A German trading company, the Jaluit Gesellschaft, administered the islands from 1887 until 1905. They conscripted the islanders as laborers and mistreated them. After the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899, in which Germany acquired the Carolines, Palau, and the Marianas from Spain, Germany placed all of its Micronesian islands, including the Marshalls, under the governor of German New Guinea.

What company ran the Marshall Islands in the late 19th century?