Bismarck Archipelago
The
Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands of the coast of
New Guinea in the southwestern
Pacific Ocean, belonging to
Papua New Guinea.
The archipelago includes mostly volcanic islands, the most important of which are:
The islands were discovered by
Dutch explorer
Willem Schouten in
1616, but remained unsettled by Europeans until they became part of the
German protectorate of
German New Guinea in
1884.
The Australians seized the islands in World War I and kept a League of Nations mandate until Papua New Guinea's independence, only interrupted by Japanese occupation during World War II.