Wen|Mumu
Editor|Stargazing
After the Second World War, colonial countries waged struggles for national liberation, and Asian, African and Latin American countries successively freed themselves from colonial rule and established independent countries, setting off a wave of decolonization movements around the world.
After the decolonization movement spread to the Pacific island countries, Western Samoa took the lead in independence in 1962, which kicked off the decolonization of the Pacific island countries.
During World War II, the people of Papua New Guinea felt the idea of freedom and democracy through contact with soldiers from the United States, Australia and other countries.
The will to establish an independent state was growing, and some highly educated Papua New Guineans began to explore the path of decolonization in PNG.
1. Historical relations
Before the 16th century, the people of Papua New Guinea were unknown to the outside world due to the limitations of their level of development and the influence of their unique geographical environment. The opening of new shipping routes broke this situation. The island of New Guinea was first discovered by Portuguese adventurers in 1511.
In 1545, the Portuguese Ors de Rett passed through here and named it New Guinea, modeled after the place name of Guinea on the African coast.
European merchants and missionaries followed, and Papua New Guinea's isolation was completely broken. The development of the Second Industrial Revolution prompted the capitalist countries to carry out colonial expansion throughout the world.
At this time, Papua New Guinea, which has just become connected with the world, has become the object of contention. In the 19th century, the Dutch, the United Kingdom, and Germany established rule in Papua New Guinea, administering the western, southeastern and northeastern parts of Papua New Guinea respectively.
New Guinea was divided into three by the capitalist state, British New Guinea was taken over by the Australian federal government in 1906 and renamed the Australian Colony of Papua, while the German New Guinea territory was ruled by Germany until World War I in 1914.
In November 1884, British Commodore Maskin led LinkedIn troops to occupy the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea, placing the area under colonial rule.
In the eighties and nineties of the 19th century, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands determined the scope of each other's territories through joint declarations and treaties. The southeastern part of the island of New Guinea is identified as a British territory.
In 1885, the British government sent Sir Sclechley as the first Commissioner of British New Guinea. At the same time, the Australian colonies carried out a federal movement, moving from fragmentation to union.
For the sake of his own defense and security, Samuel Griffiths, then Prime Minister of the Australian Colonial Region of Queensland, proposed new measures to manage the territory of British New Guinea, believing that Australia could provide funds to Papua, but to obtain certain management rights.
This proposal was agreed to by the British Government and the Australian colonies and began to be implemented in 1888. The new government of British New Guinea was formed in Port Moresby in September 1888, with William McGregor as the first chief executive of the new government.
In early 1901, the Australian colonies formed a federal government, but for economic and other reasons, it was not until 1906 that the British New Guinea Territory was officially taken over. In the same year, the territory was renamed the Australian Territory of Papua.
In 1905, the Australian Federal Parliament passed the Papua Act, which abolished the system of joint rule that had existed since 1888 and established new state bodies, including the Lieutenant Governor of Papua, the Legislative Council, the Council of Governance and the Lower Court.
The Papua Act came into force on 1 September 1906. In 1908, John Hubert Prunkitt Murray was appointed the first Lieutenant Governor of the Australian Papuan Territory.
Murray's tenure was accompanied by a series of new policies that promoted the development of the Papuan Territory.
His policy mainly includes the following five aspects: first, the political aspect, selecting officials from the Australian federal government and cultivating loyal public officials; The Territory of British New Guinea was followed by the zoning system and the village police system; Establishment of rural councils.
Second, in the economic aspect, the Aboriginal Labour Ordinance, the Aboriginal Taxation Ordinance and the Aboriginal Plantation Ordinance have been adopted successively to control labor and develop the plantation economy.
Third, in terms of education, churches are encouraged to establish schools, focusing on English teaching and technical education. Fourth, in terms of medical and health, hospitals have been set up, itinerant medical teams and medical assistants have been dispatched, and students have been sent to Australia to study medicine.
Fifth, in terms of religion, spreading and persuading indigenous people to practice Christianity. Murray died of illness in 1940, and his successors continued his policies.
2. Dominion of territories
In the eighties of the 19th century, Germany's colonial expansion moved towards the South Pacific, and after competing with other countries, it finally occupied the northeastern part of New Guinea, and began its colonial rule over the territory of New Guinea.
After the outbreak of World War I, Australian forces fought against German troops stationed in German New Guinea, and after a firefight, the Germans were defeated, and Australia took over the German New Guinea region.
After the Paris Peace Conference, the Australian federal government formally gained a mandate for German New Guinea and began its rule over New Guinea.
In February 1880, German bankers Hans von Brechroder and Adolf von Hanselmann founded the South Pacific Islands Commercial and Plantation Company in the South Pacific.
At the same time, the German government at the time proposed the annexation of the island of New Guinea. German Chancellor Bismarck supported their proposal and encouraged them to set up a New Guinea company.
