Pacific Powers: Imperial Competition and Cooperation in Micronesia

As geopolitical competition and conflict in the Pacific region grows, this project seeks to uncover the complex historical origins of this situation. It will assess why Micronesia has been the site of competing projects of power projection and how the people of the region have responded to radically different imperial powers. Using hitherto untapped archival materials in six different languages, it investigates how and why Micronesia was targeted and then conquered by the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese and the United States before winning independence.In doing so, it seeks to offer a deeper understanding of our region, explaining why imperial competition in the Pacific has been the historical norm rather than the exception.