The little-known Pacific War of 1914 and its causes have so far drawn little attention in the context of the global First World War and of regional, military and imperial histories. A significant amount of research has been produced in Australia, where a greater understanding of what is now referred to as the Asia-Pacific is sought. Yet, the events of 1914 have not yet received a comprehensive scholarly appreciation in their strategic and diplomatic dimension.

The doctoral thesis and DFAT volume project on ‘Australia in War and Peace, 1914-1919’ which this presentation is based on have analysed, synthesised and integrated multi-archival and multi-national data regarding the conflict in its Pacific dimension in its entire length, 1914 to 1918/9. Bart will extract the diplomacy of August 1914, leading up to armed conflict in the Pacific, but will also extrapolate towards the entire war and make a connection with the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, providing both a case study and a bird’s-eye view of his work.

The paper will touch on different dimensions of Bart’s past and current research, including the globality (or globalisation) of strategy and conflict into Australia and the Pacific, the ‘logic’ of global war, relevant political, administrative, military, psychological, cultural and military mechanisms, questions of Eurocentricity, and its particular relevance to Australia’s First World War history and beyond.

About Bart

Dr Bart Zielinski is a Visiting Research Associate at the Menzies Australia Institute, King’s College London. Bart has taught as a lecturer in the Department of History at KCL and is a chapter editor for the upcoming volume on ‘Australia in War and Peace, 1914-19’ within the Documents on Australian Foreign Policy DFAT primary source series.