Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Extended Essay – fyw899

Geostrategic Security - Hughes’s Real Motive

The second of the two widely regarded, ‘main motives’ for Hughes’s opposition to Japan’s

racial equality proposal was the imperial protection of Australia. Due to Germany’s ultimate

defeat in the First World War, their previous colonial territories were taken and distributed

amongst the victorious Allied Powers under Article 22 of The League of Nations Covenant . 18

These territories and their division came to be known as Mandates. The division of these

mandates in the Pacific took place among Japan, Australia, Britain and New Zealand. One of

the main causes for such tension between the Japanese and Australian at Paris was the division

of these mandates in the Pacific.

New Guinea was a German possession prior to the outbreak of war in 1914. Indeed, one of

Australia’s first actions was to overrun and occupy the German bases on 11 September 1914. 19

After the war, Germany lost its imperial possessions as part of the reparations and punitive

punishments in the Treaty of Versailles. On the surface, the loss of these colonies was a way

of containing German power. However, containing German power in the South Pacific was

not Australia’s primary reason for their interest in New Guinea. The archipelago of New

Guinea acts as a strategic buffer to Australia and provides great protection from the rest of

Asia, a necessity given the climate of fear generated by the White Australia Policy. In

particular, Japanese encroachment towards New Guinea was seen as posing an imminent threat

to Australia. This possibility of the independent Asian powerhouse and their potential threat

was compelling reason for Hughes’s objective to gain of New Guinea, as it was effectively “an

extension of Australia’s borders to the North”. 20

18 “League of Nations mandates in the Pacific”, New Zealand History , last modified September 2, 2014, 19 “World War I: Bita Paka and the day German New Guinea came under Australian control”, ABC News, last modified September 10, 2014 20 “Australia in Paris, 1919”, Anzac Centenary , last modified July 9, 2014,

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