Just after Cook claimed the east coast of New Holland from Possession Island, he took a side-trip up to Papua/New Guinea. He made a landing north of Valsche Caep.
Alexander Darlymple was the brains behind Cook’s first voyage. There is a French version (by Robert de Vaugondy) of a chart by Alexander Darlymple of the Papua and New Guinea area. The chart is dated 1774 – a few years after the Endeavour passed through.
The French chart has a channel marked in current-day west Papua that cuts through – separating the single big PNG island into two – marked Papua and New Guinea. The channel is marked in French – ‘les anciennes Cartes marquent ici un passage’ which translates to ‘the old Maps mark a passage here’.
Why is this passage on the map when it doesn’t exist in real life? Cook was right there, and landed as if he was specifically looking for the passage, so Cook could have verified it is not there.
This channel on this chart indicates that in 1770, the British already had ambitions on the east part of the PNG island. As per the contiguity principle, to allude to a channel to break the island into two helps a partial British claim. It separates a eastern chunk (New Guinea) from the western part of the island (Papua) that was under Dutch treaties with the Sultanate of Tidore.
Another interesting thing on this chart is the pointy-cape along the south coast. It is marked “Walsh Cap”. In Cook’s journal, he called it “Point St. Augustine or Walsche Caep”. If you look at this land feature on satellite, you can see in real-life that it is an island, not a cape. The Dutch called it Valsche Caep, with a V not a W. This translates to False Cape, an appropriate name for an island that looks like a cape. This is probably where “the passage on the old maps” really is. I’m wondering – did someone “move” the passage to try make a case for claiming the eastern side of that land, and change the name of False Cape to Walsch Cape?
Pre-Federation moves
Later on in 1901, the British colonies in Australia were consolidated into a federation. There were preparations in the lead-up to federation- including formalising and reform of colonial/state constitutions. I think this preparation also included the annexation of further territories including the Torres Strait Islands and the Territory of Papua. It may be the last chance to do so before consolidation.
I think there are parallels with today, where there is constitutional reform to formally consolidate Aboriginal people and their territory into the Australian polity and institutions. In 1883, Queen Victoria was getting old, much like Queen Elizabeth II is getting old now. It’s smart to consolidate all the Crown assets in preparation for the accession of a new King or Queen. Queen Victoria passed away just a couple of weeks after Australia federated.
In 1883, Queensland – or should I say the police magistrate of Thursday Island – annexed the eastern half of the Papua Island.
Now here is a crazy part of the story which I read in a German book. The reason Queensland annexed Papua was purportedly to pre-empt German ambitions to annex it into the Bismark Islands. But the German ambitions were overblown and taken out-of-context by British propaganda.
A German geographer named Emil Deckert did a talk in a group/club for geography in Dresden on 17 November 1882. Drawing on my own experience from living in Germany – even today, there are all kinds of special interest groups (Verein) in even small towns in Germany. This talk in Dresden, was a case of well-travelled man, academic and teacher, doing a talk in one of these groups on his opinion on the merits of Germany colonising Papua. It wasn’t some official government thing. His talk was replicated in the Allgemeine Zeitung München (Munich) 1882. I tracked down the newspaper in German.
A condensed translated summary of the article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald (link). The story also appeared in other Australian newspapers. But was not well attributed – for example, the Sydney Morning Herald itself just gives the “Allgemeine Zeitung” as the source. This is like saying the “Daily Mail” from somewhere in England – there are dozens of newspapers with the same name. Another newspaper said the talk was in Berlin not Dresden. Currently there’s a wikipedia article that puts it in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung as the source. All of this makes it hard even even someone with a connection to Germany to verify it and see it in correct context.
Reading this in the Sydney Morning Herald or in other Australian newspapers alone, you would have the impression that it was an official statement from the German government. But ot was taken out of context. It served as propaganda and pretext that led to Queensland annexing the Territory of Papua.
The annexation
There are a couple of interesting points around the annexation itself.
An arms-length maneuver
Henry Chester was the one who did the annexation. He was the Police Magistrate of Thursday Island. Previously, this post was at Somerset on the mainland of Cape York. But the post evacuated to Thursday Island not long before the annexation of Papua. I think this move is significant because Somerset lies in Cook-discovered area, but Thursday Island was never part of New South Wales (being north of both Cook’s declaration and north of Phillip’s instructions). The Torres Straits themselves were acquired by Queensland governors being appointed over them, reception of law was done dodgy. So in terms of authority, by getting the Police Magistrate of Thursday Island to do the dirty work of annexing the Territory of Papua puts the annexation at arms length from the British Crown. It’s not the British Crown doing it, it’s Queensland. It was done by a magistrate based in a part of Queensland that was never part of New South Wales.
The British authorities did not initially approve of the annexation by Queensland, but later ‘caved in’ and made it a British Protectorate. This is kind of a joke – you have Queensland authorities going full-cowboy annexing lands, and even earlier than that in 1873 – John Moresby claimed Port Moresby for the British. After both these actions the British pretended that they are not interested, but never repudiated any actions done in the name of the British Crown. Much like when Aboriginal people were massacred – the British just benefited with free land while looking the other way.
