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Home , Bernhard Dernburg, Carl Peters, Friedrich von Lindequist, German Colonial Society, German Empire, German Samoa

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 AND :The GermanColonial Empire 129

The German emigration, which led to no fewer than 6 million settling in iil the United Statesbefore 1914. 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 I. colonial empire was seizedafter and 1870-1871, was very played no direct Unlike other European states, Germany sensitive to the fact that the new 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 , suffering against the . Of those European states, 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 -. 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 . The precarious fiscal structure of the the exploits of Frederick William, Elector of 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-(184G-1916), a 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 "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 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 . 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, , and , 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 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 supportive of colonies, something Pan-GermanLeague founded in 1894.These groups and both parties opposed on principle. At the same time he others expressed grave concerns about rapid German sought the cooperation of the National Liberals, many of industrialization and urbanization and the threats they whom were colonial supporters. Whether this is evidence posed to rural life and thus also to German identity and of "social imperialism"-colonial empire as a deliberate political culture. Settler colonies came to figure centrally ploy to diffuse domestictensions and shore up middle class as a panacea to these and other ills of modern life, and as support for conservative policies serving the importantly, as a means to spread German influence to all elite-is a matter of dispute. Bismarck's own conflicting corners of the earth. statements about what ends the colonies served add little Given what is known about Bismarck's consistent rejec- clarity to this issue. Like much else Bismarckian, the tion ofcolonial ambitions, his entry on the colonial stage in colonies presented a political opportunity to address the spring of 1884 has presented something of a puzzle several problems simultaneously, ones not necessarily thht historians have been trying to piece together for more related. The picture presented by the "social imperialism" than a century. Most agree that a German colonial gambit thesis, while suggestive, is too monolithic a picture that was enabledby the very favorable foreign circumstances in does not adequately account for multiplicity of forces and 1884, notably the existing tensions between and interests in evidencein the creation of the colonies. L32 EMPIREAND IMPERIALISM:The GermanColonial Empire

German Southwest Africa. German Southwest dynamic of colonies and the relative autonomy of the colo- Africa, declared a German in April 1884, nial movement within Germany, which found increasing would turn,out to be Germany's most important colony in support from radical nationalist and conservative circles terms of economic value, as a destination for settlers and in 1890s.Between 1891 and 1904,for example,the white becauseof its boarder impact on German society.This was population of Southwest Africa grew from 539 to 4,500. in what today constitutes the territory of , one of This influx of settlers produced many tensions with the driest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and one that natives over cattle and grazing and undermined the had attracted little interest from the European powers administration's aim of preserving tribal integrity and before 1875. A German missionary presencehad been self-governance. Railway investments added to these active along Angra Pequena (Lrideritz Bay) and Walvis tensions by acceleratingthe dispossessionof land while Bay on the coast and in in the interior for undermining the traditional structures of Herero and some decades,but it was not until the ventures of Adolf Nama society through the use of native labor. A cata- Liideritz (1834-1886) that this region gained official strophicrinderpest epidemicin 1897then destroyedabout attention, A tobacco merchant and gun trader half of all native cattle and forced many more Herero to who managed to amass vast territory in the region work for wages or dependon credit extendedby German through self-financed expeditions and questionable treat- settlers. This in turn led to yet more lossesof land and ies, Liideritz was after gold and diamondsbut strained his the creation ofreservations. Legal insecurity and abusive personal resources and successfully lobbied for Reich colonialjustice addedmuch to these woes. protection over these lands in 1884.A year later he sold The tensions with the German population over land and the territories to the newly founded Deutsche Kolonialge- the resulting lossofautonomy led to an organizeduprising sellschaft frir Slidwest-Afrika ( by the chief of the Herero, SamuelMaherero (1854-1923), for Southwest Africa, DKGSWA), As a concessioncompany, and the slaughter of some 123 white farmers in January it was entrusted with administering the colony, raising 1904. The rebellion caught the colonial administration investment capital and, it was hoped, making profits, flat-footed and precipitated the replacement of Governor while the Reich provided a commissioner, a few civil (1849-1921) by the uncompromising administrators, and, despite initial reluctance, a small (1862-1945)and the mustering defensiveforce (). The initial hopesfor South- of military reinforcements from Germany. The com- west Africa were, however, quickly dashedby the realties of mander of the reinforced Schutztruppe, Lothar this sprawling, arid territory, of which only about von Trotha (1848-1920),a veteran of other colonial wars, 1 percent was suitable for arable farming and that required conductedthe campaign against the Herero peoplewith a heavy port and railway investments before any of its notorious ruthlessness, defeating the Herero force at anticipated mineral bounty could be exploited. The Waterberg in August 1904 and driving the survivors into DKGSWA quickly revealed that it was incapable of shoul- the arid Omaheke steppe where most died of exposure.The dering these costs alone and the Reich was forced to fill the war waged against the Herero peopleculminated in von financial breach. Trotha's infamous "Extermination Decree" of October While sparsely populated, the native people of South- 1"904,which put a cash prize on Maherero'shead, refused west Africa numbered about 200,000in 1884and included peacenegotiations, and declaredthat every Herero man, the Owambo, Herero, Nama and Orlam (Hottentots), wcman. and child was to be driven into exile or shot on and San (Bushmen), of which the pastoralist Herero and sight. Around this time the Nama under Hendrik Witbooi Nama in the central and southern part of the country, (c. 1830-1905) also went to war against the . respe-ctively,were the largest groups. In classic imperial Better armed and trained than the Herero, they managed fashion tensions between the Herero and Nama were to continue their struggle until March 1907. exploited in consolidating rule, with the Germans playing The consequencesof this war of extermination were the Herero off against the Nama yet aiming to preserve catastrophicfor both peoples.Those Herero who managed tribal self-governance.This was greatly complicatedby the to survive landed in a system of camps and forced labor migration of German settlers to the colony in the 1890s, whoseconditions killed nearly half of the remaining popu' something neither planned when the protectorate was lation. By 1911they had beenreduced by 75-80 percentof created nor encouraged by the Colonial Section of the their prewar numbers, while the Nama suffered lossesof Foreign Offrce. This highlights both the unpredictable nearly 60 percent.Tribal structures were dissolved,lands EMPIREAND IMPERIALISM:The GermanColonial Empire 153

