Kees van Dijk is emeritus professor of the history of modern Islam in Indonesia at Leiden University.

• Foreword, Chapter one STEAM AND CANALS, Chapter two RIVALRIES IN THE PACIFIC, Chapter three PLANTERS, TRADERS AND SLAVERS IN THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC, Chapter four FIJI: THE START OF ANGLO-GERMAN RIVALRY IN THE PACIFIC, Chapter five THE SAMOA CONFLICT, Chapter six GERMANY ENTERS THE COLONIAL RAC,E Chapter seven THE NEW GUINEA PROTECTORATES, Chapter eight GREAT BRITAIN, RUSSIA AND THE CENTRAL ASIAN QUESTION, Chapter nine SAMOAN REMAINS A SOURCE OF INTERNATIONAL TENSION, Chapter ten THE EMERGING ECONOMIC WORLD POWERS, Chapter eleven GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE AND SOUTHEAST ASIA, Chapter twelve THE FRENCH EXPANSION WESTWARDS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, Chapter thirteen RUSSIA, JAPAN AND THE CHINESE EMPIRE, Chapter fourteen THAILAND AND BEYOND, Chapter fifteen THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA: JIOAZHOU AND PORT ARTHUR, Chapter sixteen THE BRITISH REACTION: WEI-HAI-WEI, Chapter seventeen THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA CONTINUES: GUANGZHOUWAN AND TIBET, Chapter eighteen THE FAILED ANNEXATION OF HAWAII, Chapter nineteen THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A COLONIAL EMPIRE, Chapter twenty THE PARTITION OF SAMOA, Chapter twenty-one THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR, Chapter twenty-two GREAT BRITAIN'S SEARCH FOR SECURE COLONIAL FRONTIERS, Chapter twenty-three THE UNITED STATES, JAPAN AND THE PACIFIC OCEAN, Chapter twenty-four, EPILOGUE