German Colonial Empire Emigration, Which Led to No Fewer Than 6 Million Settling in Iil the United Statesbefore 1914
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TH E OXFORDEI{CYCLOPEDIA OF THE MODERN WORLD Peter N. Stearns Editor in Chief Volume 3 Earth Day-Heart Disease OXTORD \.TNIVERSITY PRESS 2008 lft EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM:The GermanColonial Empire 129 The German Colonial Empire emigration, which led to no fewer than 6 million settling in iil the United Statesbefore 1914. Germany was a relative latecomer to overseas empire The Origins of German Colonial Expansion. administered some of its coloniesquite harshly. Its and Following the wars of German unifrcation of 1864, 1866, the loss in World War I. colonial empire was seizedafter and 1870-1871,Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was very played no direct Unlike other European states, Germany sensitive to the fact that the new German Empire had in Europeaninfluence abroadbegin- role the expansionof disrupted the traditional European balance of power and in the sixteenth century. Fragmented by ning early that maintaining this unstablestatus quo required careful petty dynastic and confessionaldivisions into the feudal diplomacyto prevent a hostile bloc of states from forming relative states of the Holy Roman Empire, suffering against the Reich. Of those European states, France was economic decline since the fall of Constantinople and least likely to be accommodatedgiven its loss in the then ravaged by the rise of Atlantic trade routes, and Franco-PrussianWar of 1870-1871,which resulted in a (1618-1648), did not the Thirty Years' War Germany high punitive indemnity and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. modern unified until 1871. By that emerge as a state The isolation of Franceand the maintenanceof an alliance the lion's territory in the Americas, time share of colonial with Russiabecame cornerstones of German foreign policy Asia, the Africa, and Australasia had been divided among under Bismarck to which all other ambitions were subordi- Dutch, Minor English, French, Portuguese,and Spanish. nated. To this end Bismarck took pains to emphasizethat exceptionsto this narrative were a number of short-lived Germany was territorially satiated and devoted to stability mercantilist initiatives princes, of which only by German in central Europe. The precarious fiscal structure of the the exploits of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg imperial government-the Reich could not levy direct (calledthe Great Elector;1620-1688), in securingthe trad- taxes-also put strict boundson German foreign policy. ing post the coast of present- Gross-Friedrichsburgon Despitethis unpromising start, the late 1870sand early day Ghana Thomas in Antilles and outposts on St. the 1880switnessed the effervescenceof German procolonial for triangular trade, are worth mentioning. Even these interests and organizations.These began to articulate a minor possessionswere to the Dutch in 1717.That is sold complexof ambitions that reflected a peculiar set of anxi- not to say that individuals from various German states eties about Germany at a time of economicchange and did not contribute quite the to European imperialism; societalflux. Among the most prominent and influential contrary. German sailors,cartographers, naturalists, mis- publicists and organizersof this movementwere Friedrich sionaries,physicians, merchants,bankers, and mercenar- Fabri (1824-1891), a Lutheran pastor and missionary, ies took part an active in various imperial enterprises. Wilhelm Hribbe-Schleiden(184G-1916), a Hamburg law- Likewise German farmers and craftspeoplewere a signifi- yer and former diplomat,the theoreticianErnst von Weber cant profile in number populations,notably a ofcolonial in (1830-1902),the journalist Hugo Zoller (7852-1933),and British North America (for Pennsylvania example, the the explorer, writer, and radical nationalist Carl Peters "Dutch"). Indeed, the the flow by nineteenth century of (1856-1918).These men shared an acute awarenessof German immigrant to the in particular settlers Americas Germany as a belated nation-state and of the danger would assume massive dimensions efforts and spark of missing what few opportunities remained to establish within German to aristocraticand bourgeoiscircles create a presenceoverseas. Explicit or implicit in this was the autonomousGerman in United settler colonies the States ambition of establishinga colonialempire that could rival (Texas)and Brazil in population order to securethis for Great Britain's. Colonialambitions were thus perceivedas Germany. proposals Such were exploredin somedetail by a "school of the nation" that would help fulfill a great the liberal 1848 revolutionaries under Heinrich von national destiny and bring Germansthe prestige and sta- Gagern(1?99-1880) part plans unified as of for a German tus of