History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 31 Conflict over Carolines, 1884-1887
Levesque, Rodrigue (2005). History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 31 Conflict over Carolines, 1884-1887. 31. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-31-2.
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Abstract: HOM.31 (1884–1887) documents the Caroline Islands crisis, the confrontation between Spain and Germany over sovereignty in Micronesia. The volume includes petitions, government correspondence, naval reports, diplomatic telegrams, and eyewitness narratives surrounding the attempted Spanish occupation of Yap and subsequent German intervention. Key locations appearing throughout the documents include Yap, Palau, Koror, Babelthuap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and the Mariana Islands, especially Guam, Saipan, Rota, and Tinian. The narrative also references broader regional connections involving Hong Kong, Manila, Zamboanga, Mindanao, and other Pacific trading and naval centers. 
Central figures include Spanish officials and naval officers such as Enrique Capriles y Osuna, Guillermo España, Emilio José Butrón, Rafael Terrero, and Joaquín Jovellar, alongside German naval commander Maximilian von Hofmeier of the gunboat SMS Iltis. The volume also contains reports involving traders and residents such as David O’Keefe, C. P. Holcomb, Bartola Garrido, and agents of the German trading firms Hernsheim & Co. and Handel- und Plantagen Gesellschaft. Indigenous leaders appear frequently in the sources, including Yapese chiefs such as Lirow and Bodot, and Palauan rulers such as Abadul of Koror and Arra-Klaye of Artingal, illustrating the interaction between European imperial ambitions and local authority structures. 
Documents detail the Spanish plan to establish a Politico-Military Government of the Caroline Islands and Palau at Yap, supported by Capuchin and Augustinian missionary activity, a colonial garrison, and naval support from ships such as San Quintín, Manila (Carriedo), and Velasco. The crisis intensified when SMS Iltis unexpectedly raised the German flag at Yap in August 1885, producing competing claims of possession and a diplomatic confrontation between Spain and Germany. The volume traces the resulting negotiations, the role of naval expeditions and colonial administrators, and reports on parallel German moves in nearby island groups including the Marshall Islands, documenting the transformation of Micronesia from a loosely visited trading region into a contested colonial frontier of European imperial power in the western Pacific. 
