"Bougainville Island" a Bougainville Island Travel Page by onuk

Bougainville Island is part of Papua New Guinea. Geographically, Bougainville is included in the chain of islands known as the Solomons in Melanesia. Bougainville, the adjacent island of Buka, and assorted outlying islands including the Carterets are sometimes known as the North Solomons. Bougainville is included in the Solomon Islands rain forests ecoregion. The nation of the Solomon Islands is a separate state.

Together they make up the Papua New Guinean (PNG) Bougainville Province. The population of the province is 175,160 (2000 census).

In the 1970s, Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto) began exploiting the island's huge copper reserves. Resentment over the negative effects of the company's activities on the area and the lack of any tangible benefit to the islanders erupted into conflict in the 1990s. Attempts at proclaiming the independence of Bougainville (Republic of North Solomons) have occurred twice: in 1975 and 1990. In the second case the government of Papua New Guinea moved to put down what became a secessionist movement led by Francis Ona, a former surveyor for BCL. The PNG army received military aid from Australia and enlisted the support of Sandline International, a mercenary firm. The island was embargoed to weaken its people's resistance. However, they proved much more resilient than expected, designing their own weapons and converting engines to vegetable oil. Peace talks brokered by New Zealand began in 1997, leading to autonomy for the island.

Bougainville and its 1990s struggle for independence is the setting for the 2007 novel Mister Pip, by New Zealand author Lloyd Jones.

Louis Antoine de Bougainville named the island after himself.

A documentary about the struggle of the indigenous population to save their island from environmental destruction and gain independence, was made in 1999, called Coconut Revolution.

Pre-history

Bougainville has been inhabited for at least 33 000 years. Its people speak languages belonging to three language families, the northern and southern Bougainville families, whose origins are unknown and presumably ancient, and languages of the Austronesian family, which arrived with the more recent Lapita culture from the west three millennia ago.
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European colonisation

The German New Guinea Company established control over Bougainville and Buka, Choiseul, Shortland and Treasury Islands in 1885 but did not extend its farther control southwards in the Solomons, whose southern islands came under a British protectorate in 1893 with the eastern islands being added in 1899. In 1900, Germany transferred all of its claims in the Solomons other than Bougainville and Buka to Great Britain while Britain, in return, withdrew from Western Samoa. During World War I Australia occupied Bougainville together with the rest of German New Guinea; the League of Nations placed the territory under Australian mandate in 1920.

Second World War


In 1942, Bougainville was occupied by the Japanese, and was used as a base to attack Guadalcanal and other Allied territory. The 3rd Marine Division landed on the west coast of Bougainville in November 1943, and shortly afterwards, there was a large night sea battle, the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay between cruisers and destroyers of the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Americans routed the Japanese and were never bothered again in this area by the I.J.N. It took a concerted Allied land offensive between November 1943 and April 1944 to occupy and hold the part of the island along the western shore in an area called "Torokina". The Americans set about establishing a wide defensive perimeter, draining swamps, and building multiple airfields for defense, and for attacking the Japanese on New Britain Island. The Marines were replaced by US Army troops. The Japanese infiltrated the mountains and jungles of Bougainville, and launched a counteroffensive against the Americans in 1944. The critical focus of their attack was at a place called by the Americans "Hellsapoppin Ridge". In repulsing this attack, the American soldiers and airmen broke the back of the Japanese Army on Bougainville. The survivors retreated to their bases on northern and southern Bougainville, and the Americans left them to "wither on the vine" for the remainder of the war. During the 1943-45 period, more than 17,500 Japanese soldiers were either killed in combat, died of disease, or died of malnutrition. In 1945, the Australian Army took over occupation from the Americans, and Australia resumed control of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea, which became a United Nations trusteeship. The remaining Japanese on Bougainville refused to surrender, but rather held out until the surrender of the Japanese Empire on 2 September 1945. They were then commanded by the Emperor to surrender to the Allied Australians, Americans, and New Zealanders, and they were then repatriated to Japan.

Beginnings of the independence movement

Bougainville is rich in copper, and possibly gold.[citation needed] The mining of copper has been the cause of considerable tensions over the last fifty years, and has been related to both attempts at secession. In 1964, the first attempts were made to explore the island's resources, when CRA Exploration, a subsidiary of Australian company Rio Tinto Zinc, began drilling in the Panguna area. The mine, under their subsidiary, Bougainville Copper Ltd. opened in 1969.


Autonomy

The first elections were organized in June 2005. Joseph Kabui was elected President.