Why Did Germany Take Over the Southwestern Art of Africa

High german Colonial Rule

Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst

• Concluding REVIEWED: 06 May 2016
• Concluding MODIFIED: 25 October 2012
• DOI: x.1093/obo/9780199846733-0020

Introduction

With the exception of Brandenburg-Prussia's short-lived attempt to gain a foothold on the West African declension and to participate in the 17th-century transatlantic slave merchandise, German colonialism began only in the 1880s. As a latecomer in the struggle for colonies, Germany had to settle for four territories, chosen "protectorates," in Africa: Togo and Cameroon in the due west, High german Southwest Africa (today'south Namibia), and German East Africa (today's Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) in the east. In addition, Germany obtained territories in the Pacific, such as High german New Guinea and Samoa, besides as some smaller islands, and with the status of a concession territory, Kiautschou (Jiaozhou) in Mainland china. From the outset, African men and women resisted the wrongful looting of their territories, which led to several violent colonial wars. The Herero-Nama war of 1904 in German language Southwest Africa and the Maji-Maji state of war in German language East Africa were the about devastating ones for the local population. The High german-Herero state of war led to the beginning genocide of the 20th century. Most of Germany's African and Pacific colonies were occupied by other European colonial powers in the early stages of World War I. Merely in German Due east Africa did General Lettow-Vorbeck and a small number of African mercenaries persevere until the end of the war. The German colonial empire ended later on its defeat in the war and the Treaty of Versailles on 10 January 1920. Following the official finish of German colonialism, a revanchist motion in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany began to try and claim the one-time territories, and colonial literature, films, and science blossomed. Just when the Nazis' Russian campaign of Globe War Two began taking its heavy price did colonial ambitions finally end. Recent literature speaks of "imaginary colonies" in the context of revisionism of the postal service-Versailles years.

General Overviews

There are a number of excellent overviews that focus on different aspects of German colonialism. Speitkamp 2005 is a condensed, easily readable general introduction, whereas Conrad 2012 is based on an up-to-date transnational history approach. Stoecker 1987 represents the former GDR school of studying German imperialism. Forster, et al. 1988 concentrates on the early years of colonial partitioning, and van Laak 2005 is a curt general written report of 2 hundred years of German language imperialism. Gann and Duignan 1977 deals with the German personnel in Germany's African colonies. Steinmetz 2007 presents a comparative study of three German language colonies, and Ames, et al. 2005 offers a collection of essays on all aspects of High german colonialism.

• Ames, Eric, Marcia Klotz, and Lora Wildenthal, eds. Germany'due south Colonial Pasts. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

  Offers a broad range of studies on German language colonialism and its legacies. Some essays focus on the period of Germany's formal colonial empire in Africa and the Pacific, while others examine Germany's postcolonial era, which includes the Weimar Democracy and Nazi Germany and its colonial revanchism. The interdisciplinary book includes essays in the fields of musicology, religious studies, moving-picture show, and tourism studies also as literary analysis and history.

• Conrad, Sebastian. German Colonialism: A Short History. Cambridge, Great britain: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

  Offers an up-to-appointment synthesis of Frg's colonial ventures in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific and places them in a cultural and transnational frame. Information technology includes excellent illustrations and maps as well every bit an annotated critical bibliography.

• Forster, Stig, Wolfgang Mommsen, and Ronald Robinson, eds. Bismarck, Europe and Africa: The Berlin Africa Conference 1884–1885 and the Onset of Sectionalisation. Oxford: Oxford Academy Press, 1988.

  A comprehensive business relationship of the Berlin Africa Conference of 1884 and 1885 and a study of the motives behind the partitioning of Africa. It includes essays on the different negotiators, economic interests, as well as missionary aspirations.

• Gann, L., and Peter Duignan. The Rulers of German language Africa, 1884–1914. Stanford, CA: Stanford Academy Press, 1977.

  Although a little outdated in its arroyo, this study is even so worthwhile reading. It focuses on Germany's military and authoritative personnel in Africa and examines their functioning, educational and grade background, ideology, standing ties with the homeland, and subsequent careers.

• Speitkamp, Winfried. Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2005.

  A short overview of German colonial history that is useful for students and a general readership.

• Steinmetz, George. The Devils' Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa. Chicago: Academy of Chicago Press, 2007.

  Offers a rare comparative study of three German colonies and argues for the heterogeneity of High german colonial practise and policy. The author seeks to explain these differences in Deutschland's precolonial ethnographic discourse and in imperial Germany's three-way intra-elite grade struggle.

• Stoecker, Helmut, ed. German Imperialism in Africa: From the Beginnings Until the Second World War. London: Hurst, 1987.

  Representative of East German scholarship on African history in general, particularly colonial history.

• van Laak, Dirk. Über alles in der Welt: Deutscher Imperialismus im 19. und twenty. Jahrhundert. Munich: Beck, 2005.

  A short study of the origin and impact of High german imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, which the author regards as part of the globalization procedure.

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