Papua Province, Indonesia: The History and Sovereignty of the Region Paperback – November 23, 2021

Papua Province, Indonesia. The History and Sovereignty of the Region. he Papua region has been visited by global traders since the beginning of the 7th century. European nations kept a presence in the region in the 16th century in the pursuit of various spices. The people of Papua are culturally, linguistically and racially different from the other people of Indonesia and have no historical links with them. They are Papuans of the Melanesian culture, and are even more different than the other diverse groups of Indonesia are from each other. The modern world has quite late to Papua. West Papua became part of the Dutch East Indies in 1828 as West Papua Nugini (or New Guinea), which was then known as West Irian. The region remained occupied by the Netherlands long after Indonesia claimed its independence in 1949 in part because of the large reserves of oil in Bird’s Head area around Sorong. After West Irian’s long freedom struggle, the province finally became part of Indonesia in 1969. In Europe the people went from the Stone Age to a cash economy over a period of around 4,000 years. The people in Papua have made the same transformation in a generation. In the 1970s, most men in the region were warriors who engaged in continuous revenge-driven wars. Only a few decades ago tribesmen would have fled in terror and hidden their children in the forest if a plane flew too close their village. Read more