In 1882, the German government sent people to the Bismarck Islands to establish coconut plantations, which marked the beginning of Germany's colonial expansion in the South Pacific.
In the eighties and nineties of the 19th century, Germany and Britain disputed the territorial issue of New Guinea, and through a joint declaration and the signing of a treaty, the territorial scope of the two countries was stipulated. The northeastern part of New Guinea is part of German territory.
In 1885, the New Guinea Company acquired the administration of the German New Guinea Territory, but eventually abandoned the administration of the territory due to the failure of the plantation economy.
In 1899, the German government took over the territory of German New Guinea and appointed Rudolf von Benningsen and Albert Haal as governors to administer German New Guinea. The administration of German New Guinea by the two governors mainly involved the following aspects.
In terms of politics, village officials are appointed, and each village community appoints a village chief and a correspondent who are respectively responsible for the management of daily affairs in the village and the transmission of information; The coastal territories were divided into eight administrative areas, each with a commissioner.
The establishment of a police system has facilitated the German Government's links with the Territory and strengthened its control.
On the economic front, the enactment of the Labour Code and the Land Regulations guaranteed labour and land for economic development, but it also brought about conflicts between indigenous peoples and European migrants.
In terms of education, schools were established to teach German and to train skilled and semi-skilled workers.
After Australia took over and ruled German New Guinea after the outbreak of World War I, on September 11, 1914, Australia sent troops to land near Kokopo at the request of the British government.
Engaged and defeated the Germans, and announced on the radio that Australia had occupied New Guinea. German rule in New Guinea ends.
After Australia took over the German New Guinea Territory in 1914, it exercised wartime control over the territory until 1920, when Australia received the right to appoint the territory.
During this period, Australia's administration of New Guinea largely continued the political and economic system of the German government, and the Germans of the territory were tolerant and could participate in the administration of New Guinea as long as they remained neutral.
In 1919, after the Paris Peace Conference, the newly formed League of Nations delegated control of the German New Guinea Territory to Australia.
After taking over, Australia faced two main tasks: dealing with wartime military installations and issues related to Germany, and improving the material and spiritual well-being of the people of New Guinea and promoting social progress.
On the issue of wartime military installations and German legacies, Australia dismantled wartime military installations, confiscated all German property in New Guinea and sent German planters and merchants home as part of the war reparations.
In terms of improving the living standards of local residents, Australia has taken measures in various aspects to comprehensively improve the local economic development and ensure the livelihood of residents.
On the political front, the system of village officials in Germany was continued, village chiefs and correspondents were employed, and the New Guinea region was divided into seven administrative areas.
On the legal side, laws enacted in Germany were repealed and the New Guinea Act was enacted and implemented in 1921.
On the economic front, the production of cash crops such as copra increased, gold became the most important industry in New Guinea, economic development increased fiscal revenues, and the Land Regulations were promulgated.
stipulating that only governments could buy indigenous land and Europeans could only lease it; With regard to labour, the Labour Regulations had been promulgated, which set the normal term of labour contracts at three years, the minimum wage of $1 per month and the working week of 55 hours.
improved treatment of workers; In the area of health care, hospitals have been established in each administrative area and roving medical teams have been set up in remote areas to ensure the health of the population; In terms of education, schools mainly rely on churches.
Although these measures have greatly improved the lives of the local population, many problems remain.
For example, the enactment of the Land Ordinance guaranteed indigenous lands, but before that Europeans had occupied or purchased large amounts of land, so there was still a large number of indigenous people who lacked land.
Similarly, on labour issues, many employers are "unobedient" and do not comply with the provisions of the Labour Ordinance and use coercion or fraud to lure workers into signing employment contracts.
3. Military rule
In January 1941, Rabaul, the capital of New Guinea, was captured by the Japanese and became the main base for Japanese invasion of the South Pacific.
After that, the Japanese army quickly occupied most of New Guinea and Papua, and even attempted to capture Port Moresby, the capital of Papua.
From the second half of 1942, the Allies of the United States and Australia recaptured New Guinea and Papua until the end of the war in August 1945. With the Japanese occupation, the disconnection between Papua and New Guinea was broken.
In order to meet the needs of wartime management, Australia decided to merge the two places into an administrative unit of Australian New Guinea for unified management. The Administrative Unit of Australian New Guinea administers Papua and New Guinea by region.
In the areas occupied by the Japanese army, it was mainly to lead the local military and civilians to resist and disintegrate the Japanese occupation; In the areas not occupied, the original rule has been largely maintained, mainly by strengthening patrols to help the local population to restore the war-damaged areas.
In the early days of the war, the administrators focused on recovering areas occupied by the Japanese, but with successive victories on the battlefield by the Allies of the United States and Australia, the administrators increasingly paid attention to the needs of the people of Papua and New Guinea.
