History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 37 U.S. and Germany Take Over, 1898-1901
Levesque, Rodrigue (2006). History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 37 U.S. and Germany Take Over, 1898-1901. 37. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-37-4.
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Abstract: HOM.37 (1898–1901) documents the transfer of political control in Micronesia following the Spanish–American War and the subsequent sale of Spain’s remaining Pacific possessions to Germany. The documents include diplomatic correspondence, colonial reports, naval records, and missionary accounts relating to the Mariana Islands, Caroline Islands, Palau, and Marshall Islands during the years immediately following the loss of Spanish authority. Locations appearing frequently include Guam, Agaña, Saipan, Rota, Tinian, Yap, Koror, Babeldaob, Pohnpei (Ponape), Chuuk (Truk), Kosrae, and Jaluit, along with references to regional administrative and commercial centers such as Manila, Hong Kong, and Sydney. The volume traces the political transition in which Guam passed to the United States in 1898 while the remaining Spanish possessions in Micronesia were transferred to Germany under the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899.
The documents introduce a wide range of colonial administrators, naval officers, missionaries, and commercial agents active during this transition. Spanish officials appearing in the records include Governor Juan Marina Vega and other administrators responsible for the final Spanish government in the Carolines and Marianas. German representatives and officials include figures connected with the German Imperial Colonial Office, the Jaluit Company, and naval vessels assigned to enforce German authority after 1899. American officials and naval officers also appear in reports concerning the establishment of U.S. administration in Guam under Captain Richard P. Leary and subsequent naval governors. Missionary activity remains prominent, with references to Capuchin missionaries operating in the Caroline Islands and to Protestant missions connected with earlier American missionary networks.
Additional documents describe the arrival of German administrators and commercial representatives in the Caroline Islands and Palau, the reorganization of colonial administration from Jaluit and Yap, and the continued expansion of copra trading and shipping routes linking Micronesia with Hamburg, Hong Kong, Manila, and Sydney. Reports and correspondence also refer to indigenous leaders and local political structures in districts of Pohnpei, Yap, and Palau, illustrating how existing systems of authority interacted with the newly established German colonial administration. Together the materials provide detailed references to places, individuals, and institutions involved in the transition from Spanish rule to German colonial administration in Micronesia at the end of the nineteenth century.