After federation, the Territory of Papua became a Australian-ruled territory – not integrated into Queensland. But the Torres Strait Islands were kept in Queensland. In terms of geographical contiguity which I discuss in this linked post, this makes sense.
Subsequent German Annexation, the Berlin Conference, the Anglo-German Treaty of 1886
In 1884, The German New Guinea Company made the northern quarter of the island a protectorate – German New Guinea. This was the north-half of what the Queensland police magistrate claimed, with the western border was at the same longitude of 141°E. Very shortly after (I think 3 days, but sources vary) the southern quarter became a British protectorate, this time with the proper blessing from Britain.
Shortly after (a few weeks tops), the Berlin Conference was held (1884–1885). This was the infamous meeting where European powers carved up Africa like a cake for themselves, and revised the Doctrines of Discovery rules-of-engagement between themselves.
In 1886 there were treaties between the British and Germans, settling territorial disputes in the Pacific and in Africa.
Given the very small time-gap between German and English claims, the fact the Germans only claimed the northern quarter, the fact they reused Queensland’s 141°E line as the western boundary – it looks like the Germans left the south-eastern quarter on a silver platter for the British. The Germans helped legitimise Queensland’s choice of the 141°E line by using it themselves. And given the German and British protectorates were established around the time of both the Anglo-German treaty and the 1886 Berlin Conference – it does seem like it was pre-arranged in the men’s smoking room.
West demarcation of Queensland’s annexation
Queensland set the western border of Papua at 141 degrees East. That was cancelled, redone by the Germans, and then by Britain.
Indonesia still uses this borderline, justifying it by claiming to be successors of the colonial Dutch East Indies, and arguing that it was the eastern border of the Dutch East Indies.
Why 141 degrees east? I talked about this at the end of this linked post. I think it is because it is the eastern-most longitude of the Dutch treaty with the Sultanate of Tidore.
Location of Port Moresby
The longitude of Port Moresby is a tad east of longitude 147°E.
Here’s my theory on why the capital of British New Guinea was put where it is.
In event of a colonial territorial conflict, there are several different candidate lines that one could use as a starting point for negotiations, akin to the Treaty of Saragossa that divides the world into the eastern and western hemispheres (Dutch/British line on New Guinea by proxy). The British can take their pick from a few options – but for this purpose they obviously need a candidate line that is east of 141°E, and runs through the land in question.
Ideally, they should situate the first settlement just on the east of the candidate line. That way, if a territorial conflict breaks out, the settlement forms it’s own second back-up-border.
There are two candidates – 147°E (measuring from the westernmost tip of New Guinea 297.5 leagues as per Treaty of Saragossa text, or 16.4 degrees, places the line at 147 degrees East longitude) or they could go with measuring the line from Islas de las Velas/Mariana Islands at 144°45′E. The second option puts the new capital in a swamp – not ideal, so Port Moresby it is.
South Australia and Queensland border and the 141 E line
The 141 degrees east longitude was already engrained in British colonial borders before New Guinea – on the “mainland”.
From wikipedia:
The portion of New South Wales between 132° east and 141° east, and south of 26° south, was made the Province of South Australia. The actual landing and proclamation occurred on 28 December 1836. Its border with New South Wales south of the Murray River would be erroneously surveyed roughly 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) west of 141° east, and the resulting disputes with the colonies and, later, states that share that border would not be fully resolved until 1914.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Australia
So there is a little zig-zag of the border at the Murray River. I don’t think the survey of the line south of the Murray River was “erroneous”, but deliberate. As the Murray Darling Basin is under British First Discovery under an expanded interpretation of Cook’s claim over “Rivers”, the 141°E border only needs to go down to the northern edge of the Murray Darling Basin (Barrier Range near Silverton NSW). From that point, the Anglo/Dutch border can follow the edge of the basin westwards to the sea. By putting the little zig-zag in is like a British assertion that the portion of border running through the Murray Darling Basin is their prerogative administrative boundary rather than a Anglo-Dutch frontier. The “survey error” changes the nature of the entire border from an international one to an internal administrative one. It’s clever.
141°E was also the initial border of the Colony of Queensland proclaimed in 1859. That same prerogative was used to shift a portion of the border westwards in 1862, but this time it happened outside of the Murray Darling Basin. It’s an escalation of power. This is the event in which my own ancestral lands came under Queensland occupation.
These state borders predate the happenings in New Guinea. It shows that the British were continually looking northward into the Dutch East Indies to find a suitable border between Dutch “New Holland” and British “New South Wales” that could extend all the way down to the south coast of the mainland.
End note
This post ended up going all over the place, but I want to show that the British were always concerned about the Dutch claims, and were trying to claim more and more Dutch discovered territory. The evidence is engrained in both Australian internal and overseas borders that were drawn up to strategically maneuver against the Dutch.
