Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from New Guinea island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Tonga. Most of the region is in the Southern Hemisphere, with only a few small northwestern islands of Western New Guinea lying in the Northern Hemisphere.
The name Melanesia (Mélanésie) was first used by Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands whose inhabitants he thought were distinct from those of Micronesia and Polynesia.
The region includes the countries of:
- Fiji
- New Caledonia
- Papua
- Papua New Guinea
- Solomon Islands
- Vanuatu
- Western New Guinea
- France & French Colony Stamps
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- French Stamps – Timbres Français
- Pacific Islands Study Circle
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- Stamp Thing – France and Colonies