Exploring the diplomatic negotiations that led to the division of the Samoan Islands between Germany, Great Britain and the United States in 1899, this book is a significant study of international relations between the three late 19th-century superpowers. The author demonstrates how the Pacific islands were pawns in an international diplomatic chess game that involved Britain's early, but often unwilling, acquisition of Pacific territory; Germany's scramble to get its share to bolster its prestige and trading interests; and the United States' late, but insistent, demands for its place in the |