ABSTRACT
Since September 2012, the Western media have been filled with reports about China's high-profile dispute with Japan over a group of tiny uninhabited islands, the Diaoyu in Chinese or Senkaku in Japanese, on the edge of the South China Sea. The dispute over the South China Sea revolves primarily around the extent of the exclusive economic zone claimed by the People's Republic of China compared with that of the countries with which it is in dispute. Prior to the arrival of Western colonists, the combined indigenous population of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands was relatively small. Establishing colonial rule thus did not present the same challenge as in India, China or the countries bordering the South China Sea. The early phases of colonialism, in particular, had a profoundly negative impact on the Pacific Ocean's animal population. French territories in the Indian Ocean include the uninhabited sub-Antarctic archipelagos of Crozet and Kerguelen.
