ABSTRACT
Geography and the colonial policies of various maritime powers combined to give the history of international boundaries in these region two distinct qualities. First, there are only four international boundaries on land throughout this extensive zone. Secondly, the procedures which resulted in the present territorial division of this region were appropriate to the ocean which Magellan called Pacific. There are five international boundaries on land and four of them were associated with the former colony of the Netherlands East Indies, which originated before the colonization of Australia, and the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. The boundary which now separates Indonesia and Papua New Guinea lies very close to the limit of Dutch annexations in the first half of the 19th century. Anglo-Dutch negotiations started in 1893 because Britain wanted a clear boundary so that authorities could deal with raids by headhunters from Dutch areas.
