The term Oceania has always created difference of opinions among pundits. However in the modern age Oceania is defined as a geographical region, geopolitical to some extent that is comprised of a number of lands. The majority of these islands are located in the Pacific Ocean and in its surrounding area. Well, the term "Oceania" was coined by the noted French explorer Dumont d'Urville in the year 1831. Nowadays the same term is used in a number of languages in the international arena to denote the very area as of the major continents and as one of eight significant terrestrial ecozones.
On the basis of ethnology, the islands that happen to be essential parts of Oceania are divided into three sub regions. These are Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. It is also found that the boundaries of Oceania are defined in a number of ways throughout the world. What is most striking is that the majority of the definitions make out a large number of areas of Australasia as belonging to Oceania. The most prominent of them are Australia, New Zealand along with the New Guinea. A good number of definitions incorporate the whole of Malay Archipelago or at least a part of it in the same group.
In general, Oceania (as part of a custom) is understood to consist of three main regions like Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. There are, indeed, lots of opinions with regard to the inclusion of any other region in the same group. Nevertheless, the geographers and scientists are found to divide Oceania into two halves namely Near Oceania and Remote Oceania.
The greater part of Oceania is composed of island nations that comprise at least thousands of coral atolls and volcanic islands but they are inhabited by small numbers of human populations. On the other hand Australia is the only continental country but Indonesia shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor and also Malaysia.
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