Oceania

Maritime Cultures of the Pacific Islands:  Many Pacific islands are separated from each other by vast expanses of water.  This geographical isolation creates a favorable environment for the formation of distinct cultures.  Pacific islanders view the sea as the dominant feature of their world, and the sea exerts a powerful influence on the language, religion, and daily life of these peoples of the sea.

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Natural History of the Hawaiian Islands:  The Hawaiian Islands were created millions of years ago by a series of mid ocean volcanoes.  Over vast stretches of time, the islands were sculpted into their present form by the action of wind, water, and sand.  Their geographic isolation created a natural biological laboratory in which arriving plants and animals could evolve into completely new species.

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Oceania Islands and Archipelagos:  Oceania consists of more than twenty-five thousand islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean.  Many of these islands are associated with continents, but others are created by undersea volcanoes arising directly from the sea floor.  Some islands form vast archipelagos thousands of miles long and were formed from the remains of living coral reefs.

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Polynesian Navigators:  Over the period of only a few centuries, Polynesians colonized vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean.  This wave of exploration and discovery was due to the skill of navigators who accurately guided vessels across thousands of miles of ocean, using only their knowledge of the heavens and the seas, aided by crude navigational tools and maps fashioned out of sticks and pebbles.

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Exploration and Discovery in the South Pacific:  In the 15th century, Europeans developed a renewed interest in the rest of the world.  Several countries sponsored extensive voyages of exploration to the Pacific.  Those explorations lasted for over two hundred years and resulted in the discovery of new lands and new trade routes and profoundly changed our understanding of the world.

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War in the Pacific: A Geographic Perspective:  World War II in the Pacific was a geographic war.  The physical geography of the Pacific region strongly influenced the tactics, strategy, and outcome of this war.   A historical review of that conflict from a geographic perspective offers important insights about the prelude to war and provides a clearer understanding of the conduct and conclusion of hostilities.

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The UNESCO World Heritage Program chooses and protects natural and cultural sites that have outstanding value to the common heritage of humanity.  Oceania currently has 37 locations listed as world Heritage Sites.  This overview of the history of the World Heritage program showcases several of these spectacular Sites along our itinerary.