Kategoria BISAC: History >> Oceania

America's efforts at economic development in the Caroline, Mariana, and Marshall Islands proved to be about transforming in dramatic fashion people who occupied real estate deemed vital to American strategic concerns. Called Micronesians, these island people were regarded as other, and their otherness came to be seen as incompatible with American interests.

And so, underneath the liberal rhetoric that surrounded arguments, proposals, and programs for economic development was a deeper purpose. America's domination would be sustained by the remaking of these islands into places that...

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known to its inhabitants, is located in the Pacific Ocean, 3600 kilometres west of South America. Annexed by Chile in 1888, the island has been a source of fascination for the world beyond the island since the first visit by Europeans in 1722 due to its intriguing statues and complex history. Inventing 'Easter Island' examines narrative strategies and visual conventions in the discursive construction of 'Easter Island' as distinct from the native conception of 'Rapa Nui.' It looks at the geographic imaginary that pervaded the eighteenth century,...

Palau was the last trusteeship, not only of the United States but the last trusteeship in the world. For 25 years the United States tried to negotiate an agreement--a compact--with Palau. Under this compact, Palau would gain its independence as a Freely Associated State and a large amount of money, $500 million; while the U.S. obtained certain military base rights and passage of nuclear power ships and submarines. The compact took on enormous symbolic importance throughout the world because of a provision in the Palau Constitution that Palau could not grant the U.S. nuclear rights without...

The colonies of German New Guinea (GNG) and British New Guinea (BNG) which from 1906 became the Territory of Papua, experienced different paths of development due to the colonial administrators' divergent commercial policies. The establishment of these colonies in the late19th century, and all of the major events and decisions relating to them up to 1914, were based mainly on commercial imperatives. This book examines the circumstances leading to the founding of GNG and BNG. It analyses the impact of government decisions and the growth of capitalist enterprises in East New Guinea during...