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Copra world: coconuts, plantations and cooperatives in German Samoa

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dc.contributor.author Droessler, Holger
dc.date.accessioned 2021-11-30T22:42:49Z
dc.date.available 2021-11-30T22:42:49Z
dc.date.issued 2018
dc.identifier.citation Holger Droessler (2018) Copra World: Coconuts, Plantations and Cooperatives in German Samoa, The Journal of Pacific History, 53:4, 417-435, DOI: 10.1080/00223344.2018.1538597 en_US
dc.identifier.issn Volume 53 Number 4
dc.identifier.uri ${sadil.baseUrl}/handle/123456789/804
dc.description pages 417 - 435 : ill en_US
dc.description.abstract Since the mid-19th century, the copra trade has created challenges and opportunities for Pacific Islanders, including Samoans. In the wake of formal annexation in 1900, German colonial officials tried repeatedly to force Samoans to work on foreign plantations for wages. In this article, I argue that Samoans resisted these demands in two major ways. On the one hand, the overwhelming majority of Samoans continued subsistence agriculture that offered greater control over their lives. On the other hand, Samoans selectively adapted to new economic circumstances. Occasionally, Samoans engaged in wage labour on Euro-American plantations to earn the cash needed for imported goods, government taxes and church donations. To circumvent the monopolistic practices of Euro-American traders, Samoans also founded copra cooperatives. These ultimately folded under coercion, but not without creating a crucial legacy for future anti-colonial resistance. In Samoa’s world of copra, sweetness and colonial power were tightly bound together. en_US
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher The Journal of Pacific History Inc en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Article in The Journal of Pacific History;
dc.subject Samoa en_US
dc.subject Germany en_US
dc.subject Capitalism en_US
dc.subject labour en_US
dc.subject copra en_US
dc.subject resistance en_US
dc.title Copra world: coconuts, plantations and cooperatives in German Samoa en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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