officially Independent State of Papua New Guinea
Island country, South Pacific Ocean.
Area: 178,704 sq mi (462,840 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 5,426,000. Capital: Port Moresby . Most of the people are Papuan (four-fifths) and Melanesian; ethnic minorities are Polynesian, Chinese, and European. Languages: English (official), Tok Pisin, Motu, indigenous languages. Religions: Anglicanism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism. Currency: kina. About 85% of the total land area of Papua New Guinea is on the island of New Guinea ; the country also includes Bougainville Island and the Bismarck Archipelago . The New Guinea terrain ranges from swampy lowland plains in the south and north to high central mountains, the highlands, in the northwest and southeast. Much of the land is covered with tropical rainforest. Some of the outlying islands are volcanic. The country has a developing mixed economy based largely on the export of mineral and agricultural products. It is a constitutional monarchy with one legislative house; its chief of state is the British monarch represented by the governor-general, and the head of government is the prime minister. The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with hunters as the earliest settlers. The Portuguese sighted the coast in 1512, and in 1545 the Spanish claimed the island. The first colony was founded in 1793 by the British. In 1828 the Dutch claimed the western half as part of the Dutch East Indies. In 1884 Britain annexed the southeastern part and Germany took over the northeastern sector. The British part became the Territory of Papua in 1906 and passed to Australia, which also governed the German sector after World War I. After World War II, Australia governed both sectors as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Dutch New Guinea was annexed to Indonesia in 1969 as the province of Irian Jaya. Papua New Guinea achieved independence in 1975 and joined the British Commonwealth . It moved to resolve its war with Bougainville independence fighters in 1997; the peace treaty between Bougainville and the government of Papua New Guinea was signed in 2001.