not included in Oceania, although a term like Pacific islands would normally be used to describe Oceania without Australia. The term "Australasia" invariably includes Australia and New Zealand along with parts of Oceania, but this term is sometimes controversial outside of Australia, as it may be seen as too greatly emphasising Australia.
- Hawaii is correctly included in Oceania. Hawaiians are a Polynesian race and, although the Hawaiian Islands are some distance from most of the islands of Oceania, they are still physically as well as culturally much closer to the rest of Oceania than to North America - and they are no further from the rest of Oceania than from United States territories in the North Pacific.
- The few U.S. territories in the North Pacific are uninhabited except by itinerant service personnel, and are normally grouped with the mainland United States in North America. They are certainly not part of Oceania and, unlike Hawaii, they are closer to North America - most of them closer to North America than they are to Hawaii.
- Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the eastern Pacific Ocean, part of the territory of Chile, and is correctly included in Oceania.
- New Zealand is within the Polynesian triangle and in this sense is part of Polynesia - the Māori of New Zealand constitute one of the major cultures of Polynesia.
- On very rare occasions the term may be stretched even further to include other Pacific island groups such as the Aleutian Islands, but these are obviously islands off the coast of North America. It would be just as logical to include the Pacific islands of Russia, all of Japan and the Philippines, insular Malyasia, and all of Indonesia as part of Oceania, as to include the Aleutians.
Ecogeography
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.
Sport
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of six football confederations under the auspices of FIFA, the international governing body of football (soccer). The OFC is the only confederation without an automatic qualification to the World Cup Finals. Currently the winner of the OFC must play-off against a South American confederation side.
Oceania has only been represented at three World Cup Finals - Australia in 1974, New Zealand in 1982 and Australia in 2006. However, Australia is now no longer a member of the Oceania Football Confederation, having joined the Asian Football Confederation in 2006.
See also
- History of Oceania
- Australasia
- New Zealand
- Australia (continent)
- Pacific Islands
- Pacific Islands Forum
External links
- Jane's Oceania Home Page
- Map showing Oceania in relation with America
- Map South Pacific
- Oceania photos and information
- Open-Site Oceania - Information about the different countries of Oceania.
- Pacific Pictures
- South Pacific Organizer
- Oceania Paper Money
Oceania | Country classifications
أوقيانوسيا | Ozeanía | Oceanía | ওশেনিয়া | Tāi-iûⁿ-chiu | Okeanija | Oseania | Океания | Oceania | Oceánie | Oceania | Oceanien | Ozeanien | Okeaania | Ωκεανία | Oceanía | Oceanio | Ozeania | اقیانوسیه | Kyrrahavsoyggjarnar | Océanie | Oceanía | 오세아니아 | Oceanija | Oceania | Oseania | Eyjaálfa | Oceania | אוקייניה | Oceania | Ozeanien | Okeanija | Ausztrália és Óceánia | Oċeanja | Oceania | Oceanië | オセアニア | Oseania | Oseania | Ozeanien | Oceania | Oceânia | Oceania | Океания | Oseania | Oceania | Oceania | Austrália a Oceánia | Oceanija | Океанија | Oceanija | Oseania | Oceanien | ஓசியானியா | โอเชียเนีย | Уқёнусия | Osenia | Okyanusya | Океанія | 大洋洲 | 大洋洲
"Oceania"