A typhoon damages Yap, one of the blows that collapse its copra trade.

What happened

Yap’s copra trade, the largest in Micronesia in the early 1880s, was already in trouble: leaf lice introduced that year damaged the coconut palms, and the 1895 typhoon was followed by another in 1899 and a drought in 1900. Exports fell from about 1,500 tons a year in 1880 to 100 tons by 1901.