Dutch New Guinea in the context of "Papua (province)"

Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat). It is one of the seven geographical units of Indonesia in ISO 3166-2:ID.

Lying to the west of Papua New Guinea and geographically a part of the Australian continent, the territory is almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere and includes the Biak and Raja Ampat archipelagoes. The region is predominantly covered with rainforest where traditional peoples live, including the Dani of the Baliem Valley. A large proportion of the population live in or near coastal areas. The largest city is Jayapura.

The United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) was established on 1 October 1962 in accord with Article two of the New York Agreement to administer the former Dutch colony of West New Guinea until it was handed over to Indonesia on 1st May 1963.

This was the first time in its history that the United Nations assumed direct administrative responsibility for a territory, as opposed to monitoring or supervising. The United Nations would go on to undertake similar missions in Cambodia (UNTAC), Croatia (UNTAES), Kosovo (UNMIK) and East Timor (UNTAET).

The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation or Borneo confrontation (known as Konfrontasi in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) was an armed conflict from 1963 to 1966 that stemmed from Indonesia's opposition to the creation of the state of Malaysia from the Federation of Malaya. After Indonesian president Sukarno was deposed in 1966, the dispute ended peacefully.

The creation of Malaysia was a merger of the Federation of Malaya (now Peninsular Malaysia), Singapore and the British Crown colonies of North Borneo and Sarawak (collectively known as British Borneo, now East Malaysia) in September 1963. Vital precursors to the conflict included Indonesia's policy of confrontation against Dutch New Guinea from March to August 1962 and the Indonesia-backed Brunei revolt in December 1962. Malaysia had direct military support from the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Indonesia had indirect support from the USSR and China, thus making it an episode of the Cold War in Asia.

The Government Navy (Dutch: Gouvernements Marine or Gouvernementsmarine, GM) was a Dutch naval force in the former Dutch East Indies and Dutch New Guinea between 1861 and 1962. It succeeded the Civil Colonial Navy (Burgerlijke Koloniale Marine) of 1815 and existed alongside the Indies Military Navy (Indische Militaire Marine) until 1930, when the latter was disbanded and the Government Navy was militarized between 1939 and 1941.

After the Pacific War and the Indonesian National Revolution that followed, the GM existed until the handover of Dutch New Guinea to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority at the conclusion of the West New Guinea dispute between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Operating in a civil-administrative role alongside the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Government Navy had been primarily concerned with tasks such as policing and transport.