Melanesia (UK: ; US: ) is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region consists of the four countries of: Vanuatu, Solomon Islands Fiji Papua New Guinea. Besides these independent countries, Melanesia also includes: New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France West Papua. West Papua includes two provinces of Indonesia, Papua and West Papua. The name Melanesia (in French “Mélanésie” from the Greek , black, and , islands) 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 Polynesia and Micronesia.
