The first European contact to PNG was made by the Portugese explorer Jorge de Meneses in 1526 who named the land Ilhas dos Papuas (Island of the Fuzzy Hairs).
A large and rather daunting place, New Guinea was remarkably left alone for several centuries, and in 1824, the Dutch formalised their claims to sovereignty over the 
Western portion of the island, now called West Papua, a province of Indonesia.
Germany followed by taking possession of the Northern part of the territory in 1884, which became German New Guinea, with the Southern region annexed by Britain and named Britain New Guinea.
Britain gave control of British New Guinea to Australia in 1906, and after WWI, Australia invaded German New Guinea, gaining control of the entire eastern half of New Guinea, which became the Territory of Papua and New Guinea in 1945 an United Nations Trusteeship, administered by Australia.
In September 1975, thirty years later, the Territory of Papua and New Guinea became Papua New Guinea, achieving independence from Australia.
