|RConstitution:|N Independent parliamentary country, recognizing the British sovereign as head of state.
|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, September 16.
|RNature and climate:|N Comprising the eastern part of New Guinea and 600 smaller islands in the western Pacific Ocean, north of Australia.
The northern part of the main island is very mountainous with chains in west-eastern direction. There are many volcanoes. The southern part of the main island is a swampy lowland with tropical rainforests.
Tropical climate with an average temperature of 26°C around the year in the lowland.
Percipitation between 1000 and 5000 mm.
|RPeople:|N Many different tribes. Mainly Melanesian by the coasts and Papuan in the interior. Many Papuan tribes still live their traditional stone age lives. Some of these tribes have probably not yet been "discovered"!
|REconomy:|N 82% of the labour force is occupied in agriculture, 3% in industry and trade and 8% in different services.
Most important crops are rootfruits, bananas and vegetables. For export the most important crops are copra, cocoa, coffee, rubber and oil palm.
Stockraizing is extensive as is forestry.
Papua New Guinea have gold, copper, silver, natural gas and oil.
Coppermining started at Bougainville Island in 1972 and in 1980 copper from that island accounted for about 40% of the export revenues.
Since then gold, oil, gas and copper has been found at the main island and mining there is more important to economy.
Most important industries are copra crushing, palm oil processing, mining and plywood processing.
|RHistory:|N Remains of human beings have been found in the interior dating back to 8000 BC. After that waves of people have come to the island, mainly Papuan and Melanesian peoples.
The Papuans live mainly in the interior and the Melanesian people mainly in the coastal areas.
The first Europeans visited the New Guinea in the 15th century, and colonization started in the 19th century, when the Dutch took the western part, that now belongs to Indonesia.
In 1884 the British claimed the southern half of the eastern New Guinea and Germany claimed the northern half.
The British part was transferred to Australia in 1905 and in 1914, during World War I, the northern German part, was conquered by Australia.
After WWI it was made a League of Nations mandate to Australia and after World War II a UN mandate. From 1949 the two parts were administrated as one unit.
In 1973 Papua New Guinea was granted self-government and in 1975 it became an independent country.
Relations to neighbouring Indonesia are tense, as Indonesia accuses Papua New Guinea of sheltering the Irian Java liberation movement.
