page_title: Carolines Question
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Carolines Question / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Borders of German New Guinea 1888 and 1899. Deutsch: Grenzen von Deutsch-Neuguinea 1888 und 1899.
context_page_description: The Carolines Question was a conflict between the German Empire and the Kingdom of Spain over the sovereignty of the Caroline Islands and Palau in the western Pacific. It took place in 1885, at the beginning of the German colonial empire and towards the end of the Spanish Empire.
context_section_description: German reactions to this outcome ranged from anger at a second defeat after the Kulturkampf to  praise for peaceful arbitration. Indeed, the anti-colonial German Free-minded Party even saw it as a sign of the early the end of German colonialism. In Spain, discontent reigned over the concessions made to Germany. This was expressed in a popular play in which the children named  ‘Hispania’ and ‘Germania’ argued over a doll named ‘Carolina’ until their father came and declared  that although the doll belonged to ‘Hispania’, ‘Germania’ was to play with her.
  The Carolines Question brought the Micronesian islands into the light of international interests. Away from the areas over which Spain successfully asserted its sovereignty,  on October 15, 1885, the commander of the German gunboat Nautilus declared the still independent Marshall Islands to be a German protectorate.
  In also taking Nauru (1888), Germany had secured control of all the islands south and west of the Carolines. In 1887 Spain began to exercise effective control over the Carolines, meeting opposition from the inhabitants as it did so.
  Following the Spanish–American War Spain sold the Carolines, Palau and the northern Marianas to Germany in the German–Spanish Treaty (1899) for 16.6 million marks. The islands became part of the German colonies in the Pacific, until they were occupied by Japan in 1914 and, after the First World War were ruled by Japan under the South Seas Mandate.
caption: German possessions in the western Pacific after the Carolines Dispute (1888) and the German-Spanish treaty (1899)
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