confiscated,and native populations were now subject to with much in commonbetween the Herero experienceand, draconianlegal restrictions and penal transportation. On for example,the destruction of the Tasmanians in Australia the German side, the war cost some 1,500 men and 585 and the Yuki Indians of California. With this in mind, it may million marks. It also exacted a toll on Germany's self- be most accurate to interpret the Herero and Nama war as image as a humane, civilized and orderly colonial power. both fitting prior historical patterns and, through its scale Indeed the brutality of von Trotha'S campaign and the long and brirtality, setting a disturbing precedent for twentieth- duration and high costs of the war produced fierce criti- century genocide. cism from the Social Democrats, Catholic Center, and left Following the 1907Reichstag elections, a reform course liberal parties in the Reichstag. This precipitated a crisis was begun by the director of the newly created Colonial of confidence in the entire colonial endeavor in 1906 and Office, (1865-1937), which aimed at new electionsearly in 1907. better treatment of native populations, fostering indige- An illustration entitled "Kolonialmachte" (Colonial nous farming and a more scientific and economically powers) by Thomas Theodor Heine offers an admittedly rational approach to developing the colonies. The expan- satirical but nonetheless revealing image of German self- sion of railways figured centrally in this new thinking. perceptions of its style of colonial rule at this time. In the Numerous railway lines were completed in Southwest top image, entitled "This is how the German colonizes,"the Africa in 1907-1909 and enabled much expanded copper giraffes are numbered consecutively and march in lock- andl diamond mining. By 1913 these two commodities step before a colonial official. A palm to the right bears alonecomprised well over 90 percentofthe value of South- a sign that reads, "Dumping rubbish and snow here is west Africa's exports, and the colony's economyaccounted prohibited." The crocodile in the foreground wears a tax for no less than 65 to 75 percent of all colonial trade with collar and is being fitted with a muzzle by a colonial Germany. But measured against the enormous adminis- soldier. Like all stereotypes,there is a grain oftruth here trative and military outlays and heavy state investments about German colonial rule, yet the colonial experience in in railways, the colony remained a net liability for the German Southwest Africa and elsewhere also showed how Reich until its loss in . Thereafter it was the German taste for law and order was repeatedly warped administered by South Africa as a of Nations to serve the aim ofdominating native populations by local mandate. interventions into the rule of law. Examples of this in- German . Next in importance as a German cluded the extraordinary escalation in the use of corporal colony was East Africa, which comprised the present-day punishment as well as arbitrary restrictions on intermar- territories of , , and . German riage, movement, the disposal of property, and not least, Hanseatic traders had been active in and its the suspension of the rules of war in dealing with native adjacent African coast for some time, but Reich protection uprisings. It is very ironic, although not any less true, that over what came to be was noE despitethe coercionof the colonial regime-indeed, per- extended until the independent exploits of the adventurer haps because of the regime's uncompromising subordi- Carl Peters. A man of pathological ambition animated by nation of the natives-many German settlers, including the reports ofthe explorerDavid Livingstone (1813-1873), many women, came to view Southwest Africa as a place of Peters managed to acquire a vast coastal hinterland freedom, opportunity, social mobility, and emancipation. through dubious treaties in February of 1885. These were But this was hardly the first or last time in African history then offered Reich protection with some reluctance by that the freedom of a white minority was secured at the Bismarck. Later that month, Peters founded the Deutsch- expenseofthe native population. Ostafrikanische Gesellschafb(German East Africa Com- For obvious reasons, it has been tempting to see in the pany, DOAG), which subsequently gained sovereignrights genocidal war waged against the Herero and Nama and to operate and administer the territory. In years following the system ofcamps developedto control and exploit their Peters continued his exploits to expand the territory under remnant populations an important precedent for the mur- delusions of creating a "German India" that would extend derouspolicies of the Nazi regime less than forty years later. from to , much to the chagrin of As suggestiveare the continuities in German military think- Bismarck, who saw German relations with Britain threat- ing that enabled this first of three "wars without mercy" in ened by such reckless moves and rescinded Peters' letter of the twentieth century. At the same time, comparative safe conduct.As it turned out, Peters' DOAG conductedit studies reveal an unsettling pattern of "frontier genocide" affairs quite heavy-handedly and generated frictions with t34 EMPIREAND IMPERIALISM:TheGerman Colonial Empire

