Pacific Basin Imperialism Essay

The colonization of the Pacific Basin is one of the most important things in human history.

According to history, the migration of the first humans into what is called Near Oceania began around 40,000 years ago and over time produced considerable cultural, linguistic, and genetic diversity in Oceania and Polynesia. There were no original inhabitants, it was bare land.

The colonizers came from what are now called Austronesian speakers from Asia led to the development of the Lapita culture in the area referred to as Western Oceania. This led to the colonization of the islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The European presence in the Pacific Basin was largely confined to explorers, missionaries, merchants and conquerors from Spain and Portugal.

They were soon joined by the British and the Dutch. Then Russia and France joined along. The USA did not enter the Pacific Basin until the early 19th century.
Many Filipino intellectuals identified themselves with colonial Spain and the U.S. In the Philippines, some leaders who were exposed to western problems waged a revolutionary war against Spain, later on everyone agreed with the U.S. In Malaya the Malays who had an education joined the civil service and worked closely with the British rulers. Dutch-educated Indonesians formed the Indonesian Nationalist Party in 1927. European explorers, traders and colonizers were "late comers" to the Pacific Basin. It wasn’t until the late 15th century that European explorers and trading ships succeeded in sailing around Africa and then sailing to the western rim of the Pacific Ocean.