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The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term Pacific Islands may refer to one of several different concepts: (1) those countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, (2) the islands once (or currently) colonized, (3) the geographical region of Oceania, or (4) any island located in the Pacific Ocean.
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This list of islands in the Pacific Ocean is organized by archipelago or political boundary. In order to keep this list of moderate size, the more complete lists for countries with large numbers of small or uninhabited islands have been hyperlinked.
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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. Examples include Borneo, the Pitcairn Islands and Taiwan (also known as Formosa).[5]
A commonly applied biogeographic definition includes islands with oceanic geology that lie within Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia and the eastern Pacific (also known as the southeastern Pacific).[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] These are usually considered to be the "Tropical Pacific Islands".[13] In the 1990s, ecologists Dieter Mueller-Dombois and Frederic Raymond Fosberg broke the Tropical Pacific Islands up into the following subdivisions:[14]
- Western Melanesia
- The Bismarck Archipelago and other islands directly east of New Guinea
- Bougainville and Buka Island
- The Solomon Islands
- Eastern Melanesia
- Subtropical islands in the Australia/New Zealand region
- Micronesia
- Central Polynesia
- Johnston Atoll
- The Phoenix Islands
- The Line Islands
- Howland Island, Baker Island, Jarvis Island, Malden Island and Starbuck Island
- Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Northern Cook Islands (Pukapuka, Nassau, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Penrhyn, Suwarrow and Palmerston)
- Western Polynesia
- Eastern Polynesia
- The rest of the Cook Islands
- The Austral Islands
- The Society Islands
- The Tuamotu Archipelago and the Pitcairn Islands
- Easter Island and Salas y Gómez
- The Marquesas Islands
- Northern Polynesia
- The Hawaiian Islands
- Oceanic islands of the Eastern Pacific
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The 2007 book Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West, by New Zealand Pacific scholar Ron Crocombe, considers the phrase Pacific Islands to politically encompass American Samoa, Australia, the Bonin Islands, the Cook Islands, Easter Island, East Timor, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, the Galápagos Islands, Guam, Hawaii, the Kermadec Islands, Kiribati, Lord Howe Island, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Niue, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, the Torres Strait Islands, Wallis and Futuna, Western New Guinea and the United States Minor Outlying Islands (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Midway Atoll, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island). Crocombe noted that Easter Island, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, the Galápagos Islands, the Kermadec Islands, the Pitcairn Islands and the Torres Strait Islands currently have no geopolitical connections to Asia, but that they could be of future strategic importance in the Asia-Pacific.[15] Another definition given in the book for the term Pacific Islands is islands served by the Pacific Community, formerly known as the South Pacific Commission. It is a developmental organization whose members include Australia and the aforementioned islands which are not politically part of other countries.[15] In his 1962 book War in the Pacific: Strategy and Command, American author Louis Morton places the insular landmasses of the Pacific under the label of the "Pacific World". He considers it to encompass areas that were involved in the Pacific Theater of World War II. These areas include the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, as well as Australia, the Aleutian Islands, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan.[16]
Since the beginning of the 19th century, Australia and the islands of the Pacific have been grouped by geographers into a region called Oceania.[17][18] It is often used as a quasi-continent, with the Pacific Ocean being the defining characteristic.[19] In some countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, China, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France, Greece, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Switzerland or Venezuela, Oceania is seen as a proper continent in the sense that it is "one of the parts of the world".[20] In his 1879 book Australasia, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace commented that, "Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon" and that "Australia forms its central and most important feature."[21] 19th century definitions encompassed the region as beginning in the Malay Archipelago, and as ending near the Americas.[18][22][23][24][25] In the 19th century, many geographers divided up Oceania into mostly racially-based subdivisions; Australasia, Malaysia (encompassing the Malay Archipelago), Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.[26][27] The 1995 book The Pacific Island States, by Australian author Stephen Henningham, claims that Oceania in its broadest sense "incorporates all the insular areas between the Americas and Asia."[28] In its broadest possible usage, it could include Australia, the Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian islands, the Japanese and Malay Archipelagos, Taiwan, the Ryukyu and Kuril Islands, the Aleutian Islands and isolated islands off Latin America such as the Juan Fernández Islands.[29][30] Islands with geological and historical ties to the Asian mainland (such as those in the Malay Archipelago) are rarely included in present definitions of Oceania, nor are non-tropical islands to the north of Hawaii.[31][32][33] The 2004 book The Making of Anthropology: The Semiotics of Self and Other in the Western Tradition, by Jacob Pandian and Susan Parman, states that "some exclude from Oceania the nontropical islands such as Ryukyu, the Aleutian islands and Japan, and the islands such as Formosa, Indonesia and the Philippines that are closely linked with mainland Asia. Others include Indonesia and the Philippines with the heartland of Oceania."[34]
Certain anthropological definitions restrict Oceania even further to only include islands which are culturally within Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.[35][36] Conversely, Encyclopedia Britannica believe that the term Pacific Islands is much more synonymous with Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, and that Oceania, in its broadest sense, embraces all the areas of the Pacific which do not fall within Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.[30] The World Factbook and the United Nations categorize Oceania/the Pacific area as one of the seven major continental divisions of the world, and the two organizations consider it to politically encompass American Samoa, Australia, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, Fiji, Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna and the United States Minor Outlying Islands.[37]
Since the 1950s, many (particularly in English-speaking countries) have viewed Australia as a continent-sized landmass, although they are still sometimes viewed as a Pacific Island, or as both a continent and a Pacific Island.[38] Australia is a founding member of the Pacific Islands Forum, which is now recognized as the main governing body for the Oceania region.[39] It functions as a trade bloc and deals with defense issues, unlike with the Pacific Community, which includes most of the same members. By 2021, the Pacific Islands Forum included all sovereign Pacific Island nations, such as Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji and Tonga, in addition to dependencies of other nations, such as American Samoa, French Polynesia and Guam. Islands which have been fully integrated into other nations, including Easter Island (Chile) and Hawaii (United States), have also shown interest in joining.[40] Tony deBrum, Foreign Minister for the Marshall Islands, stated in 2014, "Not only [is Australia] our big brother down south, Australia is a member of the Pacific Islands Forum and Australia is a Pacific island, a big island, but a Pacific island."[38] Japan and certain nations of the Malay Archipelago (including East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines) have representation in the Pacific Islands Forum, but none are full members. The nations of the Malay Archipelago have their own regional governing organization called ASEAN, which includes mainland Southeast Asian nations such as Vietnam and Thailand.[41][42] In July 2019, at the inaugural Indonesian Exposition held in Auckland, Indonesia launched its 'Pacific Elevation' program, which would encompass a new era of elevated engagement with the region, with the country also using the event to lay claim that Indonesia is culturally and ethnically linked to the Pacific islands. The event was attended by dignitaries from Australia, New Zealand and some Pacific island countries.[43]
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Islands of the Pacific Ocean proper, with an area larger than 10,000 km2.
