Perhaps the first thing to say about this work is that it is not founded on original research based upon the careful scrutiny of primary sources; or rather it is, but none of this research is mine. No, this is a work of synthesis, which takes, or perhaps ruthlessly plunders would be a more apt description, the original research of many eminent scholars and attempts to weave it into a narrative concerning the colonial and naval policy of Imperial Germany in the Asia-Pacific region over the given period of 1885 to 1914. There are also few, if any, new interpretations of existing material to be found here. Any potential reader is then entitled to ask, ‘what is the purpose of this work? Why does it exist?’

I would answer it thus; there is very little currently in print, at least in English, concerning Imperial Germany and her Asia-Pacific colonies. There has never been anything in print, to my knowledge, that examines this subject holistically. Those attracted to colonial and naval history in general, and in the Asia-Pacific area during the given period in particular, form then the target readership. It is hoped that it may also interest those whose area of interest concerns late Imperial Germany and the role of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Weltpolitik, and indeed the pre-Great War period generally. Many of the matters and incidents investigated and explained have received little or no coverage in generally accessible works.