Editing History of the Marshall Islands (section)

==Early colonialism==
In February 1824, the American [[whaler]] ''[[Globe (1815 whaleship)|Globe]]'' anchored at [[Mili Atoll]] after the crew mutinied and killed the ship's officers. While the mutineers were ashore, five dissenting crew members made off with the ship and marooned the mutineers. Two years later, the American navy schooner ''[[USS Dolphin (1821)|Dolphin]]'' arrived and found that mutineers had been massacred by the Marshallese due to their brutal treatment of the local women.<ref>{{harvnb|Beardslee|1870|p=2}}</ref> The only survivors were two boys, who had been spared and adopted by the Marshallese.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=197–199}}</ref>

From the 1830s through the 1850s, the Marshallese Islanders became increasingly hostile to western vessels, possibly because of violent punishments that sea captains exacted for theft as well as the [[Blackbirding|abduction]] of Marshallese people for sale into slavery on Pacific plantations.<ref name="Hezel200"/> In 1833, the inhabitants of [[Ebon Atoll]] seized a dozen crew members of the British whaler ''Elizabeth'' when they went ashore. The sailors were never seen again. In 1834, the captain of a trading schooner and two of his crew members were killed at [[Bikini Atoll]]. Three vessels were sent to search for the captain, and when the [[Hawaiian Kingdom|Hawaiian]] [[brig]] ''Waverly'' discovered evidence of his death, the crew killed 30 Marshallese hostages in retaliation. In 1835, the inhabitants of [[Namdrik Atoll]] boarded the Massachusetts whaler ''Awashonks'', killing the captain and five crew members before their iroij was killed by a musket shot. The inhabitants of Mili Atoll attacked whalers in 1837 and 1844.<ref name="Hezel199">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=199}}</ref> In 1845, a fight broke out on the deck of the ''Naiad'' after the captain violently punished a native for stealing from the ship.<ref name="Beardslee">{{harvnb|Beardslee|1870|p=3}}</ref> Several Marshallese were killed and four crew members were seriously wounded.<ref name="Hezel199"/> In 1850, two passengers of the ''William Melville'' were killed after going ashore at [[Kwajalein Atoll]]. In 1851 and 1852, the Marshallese attacked three ships and massacred their crews: the ''Glencoe'' at Ebon, the ''Sea Nymph'' at [[Jaluit Atoll]], and an unnamed ship at Namdrik.<ref name="Hezel200">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=200}}</ref> There were no survivors from the ''Glencoe'', and only one ''Sea Nymph'' crew member escaped.<ref name="Beardslee"/> By some accounts, both ships were abducting Marshallese women to sell to plantation owners in other parts of the Pacific.<ref name="Hezel200"/>

European and American missionaries and traders had peaceful contact with the Marshallese beginning at Ebon Atoll in the mid-1850s. The atoll saw increased ship traffic and exposure to foreigners beginning, which also led to outbreaks of western diseases. In February 1859, an [[influenza]] outbreak killed several commoners on Ebon. In 1861, [[measles]] and influenza outbreaks occurred on the island, and in 1863, a [[typhoid fever]] outbreak killed several islanders.<ref name="Hezel 1983 206">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=206}}</ref>

===Missionary activity===
In 1855, [[American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions]] assigned George Pierson to its mission in Micronesia. He stopped at [[Ailinglaplap Atoll]] and met iroijlaplap Kaibuke before making his way to [[Kosrae]], where we worked with 50 Marshallese castaways and learned the Marshallese language. In November 1857, Pierson, [[Edward Doane]] and their families returned to Marshalls to establish a mission at Ebon.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=200–201}}</ref> The atoll's population fluctuated as Kaibuke's fleet came and went to exact tribute from his vassals; the frequent comings and goings from the atoll have helped to spread the missionaries' sermons to other islands.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=203}}</ref> Within the first few years of the mission, the missionaries noticed social changes taking place on Ebon. Women were permitted to attend certain religious feasts for the first time, and traditional burial rites fell out of practice. While the Marshallese continued to practice tattooing, some felt guilty about the practice and stopped carrying out the rites publicly. Islanders also began to observe the Christian injunction against work on the weekly sabbath.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=205}}</ref> By 1876, a traveller noted that most Marshallese women on Ebon wore western dresses and jumpers, and many men wore trousers instead of traditional grass skirts.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=219–220}}</ref>

