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The umbrella term Pacific Islands has taken on several meanings. [1] Sometimes it is used to refer only to the islands defined as lying within Oceania. [2] [3] [4] At other times, it is used to refer to the islands of the Pacific Ocean that were previously colonized by the British, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch, or Japanese, or by the United States.
Generally, each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty these navigators could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighboring islands. On his first voyage of Pacific exploration Cook had the services of a Polynesian navigator, Tupaia, who drew a hand-drawn chart of the islands within ...
The Polynesian Triangle is a geographical region of the Pacific Ocean with Hawaii (Hawaiʻi) (1), New Zealand (Aotearoa) (2) and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) (3) at its corners, but excluding Fiji on its western side.
The umbrella terms Pacific Islands and Pacific Islanders may also take on several other meanings. [4] At times, the term Pacific Islands only refers to islands within the cultural regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, [5] [6] and to tropical islands with oceanic geology in general, such as Clipperton Island. [7]
A map of member states for the Pacific Islands Forum, the member states are depicted in blue. The PIF is a governing organization for the Pacific, and all of its members are seen as being politically within Oceania.
The archipelago sits on the Pacific plate. The islands are exposed peaks of a great undersea mountain range known as the Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain, formed by volcanic activity over the Hawaiian hotspot. The islands are about 1,860 miles (3,000 km) from the nearest continent and are part of the Polynesia subregion of Oceania.
Tahiti is the highest and largest island in French Polynesia lying close to Moʻorea island. It is located 4,400 kilometres (2,376 nautical miles) south of Hawaiʻi, 7,900 km (4,266 nmi) from Chile, 5,700 km (3,078 nmi) from Australia. [3] [4] The island is 45 km (28 mi) across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km 2 (403
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), [b] [11] is an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. [12]