Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I

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Asian and Pacific theater of World War I

Date	August 3, 1914-November, 1914
Location	China, Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, Bismark archipelago, German New Guinea
Result	Treaty of Versailles

Combatants

Empire of Japan

British Empire

German Empire

Theatres of World War I
European (Balkans – Western Front – Eastern Front – Italian Front) – Middle Eastern (Caucasus – Mesopotamia – Sinai and Palestine – Gallipoli – Aden – Persia) – African (South-West Africa – West Africa – East Africa) – Asian and Pacific (German Samoa and New Guinea – Tsingtao) – Other (Atlantic Ocean – Mediterranean – Naval – Aerial)

The Asian and Pacific Theater of World War I was a largely bloodless conquest of a number of German controlled islands in the Pacific Ocean. The only real military action was the careful and well executed Japanese attack on Tsingtao.

1 Overview
2 The Islands Fall
3 The Conquest of Tsingtao
4 Miscellaneous
5 Results
6 Sources

[edit] Overview

The Germans had moved to take over various small and economically unimportant islands in the Pacific Ocean starting in 1884, when the German government took over German New Guinea. The next year, the Germans took over the Marshall Islands. The Germans purchased the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands too from Spain in 1899. Spain sold them to help pay off its debts incurred during the Spanish-American War.

In China, the Chinese were forced to transfer Kiaochow in Shandong to Germany in 1898 on a 99-year lease. The Germans then took over the rest of the province of Shandong and built the port of Tsingtao.

[edit] The Islands Fall

Japan joined the war by siding with the United Kingdom on 23 August 1914, using the Anglo-Japanese Alliance as their justification. The Imperial Japanese Navy played a major role in securing the sea lanes in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean for British shipping against German raiders, and a detachment of Japanese warships under British command were based at Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. The Imperial Japanese navy also assisted the Royal Navy in its pursuit of the SMS Emden. For details see Japan during World War I.

German military forces were insignificant on any of its colonial possessions in the Pacific: just a few policemen and a few soldiers who ran the wireless stations.

A small military force sailed from New Zealand and captured German Samoa without any bloodshed on August 29, see Samoa.

Another small force known as the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force sailed from Australia and captured German New Guinea on September 17. Around 40 people were killed in a brief fight over the wireless station at Rabaul.

The Japanese fleet captured the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands in October of 1914, without any loss of life.

[edit] The Conquest of Tsingtao

Main article: Battle of Tsingtao

This was the only real German base in the area. It was defended by 3,000 German troops occupying a well designed fort. The Japanese sent nearly their entire fleet to the area, including six battleships and 50,000 soldiers. The British sent two military units to the battle from their garrison at Tientsin.

The bombardment of the fort started on October 31. An assault was made by the Imperial Japanese Army on the night of November 6. The German garrison surrendered the next day. Casualties of the battle included 1,455 Japanese and 200 German soldiers.

[edit] Miscellaneous

A German warship was docked in Hawaii when the United States declared war. The ship and its crew were quickly captured. They became the first prisoners of war for the US in that conflict.

The German government was accused of being behind Zhang Xun's monarchist coup in China to prevent Duan Qirui's pro-war faction from supporting the Allies. After the coup failed in July 1917, Duan used the incident for declaring war on Germany.

[edit] Results

In a minor note, the reason why the Chinese make and sell Tsingtao beer today is because the Germans built a beer factory in Tsingtao which survived both World Wars and the Chinese Civil War.

[edit] Sources

Keegan, John World War One (1998) pgs. 205-206.
Falls, Cyril The Great War (1960) pgs. 98-99.

Theatres of World War I
European (Balkans – Western Front – Eastern Front – Italian Front) – Middle Eastern (Caucasus – Mesopotamia – Sinai and Palestine – Gallipoli – Aden – Persia) – African (South-West Africa – West Africa – East Africa) – Asian and Pacific (German Samoa and New Guinea – Tsingtao) – Other (Atlantic Ocean – Mediterranean – Naval – Aerial)