Antarctica
Asia
North America
Oceania
- List of islands of Australia
- List of islands of Britain
- List of islands of Fiji
- List of islands of France, section Pacific Ocean
- List of islands of Hawaii
- List of islands of Kiribati
- List of islands of the Marshall Islands
- List of islands of New Zealand
- List of islands of Papua New Guinea
- List of islands of the Solomon Islands
- List of islands of Tonga
- List of islands of Tuvalu
- List of islands of the United States, section Insular areas
- List of islands of Vanuatu
South America
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American Samoa
- American Samoa
- Aunuu
- Ofu-Olosega
- Rose Atoll
- Swains Island (Olosenga, Olohega) (Disputed)
- Tau
- Tutuila
Australia
Brunei
Canada
- List of islands of British Columbia, many islands including:
- Haida Gwaii, some 400 islands near Alaska
- Graham Island, the main northern island
- Moresby Island, the main southern island
- Vancouver Island, Canada's largest Pacific island
- Gulf Islands, numerous islands off the southeast coast of V.I. near the U.S. San Juan Islands
- Haida Gwaii, some 400 islands near Alaska
Chile
China
Colombia
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Fiji
- Principal islands:
- Significant outliers:
- Archipelagos:
France
French Polynesia
- French Polynesia (Autonomous Overseas Territory of France)
Guam
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Japan
- List of islands of Japan, including:
- The five main islands:
- Hokkaido - the northernmost and second largest main island.
- Honshu - the largest and most populous island; home of the capital Tokyo.
- Kyushu - the third largest main island and closest to the Asian continent.
- Shikoku - the second smallest main island after Okinawa; between Honshu and Kyushu
- Okinawa Island - the smallest and southernmost of the main islands
- Other notable islands:
Kiribati
- List of islands of Kiribati:
- Caroline Island
- Flint Island
- Gilbert Islands
- Line Islands (8 of 11)
- Kiritimati/Christmas Island
- Malden Island
- Phoenix Islands
- Starbuck Island
- Tabuaeran/Fanning Island
- Teraina/Washington Island
- Vostok Island
Macau
Malaysia
Marshall Islands
Mexico
Micronesia
Islands of Federated States of Micronesia
Nauru
- Nauru, a country and single island
New Caledonia
- New Caledonia (special collectivity of France)
- Grande Terre (New Caledonia)
- Chesterfield Islands
- Ilots du Mouillage
- Loyalty Islands
- Matthew Island and Hunter Island, administered by France as part of New Caledonia but also claimed by Vanuatu
New Zealand
Niue
- Niue, a country and single island
Northern Mariana Islands
Palau
Palau has over 250 islands, including:
Panama
Papua New Guinea
- List of islands of Papua New Guinea
- New Guinea, eastern half
- Bismarck Archipelago
- Solomon Islands archipelago (northern part)
- Trobriand Islands
- Woodlark Island
- D'Entrecasteaux Islands
- Louisiade Archipelago
- Misima Island
- Tagula Island or Sudest Island
- Rossel Island
- Samarai
- Daru Island
- Kiwai Island
Philippines
- List of islands of the Philippines, over 7600 islands including:
- Spratly Islands (disputed)
- Scarborough Shoal (disputed)
Pitcairn Islands
- Pitcairn Islands, four islands:
Russia
Samoa
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Taiwan
- List of islands of Taiwan, 166 islands including:
- Taiwan, the main island with over 99% of the country's total area
Tokelau
Tonga
- List of islands in Tonga; in north to south order:
Tuvalu
United States
- Alaska, many islands including:
- List of islands of California
- Hawaiian Islands, many islands and islets including:
- List of islands of Oregon
- United States Minor Outlying Islands, eight small island groups between Hawaii and the Philippines (e.g. Johnston Atoll, Midway Atoll, Wake Atoll)
- List of islands of Washington state
Vanuatu
- List of islands of Vanuatu, some 83 islands including (north to south approximately):
- Torres Islands
- Banks Islands
- Espiritu Santo
- Malakula
- Ambrym
- Paama
- Epi
- Shepherd Islands
- Efate, home of the national capital Port Vila
- Lelepa
- Erromango
- Tanna
- Disputed:
- Matthew Island and Hunter Island, administered by France as part of New Caledonia but also claimed by Vanuatu
Wallis and Futuna
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