Pacific Potential, Pacific Fantasies (Chris Yi)
In following the French turmoil, Michener identifies that the perfect opportunity appeared for the French nearly “two months after the crisis of May 16” – an advertisement from a newspaper in Paris read: “Free Colony of Port Breton. Land two francs an acre. Fortune rapid and assured without leaving one’s country.”[5] To anyone with a sane mind, this advertisement would have sounded like a fraud that would never be successful. However, to the desperate people of France, the advertisement was god’s helping hand that assured them a ticket out of France’s current misery. The mastermind behind the scheme was Charles-Marie-Bonaventure du Breil, Marquis de Rays, who knew exactly how the people would react. The Marquis himself “loved to wear rich black suits, spotless linen and full bow ties” – he “looked and acted much more like a king than any of his European fellow monarchs”.[6] The Marquis’s appearance alone endowed him the credibility to become the “messiah” who would lead the French to glory. Michener argues that it was the Marquis’s knowledge of his credibility that allowed him to “[seriously begin] propagandizing for a colony of French people who would occupy this region, which he would organize under the name of Nouvelle France, with himself as King Charles I”.[7]
However, Michener reveals that Nouvelle France was in reality a “remote bay in New Ireland” (now Papua New Guinea) that represented everything but a haven. Nevertheless, the truth no longer mattered to France’s Pacific idealists. The Marquis’s words were god’s words, and he “began speaking of his extensive lands… and especially of the ranks of nobility that he was about to create”. To the French, Nouvelle France represented the epitome of Pacific glory: “it was composed of land that ached from its burden of succulent riches”, “the seas abounded in trepang… which could be gathered even by children” and sold for gold, and “schools, churches, stores, factories, a railway, docks, and a lighthouse” that were already built and waiting to be used.[8] Even though no evidence supported these claims, the people were already passionately invested in Nouvelle France. Just like Graebner concluded in his writing, “expansionist editors continued uninterrupted in their commercial outlook toward the Pacific”.[9] The desire to claim regions of the Pacific was never-ending, whether it was French, American, or British. The Marquis was able to tap on people’s innate inclination to follow the Pacific to glory, with his scheme successfully targeting and marketing to this exact demand.
To understand how the Marquis was successful, the roots of the widespread inclination to settle in the Pacific must be analyzed. In his book, The Great Ocean, Igler identifies how American expansionists saw the Pacific lands as a “continental destiny” that would eventually form the base for America’s later success.[10] Historically, America has been greatly involved in the Pacific with its national and commercial ventures, taking full advantage of its valuable commodities. Sinn’s work outlines how America procured and produced goods such as gold, silver, flour, and ginseng, later allowing for America's dominance over the rest of the Pacific.[11] It was this existing knowledge of the Pacific’s potential that created the Pacific Islands’ popularity. As the French people felt their nation beginning to collapse, the demand for a better future and life surpassed their ability to discern fact from fantasy. Moreover, humans have always been moving to locations that suit their current needs. As Chang concludes in his work, “humans have always been migrant and mobile, but mechanized land and water transportation enabled large numbers of people to move relatively quickly and easily to destinations near and far”.[12] This drastic change in the efficiency of long-range transportation further extended the French people’s ambitions. On April 4, 1879, in Marseille, the Marquis was able to secure his final deal as he appeared in person in front of the supporters of Nouvelle France. In his speech, he stated that “the expansion throughout the world of a nation’s ideas has always shown the greatness of a country; it is through colonization that a people becomes great”.[13] With this line, he confirmed the idea of fulfillment awaiting the settlers in Nouvelle France, connecting his plans to France’s current state of affairs and his wishes to make the nation great again.
