Lemuel Magaling

Politics of Polarisation: Germany’s Private Colonialism and Island Diplomacy in Pacific Politics

The Pacific has always been a contested area beyond territorial exclusivity. Private interests converge in trade routes protected by naval commands under flags following certain allegiance. The archipelagic character of nations situated in the greater oceanic region has affected the response of the German Imperial administration, which relied heavily on Private ventures for their logistics and management  in the islands, whose legitimacy; they facilitated through protocols and treaties. The complexity of later colonialism in the concert of colonial powers that Germany eventually joined, took advantage from the malleability of political organizations, and policies that contributed in the formation and polarization of politics that affected the contours of power in the region. This research traces Germany’s strategy in installing itself within Pacific politics by exploring different leadership styles deployed from imperatives of rulers in European capitals, and by those on the ground who worked toward the completion of these imperial goals. This dissertation expounds on the private aspects of German rule in Island Diplomacy and cooperations in scientific expeditions that yielded data on distant seas as part of empire-building. This study is an attempt toward materials for integrative analysis of strategic designs of diplomacy, and the tactical nature of local resistance by understanding the motion and dispersion of forces at play in private aspects of colonial rule. This should advance materials in regional strategic studies, and comparative empire studies upon how  certain methods became instrumental or detrimental to its role in Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands’ political development. This could uncover competitive advantages from other colonial strategies that were historic yet successfully devised, survived even, that now seemed natural in the contemporary world. Colonialism and empire-building were neither total nor complete projects. Its history is a continuing legacy that has shaped our modern world in many ways.

• “Treaty-Making and Cross-Cultural Diplomacy in Asia (16th-20th centuries)” 29-2 March 2024, Manila, Philippines

• 25th New Zealand Asian Studies Society International Conference (NZASIA), 29-1 December 2023, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

• Digital Bridges, Archival Gaps: A Three-day Philippine Studies/ Digital Studies Working Colloquium, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London

• German Colonial Rule Workshop, 2-3 November 2023, Bonn, Germany, Federal Foreign Office & DAAD

• 16th Next Generation Global Workshop, 29-30 September 2023, Kyoto, Japan (declined)

• Southeast Asia-Pacific Audio Visual Archive Association (SEAPPAVA), 18-23 May 2023, Pattaya, Thailand, “Repatriating Filipino Workers’ Voices in Labor Captivity from selected European Media"

• New Perspective on German Colonial Rule, 17 October, 2022, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, Germany

• 13th Singapore Graduate Student Forum on Asian Studies (2018), Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, "La Redención de la Imaginacion de Los Trabajadores: Forms of Consciousness in Historical Trade Unions in the Philippines and Southeast Asian Labour Movements from 1900-1930s".                                 

• Protest and Dissent in Translation and Culture (2017), “A Stone’s Throw Away: Bridging the Transgressive and the Subversive in Philippine Post-war Poetry”, SWPS; Warsaw Poland, May          

• Corpus Historicus: The Body in/of History International Conference (2017), University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, “Missing Encounters/Counting the Missing: Presentation and Representation of Two contending Narratives in the discourse of the Hero’s Burial”

• 14th Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day Historical Conference (2016), NISMED Auditorium, University of the Philippines, ​"The crux of Calderon's Courage: Felipe Calderon's role in Nation-Building and his constitutional ideas".

• The 4th Literary Studies Conference "Children's Literature in Southeast Asia" (2016),  Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta Indonesia , "From the Playground to the Battleground: A comparative analysis of Battle of Surabaya and Kangkong 1896"                 

• Creative/Critical Thesis Grants in the Arts, Culture, and Humanities (2022) – Office for the Initiatives in Culture and the Arts, University of the Philippines-Diliman
• Individual Research Award (2020) – National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Republic of the Philippines             
• Becas Jóvenes Investigadores (2019) – Universitat de Valencia, Spain
• Travel Award Grant (2017) – National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Republic of the Philippines