Arab coastal traders, which led to a major uprising in the way back to . Under Bernhard Dernburg in the 188&-1889that the DOAG was in no positionto suppress. and the new governor of East Troops had to be dispatchedfrom Germany, and by 1891 Africa, Albrecht von Rechenberg(1861-1935), a dramatic the territory came under direct control of its first German change in policy was ushered in which aimed at restricting colonialgovernor, (1846-1921). settler and plantation activities in the interest of fostering German East Africa had a complex ethnic composition native peasant agriculture. To this end Rechenberg pro- that included Arab and Indian traders, Swahili, and a hibited from purchasing native lands, reformed variety of Bantu and Tutsi peoples that made imperial taxes, ended compulsory village cultivation of cotton, submission, much less effective economic exploitation, a restricted corporal punishment, and reformed local gov- challenging endeavor. Indeed, extensive military cam- ernment to include native interests. These progressive paigns had to be waged between 1891 and 1897 just to reforms did defuse tensions and resulted in considerable pacify the territory, with much of the eastern parts of increases in native cash crop production, especially of the country remaining under or ungoverned. copra, coffee, and rubber, In reality, howevet, there were The region around Mount Kilimanjaro was particularly limits to how much could be done to restore native agricul- troublesome in this respect because of the influx of white ture given the wrenching ihanges witnessed in the colony settlers into this area in the 1890s. The DOAG and the as well as deep white settler hostility to Rechenberg's colonial government had sought to develop large-scale policies. Despite the inroads made by planters and cash plantation cash-crop production and to systematically crops in the colony, it is worth mentioning that before exploit the human and natural resources of the colony to World War I German East Africa ran consistent trade this end. Village cotton production was made compulsory deficits with Germany and, like nearly all of the Reich's by the administration and traditional hunting was prohib- other colonies save , could not pay its own keep. ited or restricted. Lands were expropriated and native Following the war, German East Africa was divided labor was recruited, often forcibly, to work the plantations. between Britain, , and . Crushing hut and head taxes were imposed and collected Togo and . Both Togo and Cameroon were with great brutality by the mercenary forces em- seizedfor Germany in an extraordinary bit of gunboat di- ployed by the Germans. More often than not, these taxes plomacy in July of 1884. Bremen and Hamburg merchants were paid in the form of extensive labor services sold to and traders and German missionarieshad establisheda plantation owners. Large railway projects connecting the presence in both West African territories, but given the coast to the Kilimanjaro region and the banks of Lake pace of Belgian, British, and French annexations along were also undertaken. Native social structure the Congo, Niger, and Volta rivers, concern grew about changed dramatically as a consequence of the labor eventual German exclusion. Togo was brought under recruitment policies that were part of the plantation econ- Reich protection by treaties of 4-6 July L884 to secure omy and railway construction, a process that .eventually the interests of the pious Bremen merchant family Vietor, undermined peasant agriculture and led to the abandoh- involved in the lucrative palm product trade, as well as to ment of many villages. At the same time the activities of protect the North German Mission. Togo's coastal Ewe missionaries threatened traditional customs and sources people had been in touch with European missionaries of authority. and traders for generations and did not violently oppose Under these circumstances, it was not altogether the German presence. Bringing the northern peoples- surprising that German East Africa witnessed a major the Dagomba, Kabre, Konkomba, and Tykossi, among native revolt in 1905. The Maji Maji uprising spearheaded others-under German administration proved more diffi- by the Ngoni, Pangwa, and other Bantu peoples of the cult and led to an indirect form of rule. south and articulated through the idiom of traditional In marked contrast to the other African colonies,Togo's religious cults sought to restore the older order being colonial history vras not punctuated by major uprisings or destroyed by the colonial presence. The uprising was marked by severe mistreatment of its native populations, met with a harsh responsethat cost the lives of"some although the Togolese, like other people under German 75,000 and nearly annihilated the Pangwa. Punitive mea- colonial rule, were subject to rigid colonial justice that sures after the war killed many more. But the uprising, made much use of corporeal punishment. Vietor and the coinciding as it did with the Herero and Nama wars, shook missionaries opposedthe alcohol and gun trade on princi- the colonial administration to its core and reverberated all ple (albeit unsuccessfully),and along with Governor Julius EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM:The German Colonial Empire LSs