In Michener’s words, “the response to all this propaganda was overwhelming” – “within a few months a shipload of volunteers had paid the Marquis all their savings and were ready to embark upon the great adventure”.[14] These volunteers would be the first settlers of Nouvelle France, reaching their destination on January 16, 1880, on the ship Chandernagore. “The contrast between what existed ashore [in Nouvelle France] and what the propaganda in France had described was so vast”.[15] Unlike the Marquis’s description, there were no buildings or roads ready for settlement. A jungle crept down to the foreshore, rendering the bay “one of the world’s most inhospitable spots”.[16] While the settlers were ordered to move ashore, many refused to move and stayed on board, deciding that the Chandernagore would become their new home. In this disaster created by the Marquis de Rays, thousands were “defrauded of their money” and hundreds were sent to “certain death”.[17] While lengthy, the ending to the Marquis’s speech outlines all the components of Pacific obsession and its followers’ eventual demise: “We shall blaze the way, be assured, and our country will once again find glory. We shall renew on other shores, by means of our free colonies, the broken chain of our colonial traditions; we shall be great again, and without new burdens on our own country we shall, to the great profit of all, revive our beloved merchant marine, so that the remembrance of a great past will become a source of new glory”.[18]
What Michener identifies through his work is in direct opposition to Reid’s argument for the Pacific’s continental potential. As identified by Reid in The Sea Is My Country, examining the Pacific shows how Europeans practiced a “variable distribution of resources” as they familiarized themselves with the abundant riches and opportunities in the Pacific.[19] By doing so, Europeans “fueled an extensive trade network” that became “one of the defining qualities” of the Pacific.[20] Reid’s analysis elaborates on how the trade and distribution of resources between native occupants and European settlers established itself as a staple of economic activity in the Pacific space. As such, the Pacific is framed as the global center of adventure that allowed nations and individuals to flourish by experiencing the unknown to become successful – however, this observation is only accurate for events during the age of discovery. Michener best refutes this pacific claim by presenting the Marquis’s speech – it contains all components of gold, God, and glory, aspects that motivated individuals to explore, expand, and conquer. The volunteers to Nouvelle France were promised certain wealth, fame, power, and glory, and acted solely on their innate desires. Their obsession with the Pacific and its fulfillment had clouded their judgement, allowing participation in a fraud that could have been so easily uncovered. What Reid initially outlined as the Pacific’s positive benefits had eventually evolved to be of detriment to the livelihoods of the French Pacific idealists.
Bibliography
Chang, David A. The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2016.
Graebner, Norman A. "Maritime Factors in the Oregon Compromise." Pacific Historical Review 20, no. 4 (1951): 331-45. doi:10.2307/3635435.
Igler, David. The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Michener, James A., A. Grove Day, and Steve Berry. Rascals in Paradise. New York: Dial Press, 2016.
Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, an Indigenous Borderlands People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.
Sinn, Elizabeth. "The Pacific Ocean as Highway to Gold Mountain." Pacific America, 2017. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824855765.003.0004.
[1] Michener, James A., A. Grove Day, and Steve Berry. Rascals in Paradise. New York: Dial Press, 2016.
[2] Michener et al.
[3] Michener et al.
[4] Michener et al.
[5] Michener et al.
[6] Michener et al.
[7] Michener et al.
[8] Michener et al.
[9] Graebner, Norman A. "Maritime Factors in the Oregon Compromise." Pacific Historical Review 20, no. 4 (1951): 331-45. doi:10.2307/3635435., 340
[10] Igler, David. The Great Ocean: Pacific Worlds from Captain Cook to the Gold Rush. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 125.
[11] Sinn, Elizabeth. "The Pacific Ocean as Highway to Gold Mountain." Pacific America, 2017. doi:10.21313/hawaii/9780824855765.003.0004., 225
[12] Chang, David A. The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2016., 33
[13] Michener et al.
[14] Michener et al.
[15] Michener et al.
[16] Michener et al.
[17] Michener et al.
[18] Michener et al.
[19] Reid, Joshua L. The Sea Is My Country: The Maritime World of the Makahs, an Indigenous Borderlands People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018, 34.
[20] Reid, Joshua L., 34.
Main Source:
Michener, James A., A. Grove Day, and Steve Berry. Rascals in Paradise. New York: Dial Press, 2016.
https://books.google.co.kr/books/about/Rascals_in_Paradise.html?id=YnkrAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y