Pierson and his wife left Ebon for their health in 1859, and Doane left in 1863, having sent his family to Hawaii two years earlier.<ref name="Hezel 1983 206"/> Both were replaced by [[Native Hawaiians|Native Hawaiian]] missionaries, who ran a mission school and printed Marshallese-language bibles.<ref name="Hezel 1983 208">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=208}}</ref> Ten Ebon islanders were baptized in 1863, and the number increased to over 100 by 1870. By 1865, mission churches and schools had opened on Jaluit and Namdrik. Missions spread to Mili and [[Majuro]] in 1869, and to [[Arno Atoll|Arno]] and [[Maloelap Atoll]]s by 1875, at which point more than 200 Marshall Islanders had been baptized.<ref name="Hezel 1983 209">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=209}}</ref> By the mid-1870s, most island churches were staffed by Marshall Islanders who had been trained in the mission schools.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=210}}</ref>

While the church was popular among commoners, the Marshallese nobles became increasingly hostile to Christianity after Kaibuke's death in the 1863 [[typhoid fever]] outbreak.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=206; 208}}</ref> Many of the chiefs stopped church services, and some retaliated against converts. One Marshallese noble woman burned the houses of converts. Francis Hezel speculates that the nobility may have seen increasing literacy and access to new information among the commoners as a threat to their authority, fueling increased hostility to Christianity,<ref name="Hezel 1983 208"/> and notes an 1870 case in which a Christian commoner publicly chastised his island's chief for leading young girls astray and went unpunished.<ref name="Hezel 1983 209"/>

===Western commercial interests===
[[File:HH1883 pg123 Hafen von Jaluit, Marshall-Inseln.jpg|alt=Jaluit station, Marshall Islands, ca. 1880. Picture published in Südsee-Erinnerungen, p 123.|thumb|German trading station at [[Jaluit Atoll]] with a Marshallese ''[[Walap|korkor]]'' outrigger canoe in the foreground, c. 1880<ref>{{harvnb|Mückler|2016|p=105}}</ref>]]

In 1859, the German firm Hoffschlaeger & Stapenhorst sent two traders to establish a trading post at [[Ebon Atoll]]. In 1861, they built a coconut oil factory on the island.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=210–211}}</ref> In 1863, the firm suffered serious financial setbacks and withdrew from the Marshall Islands, partially due to the sinking of one of its ships while leaving Ebon. One of the traders, {{ill|Adolph Capelle|de|Georg Eduard Adolph Capelle}}, set up an independent trading firm on the island by partnering with Anton Jose DeBrum, a Portuguese whaler who arrived in 1864. Both men married local women and developed strong connections with both the Marshall Islanders and the missionaries.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=213}}</ref> Their firm, Capelle & Co., entered into an agreement to sell coconut [[copra]] to [[Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy|Godeffroy & Son]] of [[Hamburg]],<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=214}}</ref> a company which pioneered the production of copra in Samoa and Tonga and held a large share of Pacific copra trade.<ref>{{harvnb|Bollard|1981|p=7}}</ref> Godeffroy exported copra to Europe where it was processed into animal feed and coconut oil, which was used in soap and candle manufacturing.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=211–212}}</ref> The German firms traded western goods to Marshallese chiefs in exchange for coconuts, which Marshallese commoners harvested as tribute for the chiefs.<ref name="Hezel216">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=216}}</ref>

