The Challenge of Nissology: A Global Outlook on the World Archipelago Part I: Scene Setting the World Archipelago

Islands are the rule and not the exception. One major objective for nissology- defined as the study of islands and islandness - in the 21st century should be to debunk the unfair prejudice that 'island studies’continues to suffer at present time.To do so, a systematic treatment of the island phenomenon needs to be undertaken and this should be backed up by substantial theoretical underpinnings.In seeking to turn the dominant continental paradigm on its head, islands not only deserve to be "studied on their own terms"; they also become the deus ex machina of a holistic understanding of the world archipelago and its ongoing globalization. This vision should contribute towards bridging the gap between 'continentalists’who tend to consider islands only as epiphenomena of larger land trends. and 'island studies’practitioners. This paper(the first of two segments) concentrates on the physical geographical and historical unfolding of the importance of islands.