de Meneses and Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, respectively, had encountered it as early as the 16th century. Traders from Southeast Asia had visited New Guinea as long as 5,000 years ago collecting bird of paradise plumes. The country's dual name results from its complex administrative history before independence. The word papua is derived from pepuah, a Malay word describing the curly, coiled, Melanesian hair, and "New Guinea" (Nueva Guinea) was the name coined by the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez. In 1545, he noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa. The northern half of the country was ruled as a colony for some decades by Germany, beginning in 1884, as German New Guinea. The southern half was colonised in the same year by the United Kingdom as British New Guinea, but in 1904 with the passage of the Papua Act, 1905 was transferred to the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia who took on its administration. Additionally from 1905, British New Guinea was renamed the Territory of Papua.
During World War I, German New Guinea was occupied by Australia and after the war was given a mandate to administer it by the League of Nations. Papua, by contrast, was deemed to be an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though as a matter of law it remained a British possession. This was significant for the country's post-independence legal system. The difference in legal status meant that up until 1949, Papua and New Guinea had entirely separate administrations, both controlled by Australia.
The New Guinea campaign (1942–1945) was one of the major military campaigns of World War II. Approximately 216,000 Japanese, Australian and U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen died during the New Guinea Campaign. The two territories were combined into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea after World War II, which later was simply referred to as "Papua New Guinea".
However, certain statutes continued
