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 Lesson
at a glance
You will explore the history of foreign encounters in your island
entity and in your area in particular.
This is the first of two lessons on historical change in
your island entity and in your area specifically.
The
sections of the Pacific Worlds Visitors chapter generally
correspond with a sequence of events involved
in the Western-colonial
encounter
with Pacific Islands. These may or may not all be relevant to
your area, or may be relevant to different degrees and in a different
order. The purpose, however, is to outline the different
stages of colonization that make your islands
what they are today.
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Key Concepts: Voyages of exploration; missionaries; colonization; and
the demographic changes that resulted from the impact of these visitors.
Lesson Outcomes: You will:
- Be familiar with the early foreign encounters, the people involved,
and the impact of those visits
- Examine the role of missionaries, if
any, in the cultural and political transformation of your islands
- Understand
colonial encounters in the broader geographical context of Western
activities in the Pacific
- Understand the impacts of the colonial
encounter on the indigenous population
 Tools
History books.Other historical resources as necessary, including perhaps
journals of the missionaries that were stationed in your area.
 Exercises
 Exercise
1: Society
Website: Visitors > Society
The Colonial period is generally the time when social and political
structures in the islands changed or solidified, sometimes adopting
Western forms (monarchy, for example).
 What
were the political institutions (chieftainships, titles, clans, etc)
of the society in your islands during the early colonial period? Compare
to other island communities.
Explore
population issues in your society during the early “historical”
period, including the impact of any introduced diseases.
What
do you see as the outcome, in terms of effects on your society, by the
time colonial rule was solidified?
Exercise
2: Explorers
Website: Visitors > Explorers
Identify
the earliest encounters with Explorers in your island entity: who were
they, where were they from, when did they arrive?
How
were these explorers received? Was their violence, or peace? If there
was violence, are there two points of view on why that happened? Are
their differences between the stories told by your people, and by Western
historians?
Discuss
various aspects of cultural difference between the explorers and the
inhabitants of your islands at that time.
Compare
your stories to those of other communities in Pacific
Worlds. Discuss similarities and differences.
How
did these first encounters shape the perceptions of your island(s) by
outsiders? To what extent are these perceptions maintained today?
What
were the immediate impacts of these visits? How did it change life in
your islands?
that
both Western societies and your own island society were in
a state of evolution: neither was “backwards,” but
both were subject to different opportunities, including access
to resources such as metals and to innovations and ideas from
other places.
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Exercise
3: Missionaries
Website: Visitors > Missionaries
Missionaries and the introduction of Christianity can be a difficult
topic to discuss fairly. In some cases, missionaries are seen as hated
interlopers who brought on the destruction of local culture. In other
cases, missionaries
are revered as benefactors who brought the light of Christianity. Our
purpose here, however, is to view missionaries as factors in the cultural
and political transformation of Pacific Islands, good or bad (or both).
not to make moral judgements ("good"
or "bad") about missionaries in the Pacific islands.
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Identify
the first missionaries, and the most important early missionary figures
to your islands: who were they, where did they come from, and when?
Compare
the encounters of early missionaries in your area with those of communities
on the Pacific Worlds website. Consider the different receptions the
islanders gave them, and the degrees of impact that the missionaries
ultimately had.
How
did the values of the Missionaries compare with those of your culture?
Did
the presence of these missionaries help or hinder the colonizing process?
Discuss.
What
were the geographic impacts of the missionaries, if any? For example,
did they establish districts for administration of their parishes? Or
create villages where there were not villages before? Did their presence
help establish a new capital?
How
are these missionaries viewed today? Compare to other island entities.
Exercise
4: Colony
Website: Visitors > Colony
Almost all Pacific Islands
became colonies or protectorates of major powers, sometimes more than
one, during the
19th century.
Which
power(s) colonized your islands, and what were their motives? Consider
the larger global geo-politics of colonization in the Pacific at that
time.
On
that same note, what did the colonizing powers in your islands want?
Copra? Sandalwood? How did the promotion of these economies affect your
islands? Compare to other island localities
What
immediate impacts or changes were brought about as a result of colonization?
Compare to other island localities.
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