The Marshall Islands in the German New Guinea Protectorate

The Marshall Islands are in the Western Pacific. The archipelago was part of the South Sea colonies of the German Empire between 1885 and 1914. The largest island Jaluit, on which Eugen Brandeis also worked, formed the administrative centre. In order to cut costs, the Marshall Islands were annexed to the German New Guinea Protectorate in 1906, which included northeastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the northern Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, Palau, Nauru and the northern Mariana Islands.

The colonisation of the South Seas by the German Empire was preceded by a long period of increased trade activity by German and international companies. The competitive battles between the major European powers, but also Japan and the USA, and the local population repeatedly led to military conflict.

In 1914 the Marshall Islands were occupied by Japan, which was granted the archipelago as a League of Nations mandate after the First World War. In the Second World War, the USA occupied the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands only regained independence as a republic in 1979 through a compact of free agreement with the USA, formal independence was only recognised as recently as 1990.