Bismarck Archipelago
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The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean, named in honour of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck and belonging to Papua New Guinea.
The archipelago includes mostly volcanic islands, the most important of which are:
- Admiralty Islands
- Duke of York Islands
- Mussau Islands
- New Britain
- New Hanover
- New Ireland
- Vitu Islands
The first inhabitants of the Archipelago arrived at around 33,000 years ago after sailing from what is now Papua New Guinea. Later arrivals included the Lapita people.
The first Europeans to visit these islands in 16th century have been the Ragusean traders from port Dubrovnik in Adriatic (medieval Republic of Ragusa). Therefore the Dalmatian sailors led by Ragusean captain Vice Bune in Caraca galley since 1580 started from the Ragusean Embassy in Goa (India), sailed at Philippines, and in 1585-1590 they reached the northeastern coast of New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago (then to 1598 also Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). This early expedition is documented in old Dubrovnik archives. V. Bune visited and named there e.g. island Boca (now Aris island), Karkar (Dampier Is.), Seka (Wardhunt islet), Kanap (Lausancay islets), Kriwina (Trobriand), Nada (Laughbeam), Duba (Rossell), Siroti (Green Island), and Jowo (Carteret Is.); these toponyms in western Pacific are subequal eponyms of the related names in Adriatic islands.
The second one to rediscover these islands from western Europe was Dutch explorer Willem Schouten in 1616. Then during 17th and 18th century, the Ragusean traders from Adriatic were nearly unique Europeans presented there; they remained unsettled by western Europeans until they became part of the German protectorate of German New Guinea in 1884.
Following the outbreak of World War I, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force seized the islands in 1914 and Australia later received a League of Nations mandate for the islands. They remained under Australian control — interrupted only by Japanese occupation during World War II — until Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975.
