ABSTRACT
Britain, France, Germany, and the United States were the South Pacific colonial powers as the twentieth century opened; Australia and New Zealand were soon to inherit some of Britain's colonial responsibilities. In Western Samoa resistance to colonial authority was much more widely supported and coherently organized, reflecting both the well-established sense of Samoan identity and the mobilization capabilities of Samoa's pervasive, village-rooted authority system. From the earliest days of colonial rule sporadic Kanak violence against French settlers and officials reflected the anger aroused by land alienation, forced relocation, labor and other abuses, and the depredations of foraging cattle. The Kanak uprisings were a major exception to the general absence of significant organized protest against colonial rule in the pre-World War II Pacific islands. The Kanaks were fighting for the past against the already advanced destruction of the Melanesian traditional order.
