The Outbreak of World War I in the Pacific and Its Aftermath in International Diplomacy, 1914–17

The Pacific Ocean from a World War I perspective could almost be considered a non-event, apart from some early naval and land battles, climaxing in the destruction of the German East Asia Squadron near the Falkland Islands in December 1914. However, the naval race for the German Pacific, including most of Micronesia and Samoa, and parts of New Guinea, suggests a much greater significance for the region. While Japan finally assumed control of most of German Micronesia, Australians seized German New Guinea and occupied Nauru, and New Zealand took over German Samoa. The United States, not entering the war until 1917, had no means of military participation being a neutral power and was thus forced to observe events from the sidelines, but not without unease. By the end of 1914, the various movements had consolidated into an informal territorial arrangement and later proved to translate into the Versailles Peace Treaty with its mandate system in the aftermath of the war. This geostrategic solution, which had replaced a potent but relatively uninterested German Empire by a mighty Japan in the Pacific Islands, was to be undone by another Pacific War over two decades later. This paper aims at bringing the events in the Pacific in late 1914 into an international and multi-archival perspective, thus offering a fresh interpretation of the 'new' Pacific carve up and its legacy.