their British cousins.Like their predecessorsduring state. In the plans absenceof a navy, however, these the 1848 revolution, they were also concernedabout the remainedspeculative at best, the collapse and subsequent social implications of rapid population growth and the of the Frankfurt put National Assemblyin May of J.849 a need to capture the vast stream of emigrants heading definitive end not only to the colonial dream of a German to the Americas in German settler colonies. Indeed, presencebut to a liberal-democratic state. The German colonial expansion was perceived as a way of defusing failure of the 1848 revolution strong and continued domesticGerman political tensionsstoked by the rise of a population growth would in turn this German accelerate large industrial working class and revolutionary Social 150 EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM: The German Colonial Empire 6o,fntmtffwt ler fDnntl$e, 6a letonffrsrfler Sngfinlet, "Colonial Powers." Drawing by Thomas Theodor Heine from the German satirica-l magazine Simplicissimus, 3 May 1904: "Here's how the German colonizes / Here's how the Englishman colonizes/ and so the Frenchman / and so the Belgian." EMPIREAND IMPERIAIISM:The GermanColonial Empire 131 l)tnrocratic Party. Alother theme uniting some of these Britain over Afghanistan as well as French and British ,,'olonialadvocates was the perceivedneed to secure col- disputes over Egypt. German involvement in Africa thus onies as sourcesof tropical products, raw materials and, worked to further distract the European Great Powers, especially,as a salesmarket for German industry, which particularly France, from central Europe. Some have at the time was suffering from heightened competition, suggestedthat Bismarck's strategy was calculated to lead overcapacity,and falling prices. That is, emphasis was to some kind of accommodation or even alliance with placed on creating trading colonies, but this did not France. Evidence also points to the fact that Bismarck precludea settler presenceper se. was increasingly concernedabout securing German export Over the courseof the 1870scolonial ambitions shifted markets and commercial interests in the periphery in a from more traditional sites of German colonial aspiration climate of economic depression, increasing protectionism in the Americas, Asia, and the Near East to the African and possible exclusion from colonial markets. The Anglo- continent. Increasingly expansive and utopian dreams French Sierra Leone Agreement of 1882, which granted were projected upon West Africa by men like Hribbe- French and English traders reciprocal rights within their Schleidenand others who imagined creating a "German respective colonial spheres, as well as the expansion of India." Colonial associationswere also founded to promote French and Belgian interests along the Congo River, made these aims. Friedrich Fabri, Wilhelm Hribbe-Scheeiden, such fears credible. There was particular concern about and Hugo Ziiller were active in the West German Associa- accessio West Africa, and to a lesser extent Southwest tion for Colonization and Export (co-founded by Fabri Africa, New Guinea, and Samoa, where North German in 1879). Prominent members of Germany's business merchants and traders were active. Even so, Bismarck's establishment, including industrialists, bankers, shipping initial ambitions were modest: at most he envisioned self- magnates, and trading company owners founded the frnanced and self-administered trading colonies in various German Colonial Association in 1882. while Carl Peters overseasoutposts turned idto Reich protectorates along a created the Society for German Colonization in 1884. The laissez-faire model of the flag following trade. No grand latter two organizations were amalgamated into the colonialstrategy informed Bismarck's perspective-least German Colonial Societyin 1887,which becamethe most of all did he envision settler colonies-and only the most important of the German procolonial organizations. Even minimal financial commitments were envisioned. so, the colonial cause was never the exclusive purview of Domestic political calculations also seem to have played these and other colonial societies. An extraordinary vari- a significant role in Bismarck's decision. While he was no ety of nationalist organizations were created over the doubt responsive to the rise of procolonial sentiments courseof the 1880sand 1890sthat made German colonies in Germany, he saw a chance to exploit these for his own a cause of their own and distanced themselves from the purposes in the 1884 autumn Reichstag elections, which established colonial bodies by their even more strident afforded the opportunity to isolate the ProgressiveLiberals expansionist aims, shrill language, and broader middle and Social Democratsby appealing to middle and lower class base. One of the most prominent of these was the middle class sentiments