von Zech (1868-1914),successfully resisted the encroach- rubber, cacao,palm oil, and ivory, in that order of signifi- ment of large-scale plantations by land reforms that cance, but it ran continued trade deficits with Germany secured native , intent as they were to protect and and relied heavily on Reich subsidies to finance its admin- foster traditional indigenous farming. Togo also had a istration. Cameroon's territory was divided. between the very high concentration of mission schoolsand the highest French and British following World War I. rate of school attendance and literacy in West Africa. The' Pacific Colonies and Kiaochow. Since the Nevertheless, its economy was dominated by exports of 1860s German Hanseatic traders and merchants had palm nuts and oil (76 percent of exports in 1911),which gained a prominent position in the South Pacific. But only accounted for less than 8 percent of German colonial with British expansion into Fiji in 1874, American domi- trade before World War I. Quite remarkably, Togo was the nance of Hawaii beginning in 1875, and Australian influ- only German colony that was able to bear its own admin- encespreading to New Guinea, concernswere raised about istrative costs. Following World War I, Togo was divided possibleGerman exclusion from this trade, which centered between France and Britain. on copra, coconut oil, cotton, tortoise shell, and mother of Cameroonbecame a Reich protectorate through a treaty pearl. Most prominent in this trade was the Hamburg firm with the Duala peopleon 14 July 1884just days beforeit Johann Cesar Godeffroy & Son Qater Deutsche Handels was to be annexed by the British. This move was made und Plantagen Gesellschaft[German Trade and Plantation in order to secure the interests of the C. Woermann Company, DHPGI), with a sprawling network of coconut Company, a major alcoholic spirits exporter to WestAfrica. and cotton plantations dotted over many islands in the German colonial activities were confined largely to the South Pacific and headquartered in , Samoa, where coastal region with some forays made into the immediate the also had a base. As a result of these southern hinterland resulting in fighting with the Bakoko, interests and the threats posed to them by the warring Bane, and other'peoples, who took years to subdue. factions of Samoa,the.DHPG, supported by the German Indeed, fighting and uprisings of various kinds were a consulate, overthrew the Samoan government in 1887, running theme in Cameroon'scolonial history, and eastern and following a series of negotiations and conferences Cameroon was only indirectly ruled by the Germans. In with the British and Americans, jointly governed the fact, many of the colony's export products such as rubber islands until 1900. In that year Samoa was divided and ivory were collected by native peoples in the ungov- between the Americans and Germans, with Western erned hinterland and carried to the coast. In somecontrast Samoa becoming a German colony. By all accounts the to Togo, however, large plantations came to figure impor- first German governor, (1862-1936), was an tantly in Cameroon's economy with many of the same outstanding administrator who rarely resorted to violence abusesalready enumerated in the discussionof German and did much to bring about reconciliation between East Africa. Worth mentioning here is the West African Samoa's opposing factions. Solf worked to foster indige- Plantation Company Victoria, the single most important nous cash crop production by encouraging coconut cultiva- planter company operating in Cameroon and a favorite tion, restricted the sale of land to white planters, and of the colonial governor (1855- prohibited forced labor on existing plantations. He also 1917), who was a shareholder. With the connivance of sought to protect Samoan cultural integrity by restricting the colonial government, the company systematically permanent immigration of foreign laborers to Samoa. expropriated native lands in the Cameroon highlands, Samoa's main export to Germany was copra, but the destroying village life and removing the natives to reser- Pacific colonies, including Samoa, only accounted for less vations or turning them into plantation laborers subject to than 8.5 percent of Germany's copra imports and as little much coercion and cruelty. Complaints about Puttkamer's as 0.15 percent of Germany'soverall trade in 1909.After abusive and corrupt regime reached a chorus during the World War I, New Zealand administered series of colonial crises that wracked Germany in 1905- as a Leagueof Nations mandate. 1906,and in 1907he was replacedby TheodorSeitz (1863- Around the same time that German influence was grow- 1949).Like his counterpart von Rechenbergin East Africa, ing in Samoa,the New Guinea Consortium Qaterrenamed Seitz tried to accommodate the native population by the New Guinea Company) was formed by the prominent reforming the administration and improving the working German bankers Adolf von Hansemann (1826-1903) conditions of plantation laborers, albeit with only rather and Gerson von Bleichrridei (1822-1893)'-the latter modest success.The primary exports of Cameroonwere Bismarck's private banker-with the aim of developing 136 EMPIREAND IMPERIALISM:The GermanColonial Empire

