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Also known as the continent of Australia (not to be confused with the individual country which is a part of it), Oceania is Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It's a political continent rather than a geographic one, because it's not a huge landmass but a collection of atolls and islands. To confuse the terminology further, Oceania is often considered part of the Asian region (but not the continent), and is often grouped with South Asia and The Far East as the Asia-Pacific.

The islands are divided in three zones: Melanesia being the islands north and northwest of Australia (the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia); Micronesia, the micro-islands north of Melanesia (Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, etc.) and Polynesia, with a lot of islands (New Zealand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, Cook Islands, Easter Island (part of the Chilean Valparaíso region), the US state of Hawaii, French Polynesia, etc.).

You might also hear the term Australasia (literally "south of Asia"), this being Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea (the whole island) and some neighbor islands, including some of Indonesia. Sometimes Australasia is used the same way as 'trans-Tasman' to refer to Australia and New Zealand alone, as seen in the region list below.

Regarding tropes, there are few of them here. Why? The islands have achieved independence only in The '70s and The '80s. With the exception of the biggest threenote , every single country here has less than a million people, and most have less than 200,000. In fact, Oceania is the second-least populated continent on Earth after Antarctica and has the lowest population of the permanently inhabited continents, housing only 38 million inhabitants (in comparison, South America, the third-least populated continent, has 422 million inhabitants).

Do not confuse with Oceania from Nineteen Eighty-Four, which comprises mutually exclusive territories.

Also see Pacific Islanders in Media.


Countries

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regions_of_oceania.png

Australasia

  • Australia (sometimes considered to be a continent by itself)
Capital: Canberra
Largest City: Sydney
  • New Zealand (also considered to be part of Polynesia)
Capital: Wellington
Largest City: Auckland

Polynesia

Capital & Largest City: Apia
Capital & Largest City: Nuku'alofa
Capital & Largest City: Funafuti

Melanesia

Capital & Largest City: Suva
Capital & Largest City: Port Moresby
Capital & Largest City: Honiara
Capital & Largest City: Port Vila

Micronesia

Capital: Palikir
Largest City: Weno
Capital & Largest City: South Tarawa
Capital & Largest City: Majuro
Capital: Yaren (de facto)
Largest City: Denigomodu
Capital: Ngerulmud
Largest City: Koror

Dependencies

Polynesia

Capital: Pago Pago
Government Seat: Fagatogo
Largest Village: Tāfuna
  • Cook Islands (Self-governing country in free association with New Zealand)
Capital & Largest City: Avarua
Capital: Papeete
Largest City: Fa'a'ā
  • Niue (Self-governing country in free association with New Zealand)
Capital & Largest City: Alofi
Capital: Kingston
Largest City: Burnt Pine
Capital & Largest Settlement: Adamstown
Capital: None
Largest City: Atafu
Capital & Largest City: Mata-Utu

Melanesia

Capital & Largest City: Nouméa

Micronesia

  • Guam (Belongs to the United States)
Capital: Hagåtña
Largest City: Dededo
Capital & Largest City: Saipan

Defunct countries, empires, kingdoms, and so on

Useful Notes and other articles related to Oceanians and Oceanian culture

Oceania in General

Australasia

See Australia for everything solely related to Australia

Polynesia

See Samoa for everything solely related to Samoa

Melanesia

See Papua New Guinea for everything solely related to Papua New Guinea

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