Description
How do international systems expand and change? And why did the imperial system of the nineteenth century achieve near-global reach by the end of the century? By looking at the specific case of imperial expansion in the Pacific Ocean, this paper seeks to shed light on at least part of this puzzle. Through an investigation of the colonization of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and of the Samoan Islands, I argue that systemic expansion was in large part driven by networks of actors who were often only indirect agents of empire. While groups of missionaries, planters, and speculators were drawing empire into the Pacific, local actors did their best to forestall, exploit, or adapt to the presence of empire in the region, through a host of reforms and innovative practices. These two dynamics – of privately-driven colonization and of local adaptation or innovation – were central to shaping both the regional order of the Asia-Pacific and the globalizing international system of the mid to late nineteenth century. They also shed light on the broader workings of international systems, historically and otherwise.
