Spanish Cultural Clashes with the Indigenous Inhabitants of Colonial Micronesia

This chapter analyzes the stereotypes that the Spanish projected on the inhabitants of their colonies in Micronesia, an imagery that was highly influenced by imperial policy. The first image regarded Micronesian people as objects of Divine Providence in early modern times. In this vision, Spanish officials believed Chamorro and Caroline Islanders as inherently innocent beings who inhabited rich and exploitable islands. This image experienced transformation in the nineteenth century when the Spanish assumed the foundations of Social Darwinism and the accompanying rapid imperial acquisition to classify the Chamorro as more advanced than the neighbors inhabiting the Caroline Islands.