Deutsch-Neuguinea

German New Guinea
Deutsch-Neuguinea (German)
German colony
1884–1919
Flag (proposed) Coat of arms (proposed)
Green: German New Guinea
Capital		Herbertshöhe, Simpsonhafen (after 1910)
Languages		German (official), Austronesian languages, Papuan languages, German creoles
Political structure		Colony
Emperor		List of German monarchs
Governor		List of colonial heads of New Guinea
Historical era		German colonisation in the Pacific Ocean
•	Colonization	3 November 1884
•	Treaty of Versailles	28 June 1919
Area
•	1913	247,281 km2 (95,476 sq mi)
Currency		Goldmark
Preceded by Succeeded by Spanish East Indies South Pacific Mandate British Solomon Islands Mandate of Nauru Territory of New Guinea

German New Guinea (German: Deutsch-Neuguinea) was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australian forces following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups. The mainland part of German New Guinea and the nearby islands of the Bismarck Archipelago and the North Solomon Islands are now part of Papua New Guinea. The Micronesian islands of German New Guinea are now governed as the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau.

The mainland portion, Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, was formed from the northeastern part of New Guinea. The islands to the east of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, on annexation, were renamed the Bismarck Archipelago (formerly the New Britannia Archipelago) and the two largest islands renamed Neu-Pommern ("New Pomerania", today's New Britain) and Neu-Mecklenburg ("New Mecklenburg, now New Ireland). Due to their accessibility by water, however, these outlying islands were, and have remained, the most economically viable part of the territory.

With the exception of German Samoa, the German islands in the Western Pacific formed the "Imperial German Pacific Protectorates". These were administered as part of German New Guinea and they included the German Solomon Islands (Buka, Bougainville, and several smaller islands), the Carolines, Palau, the Marianas (except for Guam), the Marshall Islands, and Nauru. The total land area of German New Guinea was 249,500 square kilometres (96,300 sq mi).