James Cook's expeditions to New Zealand and Australia between 1769 and 1778 sparked interest in Australia, which was home to about 650,000 people (250,000 Maori people lived in New Zealand). Their isolation made these natives particularly vulnerable to disease, and an influx of settlers brought rampant disease. By the 1890s, only 93,000 aboriginal Australians and 42,000 Maori survived, and British settler populations outnumbered and dominated the indigenous peoples. Australia was originally a penal colony for convicts, however, the discovery of gold in 1851 brought a flood of European settlers (and some Chinese) and hastened the end of the penal colonies. By 1860 Australia had a million immigrants, and the settler population doubled during the next fifteen years. Australia then became a self-governing dominion within the British Empire. The colonial government started implementing policies to remove Aboriginal or "mixed-race" children from their families in order to assimilate them into "Anglo-Saxon" (English) culture. 

Settlement of New Zealand was slower than in Australia. Early settlers hunted whales for their oil (used in soap and lamps) and seals for their skins. As in Australia, settlers also exported wool to British textiles mills. By the early 1880s New Zealand had a settler population of 500,000. Britain encouraged the settlers in Australia and New Zealand to become self-governing, though still under control of the British Empire. In New Zealand in particular, the introduction of crops like the potato changed agriculture, and the introduction of muskets changed warfare, resulting in numerous intertribal wars in the 1840s. Christian missionaries also converted much of the Maori population. In 1840, Maori leaders signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which granted the right to govern to the British Crown. However, disputes arose about how the treaty was translated, leading to war between the colonial government and Maori that ended with the confiscation of considerable Maori land. 

In both colonies, the Aborigines and Maori were prevented from acquiring the rights of citizens, and requirements for English literacy prevented many from voting.

The Dutch East India Company started seizing land in Southeast Asia in the 17th century, taking Malacca from the Portuguese and fighting Britain for control of Java. The discovery of oil and tin and the desire for rubber plantations eventually led to Dutch control over all of Indonesia, suppressing indigenous groups that rebelled. The Dutch claimed they were freeing the indigenous people from 'backward" and "oppressive." Trade and plantation ownership brought numerous Dutch settlers to the islands and contributed to rigid social classes, with the Dutch at the top, followed by educated Indonesians and plantation workers at the bottom. Farmers were forced to devote at least 1/5 of their land to an export crop like coffee or sugar. The Dutch built railways, roads, and telegraph lines to improve transportation, commerce, and communication. Large-scale plantations were built to grow cash crops and Javanese, Chinese, Malay, Batak and Indian people were shipped to the plantations in Sumatra and Java to perform harsh labor. These people were often called "coolies," a derogatory term for a low wage laborer (often of Asian descent).  While these laborers were paid, the "coolie" system often resembled forced labor, with harsh punishments such as beatings, electrocution, or hanging people from their toes or thumbs until they broke.

In 1890, naval officer Alfred T. Mahan wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History in which he argued that "whoever rules the waves rules the world." At the time, the United States was growing rapidly, producing millions of manufactured goods, and looking for outlets for not only its population, but also for its products and need for resources. The US had already acquired small territories in the Pacific (which were conveniently on the way to China) and established a naval station at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii, which was a monarchy under Queen Liliʻuokalani). In the late 1800s, a small group of American businessmen led by Sanford Dole (yes, as in Dole fruits) aided by the American minister to Hawaii and backed by heavily armed U.S. soldiers and marines, deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani and was replaced by a provisional government. By 1898 the United States under President William McKinley (1897–1901) had become openly imperialistic and annexed Hawaii as a stepping stone to Asia and as a fruitful source of, well, fruit (and more importantly, sugarcane). Most Hawaiians opposed annexation by the US, but the US justified their occupation of the island to protect  economic interests  (sugar and fruit plantations). Hawaii remained a territory (with an elected territorial government), not a state, until after WWII, in part because many politicians opposed admitting a state with such a large "non-white" population. Plantation owners could import cheap, foreign labor because laws banning such practices in the states did not apply in Hawaii. By 1898, most of Hawaii's population was made up of plantation workers from China, Japan, the Philippines.

In the Philippines, the US used a revolt as a pretext for war and seizure of the colony. The Philippines had been under Spanish rule for centuries, but Filipino Emilio Aguinaldo led a rebellion and proclaimed a republic in 1899. The United States, which was already fighting against the Spanish in Cuba, declared war on Spain in the Philippines as well and fought alongside Aguinaldo and the Filipinos. But at the end of the war, fearing that another imperial power like Japan or Germany would sweep in and take the island, the US purchased the islands from Spain for $20 million and gained Guam and Puerto Rico. Aguinaldo and the Filipinos were outraged that they simply had to trade one master for another despite fighting for independence. The US immediately started integrating the Philippine economy with the US economy, and the president of the United States had the power to appoint the governor. The colonial government built roads, railroads, harbors, and hospitals. Filipinos finally gained the right to elect representatives to an assembly in 1907, but the Philippines remained an American colony until after WWII.