In 1873, Capelle & Co. moved its headquarters to [[Jaluit Atoll|Jaluit]], which was the home of [[Kabua the Great|Kabua]], a powerful [[iroijlaplap|iroij]] and disputed successor of Kaibuke.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=215}}</ref> Godeffroy & Son also established trading posts on five islands in 1873 with a main office on Jaluit,<ref>{{harvnb|Firth|1973|p=12}}</ref> but the [[Panic of 1873|European stock market crash]] later that year caused the firm to cut back its operations. Capelle dominated the copra market in the early years, but in 1876, [[Hernsheim & Co]]. and New Zealand merchant Thomas Farrell both began copra trading in the Marshall Islands.<ref name="Hezel216"/> The increased competition set off a price war that disrupted the industry and proved advantageous for Marshallese suppliers. The firms also began selling the Marshallese previously prohibited goods, including alcohol, firearms, and munitions, despite the missionaries' complaints.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=223}}</ref>

[[File:German colonial album 1880s img26.jpg|thumb|The offices of the Pacific Navigation Co. on Jaluit in the late 1880s<ref>{{harvnb|Mückler|2016|p=244}}</ref>]]

By 1878, Hernsheim & Co. had emerged as the dominant firm in the copra trade. While Capelle & Co. lost market share, Capelle and DeBrum purchased the entirety of [[Likiep Atoll]] as a copra plantation to control their buying price and supply of copra. Capelle & Co. also diversified its interests to include shipbuilding and importing. Farrell went bankrupt in 1877, and his assets were acquired by [[Auckland]] firm Henderson & Macfarlane.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=225–226}}</ref> Godeffroy & Son went bankrupt in 1879, and in 1880, its Pacific interests were acquired by the German Trading and Plantation Company of the South Sea Islands in Hamburg ({{langx|de|Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft Der Südee Inseln zu Hamburg}}), also known as DHPG.<ref>{{harvnb|Bollard|1981|p=16}}</ref> The world market price of copra dropped in 1882; Capelle & Co. sold seven of its stations in the Marshalls to DHPG and made an agreement to exclusively sell copra to Hernsheim & Co.<ref name="Hezel304">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=304}}</ref> By 1885, the German firms DHPG and Hernsheim & Co. controlled two-thirds of the copra trade in the Marshall Islands, with the rest split between Henderson & Macfarlane of Auckland, Crawford & Co. of [[San Francisco]], and the Pacific Navigation Company of [[Honolulu]].<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|2003|p=46}}</ref>

====Blackbirding====
{{Main|Blackbirding}}
In the 1870s, Marshall Islanders were coerced into working on plantations in other parts of the Pacific, a practice was known as "[[blackbirding]]". In 1871, the ships ''Eugene'' and ''Carl'' kidnapped men at Ailinglaplap and Mili Atolls, respectively.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=237–238}}</ref> In 1872, trader [[Bully Hayes|William Henry "Bully" Hayes]] kidnapped women on Mili while pirating the stations of business rivals.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=235}}</ref> Several blackbirding ships cruised the northern Marshalls specifically to obtain women that they could sell into [[sexual slavery]] in Fiji.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=237}}</ref> Mortality rates among Micronesian laborers in Fiji and Samoa were high, and few returned home.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=239}}</ref> The labor trade in Marshall Islands declined somewhat after the British government passed the Pacific Islander Protection Act 1872, but Jaluit continued to serve as a depot for transporting [[Micronesians#Kiribati people|Gilbertese]] laborers and some Marshallese were transported to Hawaiian plantations as late as 1882.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=237; 239–240}}</ref>

===Marshallese politics===
[[File:HH1883 pg143 Kabua, König von Jaluit (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|[[Kabua the Great|Kabua]] in western clothes, c. 1880]]

After the death of [[iroijlaplap]] Kaibuke during the typhoid outbreak of 1863, his two nephews Loiak and [[Kabua the Great|Kabua]] disputed who should succeed him as the paramount chief of the southern [[Ralik|Ralik Chain]]. Loiak was the iroij of [[Ebon Atoll]] and the elder nephew, who traditionally would have succeeded his uncle, but Kabua, the iroij of [[Jaluit Atoll]], married Kaibuke's widow, making him the step-uncle and guardian of his elder cousin.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=221–222}}</ref> Both chiefs sought support from foreigners by befriending missionaries and working with German copra traders in order to maintain influence.<ref name="Hezel222">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=222}}</ref>

