German Rule in Micronesia
Hezel, Francis X. (2014). German Rule in Micronesia (Report). Kolonia, Pohnpei: Micronesian Seminar. pp. 1–50.
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Abstract: This year (2014) marks the centennial of the end of German colonial rule in Micronesia. As such, it is an opportune time to reassess the contributions that Germany made to the island groups that would experience colonial rule under two more powers before realizing full self-government in the late 1970s. The German period in Micronesia, 1899-1914, was brief but more influential than its short duration would suggest.1 It coincided with the thrust toward modernization in several of these island groups, something brought on by years of sporadic contact with the West during the nineteenth century and the Spanish colonial rule that immediately pre- ceded the German period.
The steps toward modernization that the island groups took during German colonial rule were generated by internal forces as much as by the attempts of a colonial power to impose foreign ways on its people, as we shall see. The dynamics of this period cannot be captured in a simple “local vs. colonial” model, for some of the most important and long-lasting changes were made precisely to advance the interests of local groups. Whether intentionally or not, German administrators sometimes tapped into island institutions so effectively that the aims of both the administrators and their island people were served. The cultural elements of the islands played a key role throughout this era—a point that will be highlighted repeatedly in this work.
Our emphasis, then, is not on what German colonial rule took away from islanders, but on what it gave them. Enough time has elapsed since the colonial period to allow us a longer and broader perspective. Not so long ago, island societies might have expressed their gratitude for deliverance from foreign rule. Today’s Micronesian societies may have evolved to the point where they can gratefully acknowledge what each of their colonial overlords contributed to the making of the present day island societies. Each gift is different, of course, depending on the peculiarities of the culture and what was needed at the time. This monograph, then, is not intend- ed as a rewrite of the history of the period, but only a summary of the ways in which the German government interacted with the local society and its leaders. It is a presentation of the achievements as well as the failures of colonial rule, with emphasis on what the most significant contribution was to each major island group during the German era.
This same period, we might note, saw intense research into the culture and language of these island societies. The standout achievement was the compilation of work that went into the Hamburg South Seas Expedition, with its twenty volumes on the area. The series offers a detailed study of island cultures in their various aspects, including long sections on folklore, myths, and religious beliefs and practices. In addition, German Capuchin missionaries contributed heavily with their own ethnographical and linguistic research, much of it published in the journal Anthropos. These works would be consulted by later ethnographers and linguists in their own re- search in the islands. They are still being mined today, often by islanders as they retrace the steps of their own cultural evolution. The photographs taken during this period, many of them long stored in the German Capuchin archives in Münster, offer us a window on this fascinating period. They will be used here to illustrate the tensions and the achievements of the German period.
