In the Māori language, the country is called Aotearoa, which means "Land of the Long White Cloud". "Ao" means “cloud”, "tea" means “white”, and "roa" means “long”. The name "New Zealand" comes from “Zeeland” (which translates to "Sealand") in Dutch, after the islands were seen by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands.
New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II. The Prime Minister is Jacinda Ardern, leader of the Labour Party.
New Zealand has made itself a "Nuclear Free Zone": They do not use nuclear power and do not allow nuclear weapons or nuclear powered vessels in their territory.
Elections are held every 3 years.
As of the 2018 census, 4,699,755 people lived in New Zealand. Most of them have European ancestors. The indigenous people of New Zealand, the Māori, have a population of 775,836, or 16.5%.
The people of New Zealand often call themselves Kiwis. This name is derived from the kiwi, a flightless native bird that is considered the country's national bird.
The North Island is smaller than the South Island, but most people (more than 3 million) live there. This might be because the North Island is usually warmer, and has more big cities.
About half of the people in New Zealand are religious. As of the 2018 census, 48.2% had no religion. The main religion in New Zealand is Christianity. Just over 2 million New Zealanders are Christian. The second most common religion is Hinduism, with 2.6%.
Most New Zealanders live in urban areas, with the other 27% living in small towns or farming communities.
Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Auckland is the largest city, with around 1 million people.
Other cities in the North Island include Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier/Hastings, , , and Palmerston North. South Island cities include Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Invercargill and Timaru.
New Zealand sits at the boundary between the Australian and Pacific continental plates. When these two plates bumped into each other ('collided'), the Pacific plate moved under the Australian plate, north of the South Island. As a result, there has been lots of volcanic activity. South of the South Island, the Australian plate moves under the Pacific plate instead. The plates slide past each other in the South Island, where they have pushed up the Southern Alps. Because of these two colliding plates, New Zealand often has earthquakes. One of the best known is the 2010-2011 group of earthquakes that hit the Christchurch area.
The diagram shows that the North Island is on the Australian plate, but most of the South Island is on the Pacific plate. New Zealand is still geologically active, and will remain so as long as the islands are sitting above the plate boundary.
The oldest rocks in New Zealand date from the Cambrian period, 512 million years ago. New Zealand became part of the global supercontinent Pangaea. When that split (End-Triassic/early Jurassic), New Zealand became part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana. Finally Gondwana broke up, leaving the continents rather as they are today.
New Zealand was isolated from the rest of the world for a long time. It split from Australia 83 million years ago. Because of this, there are many plants and animals that only live in New Zealand. Before humans came to New Zealand, there were no mammals, except three species of bat and marine mammals such as seals, dolphins, and whales. Instead, New Zealand has many different kinds of bird. New Zealand has several species of flightless bird, including the kiwi and Kakapo. For the lizards, especially important is the Tuatara, the only living member of a whole order of reptiles.
New Zealand used to have more rare species, but some, mostly birds, were hunted to extinction early in its history. The giant Moa, "Dinornis", is a famous example. The group of birds which the moa belongs to had been in existence since the Cretaceous period. Humans arrived in New Zealand about a thousand years ago, when many moa were living, especially on the South Island. Archaeological sites with evidence of moa hunting are all over New Zealand. The moa became extinct about five hundred years ago. Extinctions closer to today have been caused by habitat change and introduced species like rats, dogs, cats, and possums, which kill the native birds and lizards, or eat their eggs.
South Korea
South Korea is a country in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, in the north east region of Asia. The capital city is Seoul. The official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea in English, 대한민국 (Daehan Minguk) in Korean writing (Hangeul), and 大韓民國 in Chinese characters (Hanja). About half of the country's people live in its capital city, Seoul, or near the city in the metropolitan area. Korea's Seoul metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. In fact, some sources say it is the second most populous after Tokyo, Japan.
South Korea's history began with Dangunwanggeom's Gojoseon. Gojoseon was conquered by Han China. After Gojoseon collapsed, there were a lot of countries such as Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongyae and Samhan. But Baekje, Goguryeo and Silla were the strongest. So their period began, and it is called the Three Kingdoms Period. Goguryeo and Baekje were conquered by Silla and Dang China's allied forces, and Silla unified the three kingdoms. There was another country, Balhae. Balhae was founded by Dae Jo-Young. Later Silla and Balhae's period is called South and North Countries Period. A rebellion in Later Silla caused the birth of a new nation: Goryeo, which was founded by Wanggeon. Mongolia's invaded Goryeo. Near the end of the Goryeo period, there was a great general Lee Seong-Gye. The king of Goryeo directed him to occupy Yodong, but he opposed. However, Lee Seong-Gye went to Yodong to occupy it, but he returned to Goryeo and he revolted. His revolt succeeded, and he founded the country Joseon. Joseon's first king, Taejo, moved the capital to Hanyang (Seoul). Joseon's fourth king, Sejong, made the Korean alphabet, "Hangeul". Joseon's twenty-second king, Jeongjo, built Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon. Joseon's twenty-sixth king, Gojong, changed the country's name to Daehanjeguk. When Daehanjaeguk's power weakened, Japan occupied it for 35 years until Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945. In 1950, there was a big war, the Korean War. As a result, Korea was split into two countries, North and South.
South Korea is in East Asia, bordering North Korea, and is surrounded by water on three sides, as it makes up the southern part of the Korean peninsula. It is separated from Japan by the Sea of Japan (known as East Sea by the South Koreans). South Korea is mainly mountainous, and there are many islands off the south coast. The capital city, Seoul, is quite close to the North Korean border. The largest island is Jeju Island and the highest mountain is Hallasan, on Jeju. The country is slightly smaller than Iceland and Virginia.
South Korea is a democracy, meaning that people can vote for their government. However, this is recent. South Korea was an authoritarian dictatorship for most of its history. The President of South Korea is elected to a five-year term, and cannot stand in a Presidential Election for a second time. The current president is Moon Jae-in since 10 May 2017. The previous president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached for corruption.
South Korea known for a lot of technology. This includes the car-makers Hyundai and Kia. The well-known global brand Samsung, which makes mobile phones, semi-conductors and electric devices, is also South Korean.
South Korea has been affected by both continental culture and marine culture because it is located on a peninsula. Ancient South Korean culture has developed with the culture of Siberia, the northern part of Central Asia, the southern part of Southeast Asia and neighboring countries like China.