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| 1850 |
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| The Hamburg firm of Godeffroy and Sohn established a copra trading depot in Tuamotus and another more important one in Samoa in 1857. From there, they expanded their trading interests to Tonga, Niue, Futuna, the Tokelaus, the Gilbert and Ellice islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Carolines. The company spearheaded German commercial and political influence in the Pacific. | 1 |
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| 1853 |
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| The French annexed New Caledonia, with the active support of French Catholic missionaries who had been there since 1843. From 1864 to 1897, the French transported over 30,000 convicts to the island. | 2 |
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| 1863 |
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| The first systematic recruiting of Pacific islands labor for Queensland and Fiji. Subsequently, most of the major Pacific islands were involved, with wide social and political ramifications for imperial and local politics. By 1918, some 280,000 Pacific islanders and another 186,000 Asians had been pressed into some form of indentured labor. | 3 |
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| 1872, April 9 |
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| A number of Samoan chiefs petitioned for annexation by the United States. | 4 |
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| 1874, Oct. 10 |
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| Ratu Seru Cakobau and other leading chiefs ceded Fiji to Great Britain under the terms of a deed of cession that promised to protect Fijian interests while promoting commerce and Christianity in the islands. | 5 |
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| 1875 |
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| King George Tupou I of Tonga promulgated a constitution guaranteeing the civil liberties of all Tongans. | 6 |
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| 1877 |
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| The Western Pacific Order-in-Council came into effect, creating the Fiji-based Western Pacific High Commission, which administered affairs in those parts of the Pacific under British influence but not under formal colonial rule. | 7 |
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| 1878, Jan. 16 |
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| Leading Samoan chiefs signed the treaty of friendship and commerce with the United States, which secured the harbor of Pago Pago as a coaling and naval station. | 8 |
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| 1879, May 14 |
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| The first group of 60,000 Indian indentured laborers arrived in Fiji on five-year contracts. After the indenture system was abolished on Jan. 1, 1920, most laborers and their descendants decided to stay in Fiji. | 9 |
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| 1880, March 24 |
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| The United States, Britain, and Germany recognized Malietoa Talavou as king with an executive council representing the three powers. | 10 |
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| 1884 |
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| Germany annexed the northeast mainland of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, including the islands of New Britain, New Ireland, New Hanover, and Manus (though not Bougainville) and atolls in the Solomons. The territory was officially known as the Protectorate of the New Guinea Company; the company was a private Berlin-based business firm authorized to administer the territory on behalf of the government. It became a full-fledged colony in 1899. | 11 |
| Britain declared a protectorate over Papua “British New Guinea.” Special commissioner general Sir Peter Scratchley arrived in Port Moresby in 1885. It was a British colony from 1888 to 1906. | 12 |
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| 1885 |
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| Germany annexed the Marshall Islands and began to lay the foundations of a German colonial empire in Micronesia. | 13 |
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