Oceania 1960 CE

What is happening in Oceania in 1960CE

Recent decades have been ones of great change for the Pacific region. World War 2 had a huge impact on the Pacific region. Australia and New Zealand fought as Allies of Britain throughout the war, and it was the Japanese attack on the US navy in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, which brought the USA into the war. Many island groups (the Carolinas, the Marianas, the Solomon Islands and New Guinea) found themselves caught up in fierce fighting between the two sides, while others played host to thousands of Allied servicemen.

The post-war years saw the first tentative steps being taken towards independence, or alternatively full integration into the democratic processes of the western power to which they were attached (Tahitians were granted full French citizenship in 1946, New Caledonians in 1953, and Hawaii became the 50^th state of the USA in 1959). On one island, the implications for democracy are not entirely welcome: native Fijians find themselves outnumbered by the descendants of Indian indentured labourers, who are potentially therefore in a position to dominate any democratically-elected governments.

Next map, Oceania in 2005