Papua New Guinea Independence Day – September 16, 2024

History of Papua New Guinea Independence Day

The history of Papua New Guinea dates back to the 18th Century. The dual name of Papua New Guinea results from the complex administrative history of the country prior to independence. Beginning in 1884, Germany ruled the northern parts of Papua New Guinea for some decades, as a colony named German New Guinea. About 30 years later, in 1914, following the outbreak of World War I, Australian forces captured German New Guinea and occupied it. After the war, which Germany and the Central Powers lost, the League of Nations (now the United Nations) authorized the area’s administration to remain with Australia as a ‘League-of-Nations mandate territory,’ which became known as the Territory of New Guinea.

In November 1884, the southern part of Papua New Guinea became a British protectorate. By 1888, it had been annexed, along with some adjacent islands, by Britain, as British New Guinea. The administration of Papua was effectively transferred to the British following the U.K.’s colonization of Australia in 1902. The passage of the Papua Act 1905 saw the area officially renamed the Territory of Papua, with Australian administration becoming formal in 1906. Contrary to establishing an Australian mandate in the former German New Guinea, the League of Nations determined that Papua was an external territory of the Australian Commonwealth and thereby remained under British possession by law.

This legal status, therefore, meant that until 1949, Papua and New Guinea had entirely separate administrations, both of which were controlled by Australia. This difference in legal status contributed to the complexity of organizing the country’s post-independence legal system. Papua New Guinea eventually was granted independence in September of 1975, after which the monarchical administrative system was sustained.