Papua New Guinea is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, with Port Moresby serving as its capital. In 1545, the Spanish explorer Ynigo Ortiz de Retez noted the resemblance of the Melanesian Papuans to the peoples of the Guinea coast of West Africa, and he named the island "New Guinea". In 1884, the German Empire colonized the north of what is now Papua New Guinea, and the southern half was colonized by the British that same year. In 1905, Britain turned its half over to Australia, which annexed German New Guinea in 1914 during World War I. During World War II, Japan occupied the Australian possessions in New Guinea, which were liberated by the Allies at the war's end in 1945 and merged into a single territory, "Papua New Guinea". On 16 September 1975, Papua New Guinea gained independence from Australia, becoming a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with the monarch of Britain being its titular head of state. Papua New Guinea was one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world, and it was home to 852 languages, 8,084,999 people (only 18% of whom lived in urban centers), and numerous uncontacted peoples and undiscovered plants and animals.
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