Oceania, or the Pacific region, was explored and colonized approximately 1000 years ago by Austronesian-speaking peoples. It is important to note that the Pacific Islands lend themselves to a study of the contrasts between tribes and states and the development of political scale cultures such as chiefdoms.
Oceania is divided into 3 ethnogeographic regions: Melanesia, or the "black islands", Polynesia, or the "many islands", and Micronesia, or the "tiny islands". Predictably, Europeans found it easier to deal with the Polynesians due to their lighter skin, as peoples from Melanesia were discriminated against because of their dark skin and almost African appearance.
The sequence of colonization starting with Taiwan and the Philippines and then along costal New Guinea is supported by the discovery of a distinctive style of pottery known as Lapita. Also noteworthy, is that canoes and sophisticated navigation techniques like memorizing sequences of stars made discovery and......
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