In November, 1884, however, the Home Government was persuaded to proclaim in New Guinea a Protectorate over the region lying "between the 141st meridian eastward as far as East Cape, with the adjacent islands as far as Kosman Island."
This brought under the British flag the southern portion of New Guinea, known as Papua, only; but in other parts of the islands there were British settlements originating in Australia which were left under no effective jurisdiction.
In December, 1884, the Germans, having firmly established themselves commercially in the Samoan Islands, began to definitely and formally annex territory; the German flag was hoisted in the northern part of New Guinea and on several of the adjacent islands, and the German "Colony" received the unpromising name of "Kaiser Wilhelm's Land."
The Australian Colonies immediately lodged an indignant protest; but arrogance, overglossed with suavity, carried the day, and a friendly agreement in regard to New Guinea was made between Great Britain and Germany in 1885, whereby the latter assumed administration over the northern portion of the island, to subjection of the jurisdiction of which were later added the Caroline, Palau and Marianne Islands.
"New Britain" undertook the responsibility of the name "Bismarck Archipelago"; and the principal island of the group was renamed New-Pommern, with its capital at Herbertshöhe.
In 1888 British New Guinea was constituted a separate Colony, but the administration was, in 1902, placed in the hands of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Up to 1884 affairs in the islands comprising the kingdom of Samoa had proceeded along the lines of progress, and the three nations chiefly concerned in the Samoan trade (Great Britain, Germany, and the United States of America) were conducting commerce without friction until the Germans felt strong enough to assume an aggressive attitude, not only towards their trade rivals but also the native Samoans whose property they coveted.
The German influence began to be most markedly denoted in disaffection amongst the natives and in inter-tribal wars. It was in 1884, indeed, that the German pretensions to a say in the administrative control of Samoa began to be recognised by Great Britain and the United States as the German faculty for instigating disputes amongst the islanders made desirable the institution of some European control over the native administration.