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The first European settler to live in what is now Papua New Guinea was a British naval officer, John Hayes, in 1793. Later, in 1828, it became part of the German East India Company. After successively belonging to the Germans and the British, in 1906 a part of the territory passed into the hands of the Australians. With the First World War, the Australian army occupied the Germanic territory of New Guinea and in 1942 the Japanese invaded the country. In 1945 it was recovered by Australia. The German part of New Guinea was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 as the province of Irian Jaya. In December 1973, it became autonomous and achieved full independence from England in 1975, when it became a member of the Commonwealth. The country is a constitutional monarchy with a legislative assembly. The Queen of England, Elizabeth II, is the head of state, represented by a governor-general.

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Capital: Port Moresby.
Official languages: English, Hiri, Motu, PNG Sign Language, Tok Pisin.
Ethnic groups: Papuan.
Religion (2011 census): 95.5% Christianity; 64.3% Protestantism; 26.0% Catholicism; 5.2% Other Christian; 3.1% Unspecified; 1.4% Others / None.
Independence from Australia: Papua and New Guinea Act 1949: 1 July 1949; Declared and recognise: 16 September 1975
Total Area: 462,840km².
Population: 9.259.463.
Density: 15/km2 (38.8/sq mi).
Currency: Kina (PGK).

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Papua New Guinea (PNG) is richly endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been hampered by rugged terrain, land tenure issues, and the high cost of developing infrastructure. The economy has a small formal sector, focused mainly on the export of those natural resources, and an informal sector, employing the majority of the population. Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for 85% of the people. The global financial crisis had little impact because of continued foreign demand for PNG's commodities. Mineral deposits, including copper, gold, and oil, account for nearly two-thirds of export earnings. Natural gas reserves amount to an estimated 155 billion cubic meters. Following construction of a $19 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, PNG LNG, a consortium led by ExxonMobil, began exporting liquefied natural gas to Asian markets in May 2014.

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Papua New Guinea is a very isolated and remote country, being one of the least explored countries in the world, culturally and geographically. This means that their cultural life and customs were developed without outside influence for centuries. And, due to the large number of tribes that live in this country – around 750 – it has a well-preserved culture, with diverse traditions and tribal ceremonies that are very local and unique. For example, they have the traditional mumu feast, in which food is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked under hot stones. In addition, there is the tradition called Asaro 'Mudmen':
the term 'Mudmen' applies to the men of the Asaro tribe, after their practice of coating their skin in mud and wearing macabre clay masks adorned with pig teeth and shells. There are several origin myths surrounding this tradition, but they all focus on the combination of mud and mask, making men look like spirits or ghosts, which terrified their enemies and gave the Asaro a frightening advantage. The mud mask tradition has its origins in the Asaro people, but many tribes in the Eastern Highlands have plagiarized it for commercial gain.

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There are about 850 languages in Papua New Guinea, a remarkable number (the largest among nations in the world) for a country of just over 6 million people. In 2006, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Sir Michael Somare, declared that the country has 832 languages (not dialects). The official languages are Tok Pisin (an English-based creole language), English itself and Hiri Motu. The main languages of this country, which occupies the eastern half (about 463,000 km²) of the island of New Guinea, a country with a large extension of tropical forests with many isolated tribes, are:
Tok Pisin – spoken by about half to 2/3 of the population, lingua franca of the region.
English – even though it is one of the three official languages of the country, it is spoken by only 1 to 2% of the population.
Hiri Motu – 120 thousand speakers, as a second language.
Papuan languages - the oldest languages on the island.
Austronesian languages - Groups of Austronesian language speakers who arrived in New Guinea around 1500 BC.