T,l-ern1. Colonial territories and. their Gerrnan populations, 1g10

Levo lrna (rnousaNo rna[2]) GmrvreN INHABTTAI.ITs

Southwest Africa 835.1 9,283 East Africa 995 2,384 Cameroon 495.6 986 Togo 87.2 300 New Guinea 240 549 Caroline, , Mariana and 2.47 236 Samoa 2.57 270 Kiaochow u.b r,4t2 Total 2,658.44 t5,420

Souncn:Kaiserliches Statistisches Amt, ed., StatistischesJahrbuch ftir dasDeutsche Relch, 1910 (Berlin: Puttkammer & Mrihlbrecht, 1911),p. 396

plantations on the northeastern part of the island of New missionaries was used as a pretext for seizing a base of Guinea. In 1883 this territory was claimed and in the operation in the Bay of Kiaochow centered on the small autumn of 1884 it gained Reich protection. The company port city ofTsing-tao on the Shantung peninsula. Through was given a concessionto administer New Guinea and the negotiation with the Chinese, this territory was then New Britain Archipelago. To this was then added a series leased to Germany for ninety-nine years. Kiaochow, unlike of islands in including the Marshall Islands, the other colonies, was administered by the Imperial which were administered by the Jaluit Company. Nego- Navy, and the Naval Secretary Admiral tiations with the British in 1885 affirmed Germany's (1849-1930)took a specialinterest in it not only as a naval claim over northeastern New Guinea (renamed base but also as a spearhead from which Germany could Wilhelmsland), the New Britain Archipelago (renamed begin to economically penetrate China. It was also to serve the Bismarck Archipelago), and the Marshall Islands. In as a model treaty port demonstrating Germany's superior- 1899 the Caroline, Mariana, and Palau islands were ity over Britain and the other imperial powers. To that end purchased from Spain and added to this sprawling oceanic enormous sums of money were invested into Kiaochow for empire. However, by then the New Guinea Company had such things as modern sewage and water wotks, port fa- failed to developviable plantations in New Guinea produc- cilities, telegraphs, and roads. The German Shantung ing only tensions with the indigenous population over Mining Company and the Railway Company were created Iand and the treatment of plantation workers. Thus the and granted monopoly concessions to develop railway Reich was forced to administer these territories as a colony lines into the interior and open up modern coal mines to starting in 1899. The first governor, Albert Hahl (186& supply Kiaochow and export markets in East Asia. By 1913 1945), addressedthese problems by protecting existing Kiaochow had received some 200 million marks in invest- native land claims, regulating plantation woik, encour- ments and subsidies from the Reich making it by far the aging native cash crop production and improving medical most expensive single colonial project. However, Shantung care and schooling. Before 1914 New Guinea showed Mining remained a loss-making enterprise and the hoped remarkable increases in exports of copra, rubber, gutta- for economic penetration of China by Germany did not percha, and phosphates,but the colony was only ever a materialize. What is more, Germany trailed the Japanese, tiny componentof German overall trade. New Guinea was British, and Americans in terms of their share of exports to seized by Australia during World War I and was adminis- the port of Tsing-tao. Shortly after the outbreak of World tered as a mandate thereafter. War I, Japan occupied Kiaochow. It reverted to Chinese The final part of the German colonial empire vras the rule in 1922. Chinese treaty port of Kiaochow on the Shantung penin- lSeealso Cameroon; Herero Revolt; ; sula. German merchants, traders, and manufacturers had ; SouthwestAfrica; andTanzania.f been much luredby the promise of the China market since its openingin the 1840s.By the 1890sGerman trade with BIBLIOGRAPHY enl. New China exceeded trade with its own colonial possessions Arendt, Hannah The Origins of Totalitarianism.2d ed. York: Meridian, 1958.The first work to draw parallels between and it. began to greatly overshadow the relatively disap- colonial violence and the rise of National Socialism. While some pointing African colonies. In 1897 the killing of German of its claims are problematic, it is stil a very stimulating book. EMPIRE AND IMPERIALISM: EastAsia 137

