Oceania: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

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.

Map

See also: World map

Micronesia

• Palau
• Micronesia
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru
• Kiribati

Melanesia

• Papua New Guinea
• Solomon Islands
• Vanuatu
• Fiji

Polynesia

• Tuvalu
• Samoa
• Tonga
• New Zealand

Australia

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

• American Samoa (United States)
• Easter Island (Chile)
• French Polynesia (France)
• Guam (United States)
• Hawaii (United States)
• New Caledonia (France)
• Northern Mariana Islands (United States)
• Pitcairn Islands (United Kingdom)
• Wallis and Futuna (France)

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.

(1) Niue has strong ties with New Zealand

See also: History of Oceania

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.)