Missionaries and other emissaries of colonialism in Tuvalu

Abstract

This paper examines the similarities and differences between the forms of external rule established in nineteenth-century Tuvalu first by the London Missionary Society and then by the British government through its imperial outreach. These raise the question of whether or not the two forms can be characterised as essentially the same and, if so, what implications are posed for the periodisation of history in Tuvalu and other Pacific societies.