Pacific Wrecks Forum

Is New Guinea part of or associated with New Guinea or is it a country by itself
Harry

New Guinea is an island now shared between two countries...

The east is now Papua New Guinea (Papua and New Guinea during WW2). Papua New Guinea Map:
http://www.ausaid.gov.au/country/png/images/png-map.jpg

The west is Papua and West Irian Jaya (Dutch New Guinea during WW2) being parts of Indonesia. Indonesia Map:
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~ccarruth/ ... ia_map.gif

Papua (previously British New Guinea) was officially an Australian mandated territory from 1906. New Guinea (previously German New Guinea) became an Australian mandated territory after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. So during the war, what is now Papua New Guinea was officially two Australian mandated territories - Papua and New Guinea. In 1949 the two territories were joined as one and in 1975 Papua New Guinea gained their Independence from Australia.

What is now Irian Jaya (West Papua) was, during the war, part of the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) and known as Netherlands (Dutch) New Guinea. When the remainder of the NEI became Independent as Indonesia in 1949, the Netherlands retained sovereignty over Dutch New Guinea before being invaded by Indonesia in 1961. It was placed under UN administration in October 1962 and Indonesia administration in May 1963 before being formally annexed by Indonesia in 1969 and becoming the province of Irian Jaya. In 2003 this province was split into two - Papua and West Irian Jaya.

(I hope I got all that right).