The Independent State of Samoa Papua New Guinea the Federated States of Micronesia the
Republics of the Marshall Islands of Nauru and of Palau the US Commonwealth of the Northern
Marianas and parts of the Solomon Islands share a colonial legacy: all had been under German
colonial rule before World War One. At the time Germany's Pacific empire was second only to
Great Britain. In the beginning German colonialism in the Pacific looked like a
state-sponsored economic enterprise. Big trading companies were running the actual colonial
administration of what was officially termed Protectorates not colonies. The result was
devastating a human moral and also economic catastrophe. Just before the turn of the century
the German government intervened and the so-called Protectorates became real colonies one
after the other. Prestige purposes played a significant role in German colonialism. There were
just 1 523 Germans scattered over their vast Pacific empire in 1914 less people than currently
live in the Samoan village of Falefa alone. Despite their small number German influence was
tremendous and their impact still lingers on. This book by Hermann J. Hiery is about Fa'a
Siamani the particular way Germans behaved shaped and influenced Pacific behaviour in the
colonial period. It is also about how the Pacific and the Islanders' attitude affected the
Germans. Numerous government mission and private archives were consulted by the author both
in Germany and world-wide. Many of them are unknown even to specialists. Micronesians Papua
New Guineans and Samoans who had experienced German colonial rule in person shared their
experience with the author. This book combines earlier research that had been available only in
German with more recent findings and discoveries.
