German Overseas Islands

At the end of the nineteenth century, with the colonial division of the Pacific, the German Empire acquired thousands of tropical islands whitin a few years. The German Empire then controlled a large part of the western Pacific, from the Mariana Islands in the north to Kaiser-Wilhelm Land and the Bismarck Archipelago in the south. Together with its colonies in Africa, the German Empire was one of the major colonial powers. However, most islands were only colonized on paper. There were never more than a few thousand Germans present in the Pacific, mainly copra traders and missionaries spreading Christianity and trying to teach the native population the basics of the German language and Western civilization. What the Germans actually brought with them were contagious diseases that led to the mass deaths of the islanders. On some islands, more than ninety-five percent of the population died within a few decades. The Germans disappeared as quickly as they arrived. At the beginning of World War I, all the colonies in Africa and the Pacific were lost whitout much resistance being offered.