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147 Germany and the Chinese Coolie Labor, Resistance, and the Struggle for Equality, 1884–­19141 Andreas Steen The Chinese coolie was a prominent figure in the three decades of German colonial history: as a commodity, as indentured laborer, and in discourse.2 German shipping companies and agents had long been active in coolie transfer and transportation, but it was only after Bismarck agreed to the German Empire’s colonial expansion in 1884 that plantation owners on the Pacific islands began to discuss systematic employment of Chinese workers. Already one year later, Dr. O. W. Stübel, consul in Apia, Western Samoa, pointed to the problem of labor shortage and predicted, “[o]ne will have to get used to the idea of acquiring Chinese workers. Indigenous labor will only be of subsidiary usefulness.”3 The coolie question was precarious, especially after the Reich took over direct administration of German New Guinea on April 1, 1899, and officially turned Western Samoa into a colony on March 1, 1900. Both colonies were administered separately and struggled over the most important aspect of their economic existence: access to cheap labor. This was not solely a German problem but became an issue in imperial rivalries because the Melanesian Islands also served as a labor reserve for British planters in Fiji and Queensland, and French planters in the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.4 By the time German plantation owners gained their first experience with Chinese workers in German New Guinea in the 1880s, the darkest years of the Chinese “coolie trade” belonged to the past—­ an estimated 1.6 million Chinese coolies (huagong) had left their country by 1875.5 Due to political uncertainty and economic misery caused by over-­ population, unemployment, natural disasters , and local rebellions, emigration continued “voluntarily,” but often ended in indentured labor under all sorts of binding contracts.6 When anti-­ Asian immigration laws came into effect in the mid-­ 1880s, Chinese migrants preferred to settle in Southeast Asia and lands around the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific.7 Many of them continued to work in a violent and humiliating 148    German Colonialism Revisited environment, often described as “slave-­ like.”8 The Qing Government, in the meantime, had become eager to protect Chinese emigrants abroad and pursued a policy that defied two prominent beliefs in Europe and Germany, namely, that of the superiority of the “white race,” including its concept of civilizing the “lower races,” and the negative discourse of the “yellow peril.”9 The image of the Chinese coolie was complex and filled with ethnic prejudices ; he was pitied and feared, but his cheap labor was needed, and high profits were to be made. The total number of Chinese workers recruited for the German colonies in the Pacific until 1914 was comparatively small, not exceeding 10,000.10 Unsatisfied with the working conditions on German plantations , coolie resistance relied on different strategies, all of which underscored his agency, networking power, and governmental support. Quite to their advantage , the Pacific Islands were at the periphery of the German empire and of little strategic interest; Germany’s main motive was economic exploitation. Administration depended on the appointed governor and his ability to successfully negotiate with the various interest groups. For several reasons, the two colonies followed different—­ if not contradictory—­ policies, including with regard to coolie employment. The coolie, however, managed to adapt to and even change the working conditions. Especially after Chinese authorities recognized that Germany was dependent on Chinese support for the economic survival of German Samoa, resistance against coolie and migrant exploitation, combined with rising nationalism, turned the coolie and his fate into a source of power struggles between China and Germany. German New Guinea and the Failure to Attract Chinese Labor In 1884, New Guinea was divided into three sections: with the Dutch in the west, the British in the southwest, and the Germans in the northeast (“Kaiser-­ Wilhelms-­ Land”). The latter was part of the Imperial German Pacific Protectorates in Melanesia, all of which were administered by the powerful New Guinea Company (Deutsche Neuguinea-­ Kompagnie), a private company founded in 1884 in Berlin and acting under Imperial Charters. The New Guinea Company mainly cultivated coconut palms and engaged in the copra business, but also grew coffee, cotton, kapok, tobacco, lemon grass, maize, and taro in small quantities. Conflicts, serious clashes, abuses, and armed fights between foreigners and various native groups were common and created a tense envi- [3.145.178.157] Project MUSE (2024-04-25...

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