Prehistory Across the continents of
Asia,
Australia and the
Americas, more than 25,000 islands, large and small, rise above the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Multiple islands are the shells of former active
volcanoes that have lain dormant for thousands of years (see also
Ring of Fire). Close to the
equator, without vast areas of blue ocean, are a dot of
atolls that have over intervals of time been formed by
seamounts as a result of tiny
coral islands strung in a ring within surroundings of a central
lagoon.
Early migrations an
drua, an example of an
Austronesian vessel with a double-canoe (
catamaran) hull and a
crab claw sail Important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Modern humans first reached the western Pacific in the
Paleolithic, at around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Originating from a southern coastal human migration out of Africa, they reached
East Asia,
Mainland Southeast Asia, the Philippines,
New Guinea, and then Australia by making the sea crossing of at least between
Sundaland and
Sahul. It is not known with any certainty what level of maritime technology was used by these groupsthe presumption is that they used large bamboo rafts which may have been equipped with some sort of sail. The reduction in favourable winds for a crossing to Sahul after 80,000 B.P. fits with the dating of the settlement of Australia, with no later migrations in the prehistoric period. The seafaring abilities of pre-Austronesian residents of Island South-east Asia are confirmed by the settlement of
Buka by 32,000 B.P. and
Manus by 25,000 B.P. Journeys of and are involved, respectively. The descendants of these migrations today are the
Negritos,
Melanesians, and
Indigenous Australians. Their populations in
maritime Southeast Asia, coastal
New Guinea, and
Island Melanesia later intermarried with the incoming
Austronesian settlers from
Taiwan and the northern
Philippines, but also earlier groups associated with
Austroasiatic-speakers, resulting in the modern peoples of Island Southeast Asia and Oceania. of the
Austronesian peoples A later seaborne migration is the
Neolithic Austronesian expansion of the
Austronesian peoples. Austronesians originated from the island of
Taiwan –1500 BCE. They are associated with distinctive maritime sailing technologies (notably
outrigger boats,
catamarans,
lashed-lug boats, and the
crab claw sail)it is likely that the progressive development of these technologies were related to the later steps of settlement into Near and Remote Oceania. Starting at around 2200 BCE, Austronesians sailed southwards to settle the
Philippines. From, probably, the
Bismarck Archipelago they crossed the western Pacific to reach the
Marianas Islands by 1500 BCE, as well as
Palau and
Yap by 1000 BCE. They were the first humans to reach
Remote Oceania, and the first to cross vast distances of open water. They also continued spreading southwards and settling the rest of
Maritime Southeast Asia, reaching
Indonesia and
Malaysia by 1500 BCE, and further west to
Madagascar and the
Comoros in the
Indian Ocean by around 500 CE. More recently, it is suggested that Austronesians expanded already earlier, arriving in the Philippines already in 7000 BCE. Additional earlier migrations into Insular Southeast Asia, associated with Austroasiatic-speakers from Mainland Southeast Asia, are estimated to have taken place already in 15000 BCE. At around 1300 to 1200 BCE, a branch of the Austronesian migrations known as the
Lapita culture reached the
Bismarck Archipelago, the
Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu,
Fiji, and
New Caledonia. From there, they settled
Tonga and
Samoa by 900 to 800 BCE. Some also back-migrated northwards in 200 BCE to settle the islands of eastern
Micronesia (including the
Carolines, the
Marshall Islands, and
Kiribati), mixing with earlier Austronesian migrations in the region. This remained the furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into
Polynesia until around 700 CE when there was another surge of island exploration. They reached the
Cook Islands,
Tahiti, and the
Marquesas by 700 CE;
Hawaii by 900 CE;
Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and finally New Zealand by 1200 CE. Austronesians may have also reached as far as the
Americas, although evidence for this remains inconclusive.
