HYF01: Unit 5 Notes - Early Europeans and Islander Interactions

HYF01: Unit 5 - Early Europeans and Islander Interactions

Unit 4 Recap

• Aristocratic and Democratic systems existed, but the situation was more complex due to diverse environments and social structures.
• Environment influenced leadership: Melanesia (ability), Polynesia (descent), Micronesia (resources/environment).
• Pre-European contact: Chiefdoms, Kingdoms, and Big Men systems were in place.

Unit 5 Learning Objectives

• Define beachcomber and castaway.
• Analyze the effects of James O’Connell, Harry Danford, and Charles Pickering on local communities, and vice versa.
• Explain the impact of beachcombers and castaways on Pacific societies.
• Identify different trades and their dates.
• Describe transactions between islanders and traders.
• Describe and evaluate the impact of individuals on societies.
• Analyze the different impacts of various trades on Pacific societies.

Introduction

• Initial Islander unawareness of outsiders.
• First contact (Guam) was violent.
• Subsequent contacts led to relationships and interdependency.
• Focus: beachcombers, castaways, traders.

Beachcombers and Castaways

• First Europeans in Pacific Islands with little intention of causing change.
• Few possessions, dependent on islanders.
• Voluntary or involuntary arrivals.
• Lived according to island life.

Introduction of New Ideas

• Beachcombers and castaways introduced new ideas.
• These new ideas foreshadowed Western civilization.

Resulting Changes

• Introduction of: Home, Firearms, brew, Genetic Mixing, Language, Writing

Impact

• Few in number, but influential.
• Traders had a permanent impact on Pacific Islanders' lifestyle and economies.

Barter

• Gather style, sustained trading pattern, exploitation of resources.

Beachcombers (H.E. Maude)

• Men who dropped out of the European money economy.
• Depended on indigenous communities for livelihood.
• Integrated into communities.
• No political ambitions.
• Foreigners living in the Pacific.
• Name from collecting goods thrown overboard: 'combed the beach'.

Castaways

• Lived in the islands against their wishes.
• Shipwrecked.
• Marooned by captain or mutiny.
• Kidnapped by Islanders.

Case Study: A Beachcomber in Pohnpei

• James O’Connell (Irish beachcomber) - 1883.
• Tattooed, gained respect and title.
• Married chief’s daughter, given a sleeping place in the chief’s house.
• George Keenan (another Irish beachcomber) - Shrank from tattooing.
• Seen as coward, lived with lower-class woman/women.

O'Connell in Pohnpei

• O’Connell saw Pohnpeians as resourceful.
• Participated in wars between Sokehs and U.
• Marriage to chief's daughter caused the battle.
• Ceremonial act of cannibalism occurred after Sokehs won. Symbolic - dead nourished the living

Beachcomber in Namosi

• Harry Danford (“Harry the Jew”) - Transculturalist.
• From London, went to Australia, Tonga, Fiji.
• Became involved in beche-de-mer trade.
• Befriended Kuruduadua (son of high chief in Namosi).
• Namosi was a mountain district of Suva.
• Few coastal Fijians, no Europeans entered.

Harry’s Survival and Role

• Accepted invitation from Kuruduadua.
• Survived in Namosi due to Kuruduadua.
• Given great reception, relationship with chief and people.
• Kuruduadua was region’s greatest fighter.
• Harry chose Kuruduadua’s favorite wife to be his.

Harry’s Contribution to Namosi

• Kuruduadua’s adviser in dealing with Europeans.
• Gave medical advice; fixed guns.
• Helped neighboring tribes.
• Denied practicing cannibalism.
• By 1856, became a legend, integrated into dialects and customs.
• Assurance for locals during European exploration.

Later Life

• 1860 - Chief of Namosi offered Harry the honour of solevu (gift).
• Harry preferred land.
• Given title to Raiwaqa, Navua, where descendants still live.
• After Kuruduadua’s death, Harry became overseer at sugar plantation.

Charles Pickering

• Beachcomber in Rewa, Fiji.
• Parents were convicts transported to Australia.
• 1828 - Convicted for perjury (15 years old), sentenced to 3 years.
• Ended up in Fiji, married Fijian women (1837, 1958).
• Settled in Rewa.

Economic Change

• All islands now have a money economy.
• Beachcombers and castaways introduced the concept of a money economy.
• Tahiti example: bag of silver dollars for fish hooks, earrings.
• Islanders realized value of money, sought help from beachcombers to understand monetary system.
• Islanders realized Europeans were humans not supernatural.

Integration and Employment

• Became part of chiefly households.
• Dependents of chiefly patrons, adopted local concerns.
• Casual employment as agents or intermediaries.
• Key positions in handling delicate matters.
• Paid in goods, not money.
• Importance grew with increased interaction with the outside world.

Warfare And Politics

• Took part in intertribal warfare.
• Islanders used spears, clubs, bows and arrows.
• Beachcombers/castaways useful due to muskets.
• Warring leaders saw muskets as strategic strength.
• Chiefs and islanders controlled involvement of beachcombers and castaways.

