PACIFIC ISLANDERS UNDER GERMAN RULE A STUDY IN THE MEANING OF COLONIAL RESISTANCE PACIFIC ISLANDERS UNDER GERMAN RULE A STUDY IN THE MEANING OF COLONIAL RESISTANCE PETER J. HEMPENSTALL Published by ANU eView The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email:
[email protected] This title is also available online at eview.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Creator: Hempenstall, Peter J. (Peter John), author. Title: Pacific islanders under German rule : a study in the meaning of colonial resistance / Peter J. Hempenstall. ISBN: 9781921934315 (paperback) 9781921934322 (ebook) Subjects: Colonies--Oceania. Germany--Colonies--Administration. Dewey Number: 322.42099 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph: Ambilo from Sattelberg, the first female from German New Guinea who learned how to work a sewing machine, from Hermann Hiery, Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914, Paderborn (Germany): Schöningh, c. 2001. First published 1978 by The Australian National University This edition © 2016 ANU eView To the memory of those Islanders for whom the Pacific colonies were Home, and not a tour of duty Preface This is a book about the nature of Pacific Island politics under colonial rule. By the late nineteenth century and the partition of the Pacific among the European Powers, violence and conquest were established features of cultural contact. Colonialism was a dirty business, even to contemporaries who believed in the white man’s burden.