Started establishing schools and providing medical treatment in both areas. Australia's domination of Papua and the territories of New Guinea, in 1945, ended World War II, and the military rule of the Australian New Guinea administrative unit over Papua and New Guinea ended.
On 30 October, Jack Kiri Murray was appointed as the first administrator of the two regions, forming an interim civilian government with civilian officials from Australia to take over Papua and New Guinea.
The first task of the Interim Civilian Government is to wage war reparations to the people of Papua New Guinea and to rebuild their homeland and restore social development in the region.
In terms of war reparations, the Australian Government compensates all residents who have suffered war damage, including those who have been damaged and personal property such as houses and land.
The Australian Government compensates residents who have lost their labour force to the war in the amount of 3 Australian pounds per month. By the end of 1950, the Government had paid more than £2 million in compensation to residents of Papua and New Guinea.
In terms of post-war reconstruction, the Australian government gave Papua New Guinea sufficient attention and relatively sufficient financial support, and the interim civilian government formulated a future development plan for Papua New Guinea in terms of politics, economy, health care and education.
Through the support of the Australian Government and the efforts of the Interim Civil Service, PNG made progress and improvement in all aspects, and economically, by 1952, 153 agricultural cooperatives had been developed, with a total income of more than 800,000 Australian pounds.
Politically, in 1950, the first local government committees were established in Hanuabada and Baluan, rebuilding management posts and patrols.
In health and education, public health expenditure reached 2.6 million Australian pounds in 1950, 14 times the corresponding expenditure in 1939, and the government established 77 hospitals and 613 simple health stations.
The number of people receiving medical services has reached 850,000. In the same year, 1.1 million Australian pounds were spent on education, and 132,800 children were educated in schools in Papua New Guinea.
Since 1945, after five years of development, the Papua New Guinea region has basically achieved the goal of reconstruction and entered a period of stable development.
In 1951, elections were held in Australia, a coalition government of the Liberals and the Village Party won, Menzies became prime minister and government departments were reorganized, changing the original Overseas Territories Department to a Dependent Ministry, and Halex was appointed minister.
Hallex pays great attention to the development of Papua New Guinea and puts forward the development principles of "bottom-up development" and "balanced development" for the future development of Papua New Guinea, and "top-down development" emphasizes the hope that the grassroots people will actively participate in the construction and management of Papua New Guinea.
"Balanced development" emphasizes that Papua New Guinea should not only attach importance to economic, medical, educational, political and other developments, but also equal development and balanced progress in all aspects.
Compared with the previous Mandate Government, the Papua New Guinea Trusteeship Government under Harlex had three distinctive features: First, PNG received a high grant from Australia.
In 1962, Australia's grant to Papua New Guinea amounted to 34.58 million Australian pounds, compared with 10.57 million Australian pounds in 1952.
Second, the administrative staff of the PNG government has increased significantly, with about 1,200 Australian civil servants working in PNG in 1952.
By 1960, there were 3623 Australian officials and 334 indigenous officers working in the Trusteeship Government. The government also employs nearly 8,000 other administrators.
Third, Australia's control over the Papua New Guinea region has become tighter, and the previous Australian government officials rarely paid attention to the affairs of the Papua New Guinea dependent areas, but since investing huge financial resources and personnel in Papua New Guinea, the Australian government has visited Papua New Guinea more frequently.
Decisions made by the PNG Mandate Government are also reported to the Australian Government. Compared with the rapid development of the economy, medical care, education and other industries, the political development of Papua New Guinea is slow.
The main reason is that the Australian government wants to "balance" the development level of the local economy, health care and education industries by limiting the speed of political development in Papua New Guinea, thereby ignoring the political development needs of the government and people in Papua New Guinea.
In March 1949, the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia passed the Papua New Guinea Act, and the original Papua Act and the New Guinea Act ceased to be used.
The new law stipulates that the Papuan Territory and the New Guinea Trust Territory are merged into one administrative unit, called the Papua and New Guinea Territory, with Port Moresby as the capital of the new territory.
There are legislative committees and local councils in the Territory, which are 28 members of the legislature and pass bills that need to be submitted to the Governor-General of Australia for review and approval before they can enter into force.
The Local Government Commission is a local governing body whose members are nominated by the Executive and appointed by the Governor-General of Australia.
The Legislative Council was established in November 1951 and is composed of Australians, Europeans, Papua New Guineans and New Guineans, most of whom are appointed by the Government.
In such cases, the Government's proposals and plans are always adopted by a majority. This caused dissatisfaction among unofficial members.
They argued that the Legislative Council "could only do what Hasler and the Dependencies had allowed it to do", did not show the functions of the Legislative Council, and proposed that non-official members of the Legislative Council have the right to make changes to policies they disagreed with.
This proposal was not adopted by the Australian government, which did not allow political development to outpace the economy.