Military history of Oceania
Western Oceania was a major site of conflict in World War II as the Japanese Empire sought to expand southwards.
[1] Violent conflict was common to nearly all the peoples of Oceania in the period before European arrival, although there is much debate about the frequency of warfare, which of course varied between different societies.
One leader who did this was the Fijian chief Tanoa Visawaqa who, in the 1840s, used arms purchased from a Swedish mercenary to subdue most of Western Fiji.
In other parts of the region, such as Australia, European sovereignty was simply proclaimed without any attempt to win the consent of the indigenous peoples.
Although virtually every part of Oceania was at some point annexed by a foreign power, in most cases there was no major European settlement.
The smallness of most Pacific islands coupled with their lack of resources or strategic importance meant that during the nineteenth century they were targets for neither large-scale immigration nor substantial military involvement.
The two major exceptions to this were Australia and New Zealand, both of which had enough land and cool enough climates to attract huge numbers of British settlers.
There was a distinct difference in scale - at the height of the New Zealand Wars 18,000 English troops were required, in addition to settler and "loyal native" forces to contain the belligerent minority of the well armed and militarily competent Māori.
Japan conquered most of Melanesia and South-East Asia, and brought the United States into the war by bombing the US possession of Hawaii at Pearl Harbor.
The inhabitants of areas conquered by the Japanese were often harshly treated; for example 1,200 Nauruans were forcibly transported as labour to the Chuuk islands, where 463 died.
[2] Papua New Guinea was a major battleground, and the Japanese possessions taken from Germany during World War I were re-taken by the United States, with the Mariana Islands serving as a US bombing base.
New Zealand and most of Polynesia remained relatively untouched by the war, apart from the sending of troops and the visits of American servicemen on rest and recreation leave.
Exceptions to this was Melanesia (where there were attempts by Indonesia to extend its territory in the area), a civil war in Bougainville and several coups in Fiji.
Meanwhile, several Oceanic countries, notably Australia and New Zealand, contributed combat and peacekeeping troops to a range of conflicts outside of Oceania.
A series of British tests were also conducted in the 1950s at Maralinga in South Australia, forcing the removal of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples from their ancestral homelands.
All were ultimately due to ethnic tension between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians, who originally came to the islands as indentured labour in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The 1987 coup followed the election of a multi-ethnic coalition, which Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka overthrew, claiming racial discrimination against ethnic Fijians.
In 2006 the then Australia Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, warned Fijian officials of an Australian Naval fleet within proximity of Fiji that would respond to any attacks against its citizens.
Further BRA activity led to the declaration of a state of emergency and the conflict continued until about 2005, when successionist leader and self-proclaimed King of Bougainville Francis Ona died of malaria.
Neither is a major military power in world terms, preferring to join with coalition operations, but both possess modern and well trained defense forces.
Following the fall of Singapore in World War II, Australia and New Zealand both came to the realisation that Britain could no longer protect her former colonies in the Pacific.
Although none of the ANZUS partners came under attack, (until, arguably, September 11, 2001, or the Rainbow Warrior bombing), both Australia and New Zealand nonetheless felt obliged to help America in its Cold War conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.