European exploration , dated 1507, was the first map to show the
Americas separating two distinct oceans. South America was generally considered the
New World and shows the name "America" for the first time, after
Amerigo Vespucci The first contact of European navigators with the western edge of the Pacific Ocean was made by the Portuguese expeditions of
António de Abreu and
Francisco Serrão, via the
Lesser Sunda Islands, to the
Maluku Islands, in 1512, and with
Jorge Álvares's expedition to southern China in 1513, both ordered by
Afonso de Albuquerque from
Malacca. The eastern side of the ocean was encountered by Spanish explorer
Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the
Isthmus of Panama and reached a new ocean. He named it
Mar del Sur ("Sea of the South" or
"South Sea") because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. In
1520, navigator
Ferdinand Magellan and his crew were the first to cross the Pacific in recorded history. They were part of a
Spanish expedition to the
Spice Islands that would eventually result in the first world
circumnavigation. Magellan called the ocean
Pacífico (or "Pacific" meaning, "peaceful") because, after sailing through the stormy seas off
Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the
Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century. Magellan stopped at one uninhabited Pacific island before stopping at
Guam in March 1521. Magellan himself died in the
Philippines in 1521. Spanish navigator
Juan Sebastián Elcano led the remains of the expedition back to Spain across the
Indian Ocean and round the
Cape of Good Hope, completing the first world
circumnavigation in 1522. Sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions encountered the
Caroline Islands, the
Aru Islands, and
Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan. In 1564, five Spanish ships carrying 379 soldiers crossed the Pacific from
Mexico led by
Miguel López de Legazpi, and colonized the
Philippines and
Mariana Islands. For the remainder of the 16th century, Spain maintained military and mercantile control, with ships sailing from Mexico and
Peru across the Pacific Ocean to the Philippines via
Guam, and establishing the
Spanish East Indies. The
Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries, linking
Manila and
Acapulco, in one of the longest
trade routes in history. Spanish expeditions also arrived at
Tuvalu, the
Marquesas, the
Cook Islands, the
Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, the
Marshalls and the
Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. Later, in the quest for
Terra Australis ("the [great] Southern Land"), Spanish explorations in the 17th century, such as the expedition led by the Portuguese navigator
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, arrived at the
Pitcairn and
Vanuatu archipelagos, and sailed the
Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea, named after navigator
Luís Vaz de Torres. Dutch explorers, sailing around southern Africa, also engaged in exploration and trade;
Willem Janszoon, made the first completely documented European landing in Australia (1606), in
Cape York Peninsula, and
Abel Janszoon Tasman circumnavigated and landed on parts of the Australian continental coast and arrived at
Tasmania and New Zealand in 1642. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a
mare clausuma sea closed to other naval powers. As the only known entrance from the Atlantic, the
Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent the entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western side of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the
Spanish Philippines. The 18th century marked the beginning of major exploration by Russians in
Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands, such as the
First Kamchatka expedition and the
Great Northern Expedition, led by the Danish-born Russian navy officer
Vitus Bering. Spain also sent
expeditions to the Pacific Northwest, reaching
Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and colonized
Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with
James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia,
Hawaii, and the North American
Pacific Northwest. In 1768,
Pierre-Antoine Véron, a young
astronomer accompanying
Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of exploration, established the width of the Pacific with precision for the first time in history. One of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the
Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines,
New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. File:A generall chart of the South Sea ... NYPL481132.tiff|Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707
New Imperialism '' before her record dive to the bottom of the
Mariana Trench, 23 January 1960 taking over
Tahiti on 9 September 1842 Growing
imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by European powers, and later
by Japan and the
by United States. Significant contributions to
oceanographic knowledge were made by the voyages of
HMS Beagle in the 1830s, with
Charles Darwin aboard;
HMS Challenger during the 1870s; the
USS Tuscarora (1873–76); and the German
Gazelle (1874–76). In Oceania, France obtained a leading position as imperial power after making
Tahiti and
New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853, respectively. After navy visits to
Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer
Policarpo Toro negotiated the incorporation of the island into
Chile with native
Rapanui in
1888. By occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations. By 1900 nearly all Pacific islands were in control of Britain, France, United States, Germany, Japan, and Chile.
20th century Prior to World War I United States attempted to purchase or at least establish a naval base in
Galápagos Islands. Ecuador's staunch resistance to a US purchase or bases in the islands can be credited to Chilean diplomacy, which in turn was informally backed on this issue by
Great Britain and
Germany. The end of World War I strenghtened Japan and the United States in the Pacific, Japan in East Asia and United States mostly so in Latin America. Pacific rim countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Peru started to treat the United States as a hegemon, often seeking its mediation in international disputes. Chile on the other hand attempted to resist United States influence. The
Washington Naval Treaty of 1921 is associated with various geopolitical effects in the Pacific Ocean, including the end of the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Although it was not part of the Washington Treaty in any way, the American delegates had made it clear that they would not agree to the treaty unless the British ended their alliance with the Japanese. The
1921 Imperial Conference earlier in the year had already decided not to renew the Alliance. The regrouping the Royal Navy in 1921 also meant that it left the South Pacific that year. This weakened the position of Britain's old-time ally
Chile and increased the influence of the United States in the Americas. Indirectly, the withdrawal emboldened Peruvian and Bolivian claims against Chile as these two states were often supported diplomatically by the United States. Since the end of World War II, many former colonies in the Pacific have become independent
states (→
Decolonisation of Asia). == Geography ==