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Papua New Guinea

Updated: Sep 19, 2022

Home> Countries> Oceania/ Australia> Papua New Guinea




Country Name

Papua New Guinea, or officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

Location

Papua New Guinea is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and to the north of Australia.

The neighboring countries of Papua New Guinea are Australia,

Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia.


Capital

Port Moresby.​


Reason For Naming

"New Guinea" (Nueva Guinea) was the name invented by the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez.

In 1545, he noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa. Guinea, in its turn, is etymologically derived from the Portuguese word Guiné.

The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies, ultimately meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants




Flag

The flag of Papua New Guinea was adopted on 1 July 1971.

The flag is a bicolor divided diagonally into two triangular sections Black

triangle (the bottom) and the Red triangle (The top).

There are 5 stars on the black bottom part which represents the Southern

Cross constellations following flags of Australia and New Zea