By 1800, European explorers had been gradually encountering and charting the islands of Melanesia for more than two centuries and the Spanish had made a brief and unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony in the Solomon Islands. However, it is not until the nineteenth century that broader sustained contact between Melanesian peoples and the West begins to have a substantial impact on the region's arts and cultures. Following, and occasionally adding to, the discoveries of the early explorers, sailors on European and American commercial vessels are the first outsiders to establish lasting, though often volatile, relations with many Melanesian groups. In the 1820s, Western traders start to scour the region for sandalwood, an aromatic timber highly valued in the China trade, which the islanders exchange for Western goods. The trade ends in the 1860s as supplies become depleted, but by this point whalers have been active in the region for decades in search of whales and provisions.

As elsewhere in the Pacific, Westerners—generally unintentionally but, in rare instances, deliberately—introduce new diseases that devastate the populations on many islands. Unlike other areas of the Pacific, however, local diseases, particularly malaria, also take a heavy toll on Westerners. In 1839, the first Christian missionaries begin to arrive. Most initially meet with little success and some are killed outright by their prospective converts. Apart from a nominal claim to western New Guinea by the Dutch in 1828, Melanesia's reputation for hostility (as resistance to foreign incursions is seen by Western observers), greater incidence of disease, and perceived lack of economic resources (beyond the dwindling supplies of sandalwood) cause the colonial powers to largely ignore the region until the latter half of the century.

During the second half of the century, the pace and extent of Western contact and influence intensify. Missionaries begin to achieve greater success in converting local populations. European planters and other settlers replace the more transient whalers and sandalwood traders. In the 1850s, the European colonial powers begin to assert sovereignty over the various regions of Melanesia. In 1853, France claims New Caledonia, where it later establishes a penal colony. Between 1864 and 1897, more than 21,000 French convicts are sent to the archipelago. Following earlier, more preliminary, claims and discussions, in 1886 Britain and Germany formally divide the eastern half of New Guinea and partition the Solomon Islands in 1893. In 1898, the western half of New Guinea becomes officially incorporated into the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). At the same time that more Westerners are arriving, large numbers of Melanesians leave their homelands. Starting in the 1860s, thousands of Melanesians from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and later New Guinea are, at times forcibly, recruited as laborers to work on sugar and cotton plantations in Australia and Fiji. The practice continues into the early twentieth century.

Despite the threefold impact of colonialism, missionization, and labor recruitment, the majority of Melanesian arts survive the nineteenth century intact, although some, such as New Caledonian wood sculpture, begin to decline as a result of growing cultural disruption. For the most part, however, the region's vast variety of sculptural traditions continue to flourish, and are even, at times, assisted by the introduction of Western goods such as steel tools. The broader exploration and increasing settlement of the region by Westerners also reveal the astonishing breadth and diversity of Melanesian art to the wider world for the first time. Continuing the process begun by their eighteenth-century predecessors, explorers, scientists, settlers, and even missionaries assemble large collections of Melanesian works and document the artistic and cultural achievements of the hundreds of individual peoples who inhabit the region's sprawling archipelagos. In 1885, German explorers are the first outsiders to sail up the Sepik River in northern New Guinea, encountering what is perhaps the single richest concentration of artistic traditions in all of Oceania.

• 1820s–60s The sandalwood trade flourishes in Melanesia.

• 1828 The Dutch claim the western half of New Guinea.

• 1839 The first Christian missionaries arrive in Vanuatu.

• 1840 The first Christian missionaries arrive in New Caledonia.

• 1842–46 French explorer Auguste Bérard, who first visited Melanesia in 1821, makes a series of voyages and assembles an important collection of works from New Caledonia.

• 1847 The first Christian missionaries arrive on Woodlark Island east of New Guinea, becoming active on the New Guinea mainland in 1871.

• 1853 France lays claim to New Caledonia.

• 1856 French missionary Père Lambert arrives in New Caledonia. Beyond his work for the church, Lambert takes an active interest in Kanak culture and religion and later publishes the important study Moeurs et superstitions des Néo-Calédoniens.

• 1860s–1910s Thousands of people from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and later New Guinea are, at times forcibly, recruited as laborers for sugar and cotton plantations in Australia and Fiji. The practice, often referred to by the derogatory term "blackbirding," continues into the early twentieth century.

• 1864–97 France sends more than 21,000 convicts to its penal colony in New Caledonia.

• 1865 The first European settlers arrive in Vanuatu.

• 1871–83 Russian explorer Nikolai Miklukho-Maklai (1846–1888) is active in New Guinea. Along with data on their physical characteristics, Miklukho-Maklai documents and assembles collections of objects from the different groups he encounters.

• 1875 The Dutch, Germans, and British set the boundaries of their colonial claims to the island of New Guinea.

• 1878 New Caledonia's indigenous Kanak peoples mount an armed rebellion against French colonial rule.

• ca. 1880–1920 Master carver Mutuaga (ca. 1860–ca. 1920), one of the earliest individual Melanesian artists whose identity is known today, is active in the Massim region of New Guinea.

• 1882 Danish-born German colonist Richard Parkinson (1844–1909) settles in the Duke of York Islands near New Britain north of New Guinea. Taking an active interest in local Melanesian cultures, in 1907 Parkinson publishes Dreissig Jahre in der Südsee (Thirty Years in the South Seas), which remains a classic work on the peoples and arts of New Britain, New Ireland, Manus, the northern Solomon Islands, and adjacent areas.

• 1884 Britain establishes a protectorate over the southeastern portion of New Guinea. Germany lays claim to the northeastern portion as well as New Britain and New Ireland.

• 1885 Germany lays claim to Manus, then known as the Admiralty Islands.

• 1885—87 German explorers become the first Europeans to sail up the Sepik River in New Guinea, one of the most prolific art-producing regions in all of Oceania.

• 1886 The British and Germans formally divide the eastern half of New Guinea. Germany claims the northeastern quarter of the island and Britain governs the southeast.

• 1893 Britain and Germany claim and partition the Solomon Islands. Britain controls the majority of the archipelago while Germany governs the northernmost islands in the group.

• 1898 Western New Guinea is incorporated into the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia).

• 1898 British ethnographer Alfred C. Haddon (1855–1940) leads a team of researchers to the islands of the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea. The expedition documents the islands' arts and cultures and acquires substantial collections of Torres Strait objects.

• 1899 Germany cedes the northern Solomon Islands to Britain.