Pacific Area

Christopher H. Sterling

A difficult region to characterize briefly, the Pacific (also called “Oceania”) consists largely of island nations including—to name only the largest—Indonesia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and many smaller island groups. With the exception of the first four, populations are sparse and widely scattered. The development of satellite communications in and since the 1970s has made them easier to reach without substantial delay. The world's fourth largest country, and its largest Muslim nation, this island nation (with some 6,000 inhabited islands) was a Dutch colony from the early 1600s until after World War II. In 1816 the Dutch established the first newspaper, which appeared until the Japanese occupation of 1942–45. There were about 30 papers—all in Dutch—by the mid-nineteenth century, at which point some of the first indigenous language periodicals began publishing. The first Indonesian language newspaper began in 1907. While circulations remained small due to limited ...

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