This week Tongans enjoyed a public holiday to mark Emancipation Day.
The event marks the abolition of serfdom by King George Tupou I on June 4, 1862. It also marks the day the series of Treaties of Friendship with Britain expired on June 4, 1970.
The original Treaty – and the Constitution that preceded it – have been regarded by many historians as being key to protecting the kingdom’s sovereignty.
The reality was far more complex and while Tonga and the United Kingdom would retain close ties, Tonga’s first Treaty was actually signed with Germany.
Britain’s motives for befriending the tiny island kingdom were not exactly pure. The British had been reluctant to become involved in the Pacific and had resisted calls for protection by the Hawai’ian royal family, which feared – correctly – that their kingdom would be overrun by the Americans.
They had also held out for as long as possible against entreaties by Cakobau, who ruled the eastern confederacy of Viti Levu, from any involvement in Fiji. Instead, the British government spent a lot of time batting away demands by the Australian colonies (and later New Zealand) to be allowed to seize this or that island. Indeed historian David McIntyre has argued that the Treaty of Friendship kept “Tonga from the clutches of New Zealand.”
What finally drove the British to act in the Pacific was the arrival of the Germans. By the end of the 19th century, Germany had influence in Tonga and had colonies in Samoa, German New Guinea and Micronesia, all linked by sea lanes to Germany’s colony in Tsingtao, China. The Germans were politically astute and worked hard to establish good relationships with King George Tupou I.
In 1875 Tupou I promulgated a constitution influenced to a degree by the Methodist missionary (and later Prime Minister) Shirley Baker which established Tonga as an independent state and brought an end to 30 years of civil war.
It has been argued that the constitution helped prevent Tonga being colonised because neither the European powers or the United States could justify invading the kingdom on the grounds of saving the locals from oppression. After all, the constitution guaranteed the right to life, property, equality and freedom of expression. However, Britain was initially reluctant to recognise Tonga’s status, but the Germans were keen to establish a foothold and treated the kingdom, diplomatically at least, as an equal.
In 1876, a year after the Constitution was issued, Tonga signed a treaty of friendship with Germany. As New Zealand historian James Baade writes, Baker saw the German treaty as pivotal:
“ ‘Should the German Empire make such a treaty with Tonga,’ he wrote, ‘it will be a stepping stone of the acknowledgement of Tonga by other great Powers.’ . . . . at the 1877 ratification ceremony for the German treaty [the king said]: ‘in consequence of the ratification of the Treaty Tonga has become a nation amongst the family of nations […] So it is a full country today . . . .it has lifted up Tonga to the standard of the other countries.”
When Crown Prince Tevita ‘Unga, died in New Zealand in May 1880, his body was returned to Tonga on the German frigate SMS Nautilus. German marines acted as pallbearers and the Nautilus fired a salute during the funeral.
Britain therefore began to engage with Tonga and signed the first of a series of “treaties of friendship” between the two kingdoms in 1897. The last would not be signed until 1968, only two years before Tonga fully regained its independence. The treaties gave Great Britain control of many government (or, in reality, royal) decision making on issues such as the kingdom’s relations with other countries. The 1879 Treaty, declared that:
“there shall be perpetual peace and friendship between Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, her heirs and successors, and His Majesty the King of Tonga, his heirs and successors, and between their respective dominions and subjects.”
It also gave Great Britain jurisdiction over British subjects in Tonga, in exchange for the granting of ‘rights, privileges and immunities’ for Tongan subjects in British territories as ‘subjects of the most favoured nation.’
The 1900 Treaty of Friendship, signed by King George Tupou II, clearly reflected the British concern with Germany.
The British were deeply worried about Tongan harbours being used as German naval bases which could threaten Fiji. The 1900 treaty gave the British access to Tongan harbours in return for British protection from ‘any hostile attacks.’ Further, it stated:
“Her Majesty [Queen Victoria] will at all times to the utmost of her power take whatever steps may be necessary to protect the Government and territory of Tonga from any external hostile attacks; and territory of Tonga from any external hostile attacks; and for this or similar purposes Her Majesty’s officers shall at all times have free access to the waters and harbours of Tonga; and the King of Tonga hereby agrees to lease to Her Majesty a suitable site or sites in any harbour or harbours in Tonga for the purposes of establishing a station or stations for the coaling and repair of Her Majesty’s ships, and for the erection of any military works for fortification which may be necessary or desirable for the protection of such stations, and will at all times to the utmost of His power co-operate with and aid Her Majesty’s naval or military forces in defence of such station or stations.”
In the end there was never any military threat to Fiji or Tonga by the Germans, although when war broke out in 1914, the British agent in Tonga was alarmed by the level of pro-German sentiment in the kingdom. The royal palace had been built by the German company Goddefroy and German goods predominated in the shops. It was clear that while Britain had been concerned to secure favourable terms to assert her military presence in the Islands, she had not worked quite as hard at ensuring her commercial dominance in some places.
The German navy had virtually no presence in the Pacific, except when it was sailing to and from its base in China. An unarmed exploration vessel and a small warship were assigned to what was grandly called the Australian station, but which actually covered the entire central Pacific. Neither ship arrived before the war began.
The main points
- This week Tongans enjoyed a public holiday to mark Emancipation Day.
- The event marks the abolition of serfdom by King George Tupou I on June 4, 1862. It also marks the day the Treaty of Friendship with Britain expired on June 4, 1970.
For more information
David McIntyre. Winding up the British Empire in the Pacific Islands. Oxford University Press, 2014.
James Baade. Germans in Tonga 1855-1960.
Amanda Lee (2019) Tau: A brief history of the Tongan military from the late nineteenth century to the present. MA thesis. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2019.
Heather Devere, Simon Mark & Jane Verbitsky. ‘The language of friendship in international treaties.’ Paper presented to the IXth Congress of the French Association of Political Science, Toulouse, 2007.
