Disastrous Ventures

The colonies of German New Guinea (GNG) and British New Guinea (BNG) which from 1906 became the Territory of Papua, experienced different paths of development due to the colonial administrators’ divergent commercial policies. The establishment of these colonies in the late19th century, and all of the major events and decisions relating to them up to 1914, were based mainly on commercial imperatives. This book examines the circumstances leading to the founding of GNG and BNG. It analyses the impa