Bismarck Archipelago
Encyclopaedia Search
Bismarck Archipelago
'});)
Click image to enlarge
Group of over 200 islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, part of Papua New Guinea; area 49,660 sq km/19,200 sq mi. The largest island is New Britain. Coconut fibre, copra, cotton, rubber, coffee, tortoiseshell, trepang (sea cucumbers), mother-of-pearl, and fruit are the chief products. The population is mostly Papuan.
History
Their former name was New Britain Islands. The English explorer and navigator William Dampier landed on them in 1699, and in 1885 Britain assigned them to the German sphere of influence, under which cotton plantations were started. In September 1914 they were occupied by Australia and administered as a UN Trust Territory until independence in 1975, when the Bismarck Archipelago became a part of Papua New Guinea. The islands were occupied by Japan during World War II.
© RM 2009. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Country Search
Dictionary search
Liberia Flag
Health Search
Advertisement starts
Advertisement ends
Page Footer
Access keys
You will need to use different key combinations in order to use access keys depending on your internet browser, find out which on our accessibility page.
- (0) Navigate to Accessibility page.
- (1) Navigate to Home page.
- (2) Navigate to My email.
- (3) Navigate to My Account.
- (4) Navigate to Site Map page.
- (5) Navigate to Contact us page.
- (6) Navigate to Members channel.
- (7) Navigate to Services channel.
- (8) Navigate to News & Info channel.
- (9) Navigate to Entertainment channel.
- ([) Skip down to the Primary navigation block.
- (]) Skip down to the more links within this section block.
- (=) Bypass all navigation and jump to the content.
- (x) Text only version of this page.