Exceptions and Examples

• Charles Savage – Bau (exception).
• Muskets/cannons introduced by Europeans had little value without operators and maintenance, and Europeans provided this service/knowledge.
• Kamehameha (Hawaii) 1790 obtained cannon and muskets from ship “Fair American” – he kidnapped John Young and Isaac Davis to operate them
• Pomare (Tahiti) – used them to win war, indebted to European allies.

Early Europeans: Traders

• MECTRO
• G Span

Trades: Overview

• Outline different trades and dates they occurred.
• Transactions between islanders and traders.
• Biographies: Local trader and European trader, impact on trade and society.

Chronology of Early European Trading in the Pacific

• Late 1700s-1800s: Salt pork in Tahiti (British).
• 1800s-1860s: Whaling (provisions) in Hawaii, Kiribati, Fiji, Tonga (British, American).
• 1800s-1850s, 1990s: Beche-de-mer in Fiji (British, Chinese).
• 1800s: Sandalwood in Hawaii, Marquesas, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu (British, American).
• 1800s-1960s: Phosphate in Nauru, Kiribati, Banaba (British, Australia, German).
• Mid 1800s-1900s: Expansion of settlement, copra, coconut oil, cotton, coffee, cocoa, banana, sugar in Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu (British, American, German, French).

Trade Interactions

• Island societies based on subsistence agriculture and fishing.
• Trading limited to customary visits between neighboring groups for ritual and friendship.
• European ships (18th Century) gradually introduced cash economy.

Evolution of Trade

• Trade developed from occasional to regular pattern of mutual dependence over 150 years. 18th century.
• Islanders shifted from self-sufficiency to dependence.
• Europeans shifted from barter-gatherer to sustained trading pattern via resource exploitation.

Trade Benefits for Europeans

• Islands' agents supplied world trade routes to China.
• Partnership with more companies.
• New products.
• Large companies formed.
• Europe-Australia economic links.
• Increased tertiary trade (banking, insurance, education, postal).

Impact on Islands & Islanders

• Exploited resources in Pacific.
• Increased labor mobility.
• Land purchases and alienation.
• Dependence on imported goods (from self-sufficiency).
• Loss of traditional skills (new technology).
• Artificial political boundaries.
• Introduction of crops and plantations.
• Port and towns developed as European centers.
• More Europeans settled and acquired land.
• Pacific Islanders drawn into the global market.

Biography of Traders

• Apolosi Nawai and the Viti Kabani (Islander)
• J. C Godeffroy and Sohn (European)

Apolosi R Nawai and the Viti Kabani 1913 - 1917

• Born in 1885; belonged to chiefly mataqali of Narewa Village in Nadi.
• Third son of a Methodist teacher; gifted with supernatural powers.
• Excelled in academic and religious studies.
• Commoner entrepreneur, clever businessman.

Business Acumen

• Recognized European middlemen profits $\approx$ 1,000 pounds on $\approx$ 2000 pounds investment.
• Sought to cut out middlemen.
• Fijian-Pool capital, control enterprise, reinvest profit.

Choice of Crop: Banana

• Included many Fijian farmers (grown on large number of Fijians in Viti Levu).
• Prospered in West of Viti Levu in mid-1890s under Fiji Banana and Produce Company.

Map of Fiji

Competition and Boom

• Boom in performance 1913-1914.
• Middlemen sought support of chiefs/resident magistrate.
• Competition between middlemen and Fijian farmers.

Banana Industry Success

• "The banana industry shows remarkable vitality, and the export of bananas in 1914 not only exceed in quantity the export of any previous year , but the declared value amounted to 201,938 pounds or 33,689 pounds more than the declared value of bananas exported in 1913, when the value was higher than in any other previous year”.
• Upsurge resulted from Viti Kabani success.

Community Involvement

• Apolosi and friends moved village to village to get chiefs and people to buy shares.
• Viti Kabani recruited skilled people from abroad (Dalton, African-American teacher).

Challenges and Suppression

• “The grass would never grow green on Draubuta”.
• January 1915 – Meeting of the company - 3 to 4 thousand people attend.
• Trading company seen as a challenge by European settlers--colonial authorities suppressed it.

J C Godeffroy

• Johann Caesar Godeffroy, wealthy German merchant and ship-owner.
• South Seas trading headquarters in Apia.
• Godeffroy and Sohn offered farmers low freight rates and efficient service to Sydney, Hong Kong, Germany.

Success and Influence

• Successful in Samoa, bought up Samoan copra and land ($\approx$ 25,000 acres).
• Dominated trade in the central Pacific by 1874.
• German agents given consular responsibilities.
• Influence on government colonial policies increased.

Expansion and Colonial Possession

• In 1870s started trading coconuts and pearl shell in New Britain (New Guinea).
• Within 10 years, German traders had coconut plantations in north-east New Guinea.
• 1885 Bismarck’s government took possession of Marshall Islands.

Summary of Impacts

• Beachcombers, castaways impacted Pacific Island societies unintentionally.
• Dependent on Islanders for survival; relationships developed.
• Contributed to genetic mix, acted as intermediaries, introduced muskets.
• Traders exposed islanders to the global market.
• Acquired land for plantations; started to settle in Pacific.
• Biographies – Apolosi Nawai and JC Godeffroy.