17 November 2025, 16:15-17:45 (in person)

FU Berlin, FMI, Room A336, Koserstr. 20, 14195 Berlin

Large numbers of Chinese contract labourers were brought to German Samoa to work on copra and cocoa plantations. Although promised fair conditions, upon their arrival these Chinese workers were subjected to violence and inhumane working conditions. Their treatment led to a fierce diplomatic dispute between Germany and China that revolved around the question of the racial standing of Chinese subjects in the colony. This paper examines the treatment of Chinese workers and the international effects of this treatment. It assesses how questions of race and class affected the economic prospects of the Pacific colony and illustrates how Berlin struggled to keep control over German colonists in Samoa.

Bio
Matt Fitzpatrick is an ARC Future Fellow and the Matthew Flinders Professor for International History at Flinders University, Adelaide. He is the author of four books on German imperial history. His most recent book is A Pacific Power: Liberal Imperialism in German Samoa (Oxford University Press, 2025). 

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