Traditionally, Germany has been considered a minor player in Pacific history: its presence there was more limited than that of other European nations, and whereas its European rivals established themselves as imperial forces beginning in the early modern era, Germany did not seriously pursue colonialism until the nineteenth century. Yet thanks to recent advances in the field emphasizing transoceanic networks and cultural encounters, it is now possible to develop a more nuanced understanding of the history of Germans in the Pacific. The studies gathered here offer fascinating research into German missionary, commercial, scientific, and imperial activity against the backdrop of the Pacific’s overlapping cultural circuits and complex oceanic transits.

Hartmut Berghoff is Director of the Institute of Economic and Social History at the University of Göttingen in Germany. From 2008 to 2015, he was the director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. He specializes in the histories of consumption, business, immigration, and modern Germany.

Frank Biess is Professor of Modern European History at the University of California-San Diego. His main areas of expertise are twentieth-century German history, the history of emotions, the history of wars and violence and their aftermaths, and transnational history.

Ulrike Strasser is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of California-San Diego. Her research focuses on early modern Central European history, religious history, gender and sexuality, early modern world history, and history and theory.

“Given the numerous and diverse case studies that the individual chapters examine, it is to the credit of the volume’s authors and editors that discrete themes are nonetheless clearly traceable throughout the work, the most interesting of these being the myriad and sometimes surprising ways in which Germany’s status as a relative ‘latecomer’ to nationhood and imperial expansion actually served not as a liability but rather as an advantage for German agents and interests.” • German History

“The book contains a wealth of detailed microstudies in defined social and spatial Pacific settings... The strength of the book lies in each and every author‘s meticulous analysis of sources along a strong actor-centered approach. This allows to show local and intercultural, but also global network entanglements which make a strong base for historical reasoning… this is an excellent, well-researched book which can be unreservedly recommended.” • Connections

“This volume represents a bold intervention in Pacific and German historiographies, one that encourages us to rethink central concepts and assumptions. All of its contributions are interesting, well-substantiated, and conversant with transnational developments in both fields.” • Rainer Buschmann, California State University Channel Islands