History UsefulNotes / Oceania

* UsefulNotes/AustralianNewWave

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 [[UsefulNotes/{{Asia}} Asian]] ''region'' (but not the continent), and is often grouped with South Asia and UsefulNotes/TheFarEast as the Asia-Pacific.

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

You might also hear the term Australasia, 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 TheSeventies and the TheEighties. With the exception of the biggest three[[note]]Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea[[/note]], 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 UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}} and has the lowest population of the permanently inhabited continents, housing only 38 million inhabitants (in comparison, UsefulNotes/SouthAmerica, the third-least populated continent, has 422 million inhabitants).

Regarding tropes, there are few of them here. Why? The islands have achieved independence only in the 70's and 80's. With the exception of the biggest three[[note]]Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea[[/note]], 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 UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}} and has the lowest population of the permanently inhabited continents, housing only 38 million inhabitants (in comparison, UsefulNotes/SouthAmerica, the third-least populated continent, has 422 million inhabitants).

* NationalStereoTypes/{{Oceania}}

* NationalStereoTypes/Oceania

* CartoonPenguin