Papua New Guinea has a long and expansive history (remember there are tribes that still live like they would have in the stone age!). Papua New Guinea is composed of the eastern half of Indonesia, the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, and the island of Bougainville. The main island was first inhabited by Asian settlers more than 50,000 years ago.

Though colonizers never really wanted to remain and settle on this island, these lands were very popular for the Europeans to claim since they are strategically located in the South Pacific. In 1526, the ambitious Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses landed on this land and named the island Ilhas dos Papuas which is translated as Island of the Fuzzy Hairs. This name has pretty much stuck throughout its history. Technically, the Spaniard explorer Inigo Ortiz de Retes added New Guinea because he believed that the natives looked like the natives in Guinea in Africa.

In 1824, the Dutch who were ambitiously and aggressively expanding their Dutch East Indies Empire claimed the Western section of the island. Then in 1884, Germany claimed the northern part of the island in 1884. Next came the British until 1906. At this time Papua New Guinea replaced the British New Guinea in the West. The area was claimed by Australia. During World War II, the Australian powers also overtook the German-claimed section of the island. In 1920, the League of Nations officially allowed Australia to claim Papua New Guinea as one of its territories. While during the war, the region was captured by force by Japan for a short period of time, Japan surrendered after the war. Meanwhile, Indonesia took control of Dutch New Guinea in 1963 (incorporating it into the Indonesian state as Irian Jaya).