The dispute remained peaceful for twelve years, but in September 1876, the conflict nearly erupted into violence. While both chiefs were staying on Ebon, copra trader James Lyle Young reported witnessing a mob of Loiak's followers wielding muskets and preparing to attack Kabua's followers across the lagoon. Kabua fled to his land on Jaluit rather than engaging in battle.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=221}}</ref> In the following months, rumors circulated that Kabua would return and start a war. Loiak staged frequent military drills on Ebon and stockpiled weapons in late 1876, but Kabua's invasion never occurred.<ref name="Hezel222"/><ref>{{harvnb|Fitzpatrick|2022|p=303}}</ref> In May 1880, Loiak's followers invaded Jaluit to challenge Kabua, who prospered from the copra trade and whom an 1878 German treaty had recognized as the "King of the Ralik Islands." The two armies met and carried firearms but did not fight, and there were no casualties. Loiak's followers returned to Ebon several days later;<ref name="Hezel 1983 302–303">{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=302–303}}</ref> Kabua fled to his home at [[Ailinglaplap Atoll]], though he later returned to Jaluit.<ref>{{harvnb|Fitzpatrick|2022|p=305}}</ref>

In the late 1870s and 1880s, armed conflicts occurred between rival chiefs on both the [[Majuro]] and [[Arno Atoll]]s. On Majuro, iroij Jebrik and Rimi fought over the paramount chieftainship for several years, leaving at least 10 islanders dead before [[Cyprian Bridge]] of the passing British warship [[HMS Espiegle (1880)|HMS ''Espiegle'']] mediated a peace treaty in 1883. In 1884, Bridge also negotiated an end to a conflict between iroij Lekman and Lijiwirak on Arno, which had been ongoing since 1878. Both conflicts had disrupted copra production and caused famines as war parties destroyed rivals' coconut groves and other property. Copra traders resorted to selling firearms and ammunition to maintain profits.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=293–297}}</ref>

===Western political interests===
[[File:Flagge der Ralik-Inseln.svg|thumb|Flag of the [[Ralik|Ralik Islands]] made for the November 29, 1878, treaty signing with Germany. The Ralik Chain historically was not a unified political entity, and the flag shared the same colors as the [[flag of the German Empire]].<ref name="Hezel47"/>]]

In 1875, the British and German governments conducted a series of secret negotiations to divide the western Pacific in [[Sphere of influence|spheres of influence]] and counter American expansion in the region. Germany received northeastern [[New Guinea]], the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], and several island groups of [[Micronesia]], including the Marshall Islands.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=300–301}}</ref> On November 26, 1878, the German warship [[SMS Ariadne (1871)|SMS ''Ariadne'']] anchored at Jaluit to begin treaty negotiations with the iroij of the Ralik Chain. During the second day of negotiations, Captain {{ill|Bartholomäus von Werner|de}} ordered his men to give a military demonstration featuring a bayonet charge, a rapid firing demonstration, and use of artillery blanks, which he later said was intended to "show the islanders, who have not seen anything like it before, the power of the Europeans."<ref>{{harvnb|Fitzpatrick|2022|pp=303–304}}</ref> On November 29, Werner signed a treaty with Kabua and several other Ralik Chain iroij which granted the [[German Empire]] "[[Most favoured nation|most favored nation]]" status in the Ralik Chain and required iroij to guarantee the rights of German citizens. Germany secured a [[fuelling station]] at Jaluit and free use of the atoll's harbor for German vessels.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|pp=298–299}}</ref><ref name="Hezel47">{{harvnb|Hezel|2003|p=47}}</ref> The German authorities also recognized Kabua as the "King of the Ralik Islands," though the treaty required that disputes between Marshallese and Germans would be arbitrated by German ship captains.<ref name="Hezel 1983 302–303"/>

The German Empire established a [[Consul (representative)|consulate]] on Jaluit in 1880 with Franz Hernsheim, co-founder of Hernsheim & Co., serving as the German consul to the Ralik Chain.<ref>{{harvnb|Storr|2020|p=77}}</ref><ref name="Hezel48"/> The United States made Adolph Capelle its consul to protect the interests of American missionaries.<ref>{{harvnb|Hezel|1983|p=302}}</ref>