Annexation & Colonial Policies

I. Annexation

A. Who? = Britain, France, Germany, America

B. Why?

1. no “scramble for the Pacific”

2. two themes

a) international rivalry

-- Hawaii Diplomatic Mission (1842-1843)

-- Tongan treaty negotiations (1870s)

b) self-interest groups

3. underlying assumption = racial superiority

C. When & Where?

1. first wave = 1840s & 1850s

a) New Zealand to Britain (1840)

b) Marquesas & Tahiti to France (1842)

c) Hawaii to Britain (Feb. to July 1843)

d) New Caledonia to France (1853)

2. second wave = 1870s to 1900

a) Fiji to Britain (1874)

b) French Polynesia (1881)

c) Germany taking initiative (1885-86)

-- Marshall Islands to Germany

-- Carolines to Spain

-- Gilbert & Ellice to Britain

-- Solomon Islands & New Guinea divided

-- “spheres of influence”

-- Germany (north)

-- Britain (south)

d) Cook Islands to Britain (1888)

e) Hawaii & Guam to America (1898)

f) Marianas & Carolines to Germany (1898)

g) Samoa divided (1899)

Germany (west) & America (east)

h) New Hebrides shared by Britain & France (1887)

-- condominium (1906)

II. Colonial Policies

A. New Zealand

1. no indigenous centralization

2. settlement brought annexation

-- Captain William Hobson

-- Treaty of Waitangi (1840)

3. Maori affairs

a) legal equality

b) assimilation & miscegenation

4. self-government to colonists (1852)

a) war (1860-66) --> land confiscated

b) Maori get four seats in parliament (1867)

5. Maori resistance (1880s & 1890s)

-- Young Maori Party

B. Fiji

1. Sir Arthur Gordon (1875-1881)

a) his ambition

-- humanitarian interests

-- civilizing mission

b) “Native” policies

-- administration

-- taxation

-- land

-- labor

2. impact of Gordon’s policies

a) new orthodoxy

b) parallel lines of development

-- Fijian and Indian