Personal Log: Adrian Rodd

Ever since I locked myself out of Wikipedia, I seem to be getting on better with my thesis. I've also cut back on my FF posting, which has helped. And today, I finally finished the first draft of the first of the three parts of my thesis! Yay, a milestone! I've completed the huge chunk on identity issues in the pre-colonial Pacific - close to 270 pages, including indigenous socio-political and identity systems, and the impact of pre-colonial White settlers (merchants, missionary, and so on). The differences between the stateless societies of Melanesia and Australia, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Tonga by Taufa'ahau, not forgetting the messy condition of 19th century Samoa...

Now I can finally move on the the colonial era, and to the changes it brought. Starting with why Britain, which was a reluctant coloniser, ended up with a bigger colonial empire in the Pacific than the three eager colonial powers (France, Germany and the United States) which were, at that time, snapping up as many colonies as they could.