British-German declarations over the western Pacific

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In 1886, the British Empire and the German Empire signed two agreements defining their spheres of interest in the western Pacific . The title of the two agreements is:

  • Declaration on the delimitation of the German and English spheres of power in the Western Pacific , April 6, 1886; Declaration between the Governments of Great Britain and the German Empire relating to the Demarcation of the British and German Spheres of Influence in the Western Pacific
  • Declaration regarding the mutual freedom of trade and movement in the German and English possessions and protected areas in the Western Pacific , April 10, 1886; Declaration between the Governments of Great Britain and the German Empire relating to the Reciprocal Freedom of Trade and Commerce in the British and German Possessions and Protectorates in the Western Pacific

Negotiations and content

In the last quarter of the 19th century, German and French trading companies became increasingly active in the western Pacific and competed with the British, Dutch and Spanish who were already living there. Articles in the German press about a possible annexation of New Guinea also worried Australian politicians. Great Britain and Germany wanted to protect the interests of their citizens active in this area, but viewed the West Pacific region as peripheral and did not want to risk a conflict over it. Therefore, in 1885, they agreed to regulate the delimitation of their spheres of interest in the western Pacific by treaty. The negotiations on this were conducted by the government representatives Krauel for Germany and Thurston for Great Britain. The delimitation of the treaty area initially proved to be difficult due to the claims of the USA on Samoa and France on the New Hebrides . After Samoa, Tonga and Niue were defined as neutral and areas under the control of third colonial powers were excluded, an agreement was reached and the agreements could be signed by the State Secretary of the Foreign Office, Count Herbert von Bismarck and the British Ambassador, Sir Edward Malet .

The agreement defined a line from latitude 8 ° 50 'south, longitude 159 ° 50' east to latitude 6 ° north, longitude 173 ° 30 'east as the border of the German and British spheres of influence. To the north and west of it, German, south and east of it, British influence should prevail. Germany's most important demand was control of the Northern Solomon Islands Bougainville , Choiseul and Ysabel , which bordered the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land protected area . In a note dated June 30, 1885, State Secretary Bismarck asked the British ambassador to move the border line to the east so that Nauru - then called Pleasant Island - also belonged to the German sphere of influence. He justified this with the false assertion that only German trading companies were active on Nauru; but there was also a British and a New Zealand company. The British side apparently did not attach any importance to the control of Nauru and agreed to the border line east of the island.

In the agreements, Germany and Great Britain undertook not to accept any expansion of territory or patronage in the respective other sphere of influence and to cede existing colonial property to the other power. In the agreement on freedom of trade and business, freedom of travel, freedom of establishment and freedom of business as well as most-favored-nation treatment in trade for citizens of both states in the contract area were agreed. Legally, citizens of the other state should be treated equally with their own, and the same freedom of religious belief should apply. Controversial claims to land, which originated from the time before the proclamation of colonial rule by citizens of one of the two states in the territory of the other, should be decided by a mixed commission; at the request of the claimant, however, by the competent local authority. Both states pledged not to bring convicts into the Western Pacific or to set up penal colonies . The agreements did not apply to colonies with fully functioning governments and legislatures.

The scope of the agreement was the area of ​​the Pacific between the 15th degree north latitude and the 30th degree south latitude as well as the 165th longitude west and 130th longitude east. The demarcation line ran from Miter Rock on the northeast coast of New Guinea at 8 degrees south latitude, the border between the German and British areas of New Guinea, along the following points:

  • A. 8 ° south latitude, 154 ° east. length
  • B. 7 ° 15 'South. Latitude, 155 ° 25'East. Length.
  • C. 7 ° 15 south. Latitude, 155 ° 35'East. Length.
  • D. 7 ° 25'Südl. Latitude, 156 ° 40 'E. Length.
  • E. 8 ° 50 'south. Latitude, 159 ° 50 'E. Length.
  • F. 6 ° south. Latitude, 173 ° 30 'E. Length.
  • G. 15 ° south. Latitude, 173 ° 30 'E. Length.

consequences

The Gilbert and Ellice Islands and the Solomon Islands subsequently became British colonies, and Germany took control of the Carolines , the Marianas , Nauru and Bougainville. While British colonial rule outlasted both world wars and did not end until the 1970s, German colonial rule ended in 1920. As a result, the Caroline and Marshall Islands were administered by the United States as trust areas of the League of Nations , after 1945 as UN trust areas. Against the will of the Australians and British who wanted to annex Nauru, US President Wilson managed to ensure that this island too was administered as a League of Nations mandate, which was transferred to the United Nations in 1945. In the negotiations on the island's independence , the future head of state Naurus, Hammer DeRoburt , was able to successfully invoke Article 76 of the UN Charter , which made the implementation of the right of self-determination a duty of the UN for the trust areas . Nauru became independent in 1968.

literature

  • Fabricius, Wilhelm: Nauru 1888-1900 . Shown on the basis of files from the colonial department of the Foreign Office from the holdings of the German Central Archives in Potsdam. Translated and edited by Dymphna Clark and Stewart Firth, published by: Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra 1992. ISBN 0-7315-1367-3
  • Luc Folliet: Nauru. The devastated island. How capitalism destroyed the richest country on earth., Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-8031-2654-2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Facsimile of an article in the Sydney Morning Herald from February 7, 1883, the newspaper publishes a summary translation of an article in the Augsburger Allgemeine from November 27, 1882
  2. ↑ Biography at Wikisource: Thurston, John Bates (DNB00), Leslie Stephen, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Vol. 56, London: Elder Smith & Co., 1898
  3. ^ Fabricius 1991, pp. 5-8.
  4. ↑ Fabricius 1991, pp. 130-137.
  5. ↑ Kiribati and Tuvalu (Gilbert and Ellice Islands) Protectorates , Jane Resture, September 28, 2008
  6. ↑ Folliet, p. 35 f.