Bernhardi, Friedrich von. Germany and the Next Wor. Translated Moses,John A., and Paul M. Kennedy, eds.Germany in the Pacific by Alan H. Powles.New York: Longmans,Green, and Co.,1914. and, Far East, ft7a-1914. St. Lucia, Australia: University of English transl atiot of Deutschland.und d.erNiichste Krieg , frrst Queensland Press, 1977. Contains many valuable chapters on published in 1912.Influential statement of the aims of German German imperialism.in China, New Guinea, and the Pacifrc. "world policy" shortly before World War I. Perras, Arne. Carl Peters and German lrnperialism, 1856-1918: Bley, Helmut. South-WestAfrica u.nd,erGerrnan Eule, 1894-1914. A Political Biography. New York: Oxford University Press; Translated by Hugh Ridley. Evanston, IIl.: Northwestern Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003. Avaluable recent biography of University Press, 1971. English translation of. Kolonial- the adventurer and Pan-German nationalist who founded herrschaft und Sozialstru,htur in Deutsch-Stidwestafriha, fitst German East Africa. published in 1968. An important study of the most signifrcant Smith, Woodrtrff D. The German Colonial Empire. Chapel HiIl: German settler colony including arialysis of the causes and University of North Carolina Press, 1978. A very useful and consequencesof the Herero and Nama wars. reliable survey of German colonial history. Bridgman, Jon M. The Reuolt of the Hereros. Berkeley, Los Taylor, A. J. P. Germany's First Bid for Colonies 1884-1885:A Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1981. A Moue in Bismarch's European Policy. New York: W.W. Norton, very useful history of the Herero revolt and its consequences. 1970. A provocative book that argues for the central role of Eley, Geoff. Reshaping the German Right: Radical Nationalism Bismarck's European diplomacy in German colonial expansion. and Political Change After Bismarc&. New Haven, Conn.: Townsend, Mary Evelyn. The Rise and,Fall of Germany's Colonial Yale University Pr-ess,1980, The definitive study of the noisy Empire, 1884-1918.New York: Howard Fertig, 1966.A thor- 's radical nationalists, their impact on ough 's colonial empire. Germany's political culture and influence on policy-making Wildenthal, Lora. German Wornen for Ernpire, 1884-1945. after 1890. Durham, N.C., and london: Duke University Press, 2001. Eley, Geoff, and James Retallack, eds. and lts Leg- Rbvealsthe extent to which German women became materi- acies: German Modernities, Imperialisrn, and the Meanings of ally, politically and intellectually invested in the German Reform, 1890-1930: Essays for Hartmut Pogge uon Strand- colonial empire. rnozn. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003. Contains Enlx Gnrrr,rrranR- SoLEM a number of important contributions on German imperialism and Wilhelmine politics and culture. Fabri, Friedrich. Bedarf Deutschland. der Colonien/Does Germany Need Colonies?Translated, edited, and introduced by E. C. M. Breuning and M. E. Chamberlain. 3d ed. Lewiston, East Asia N.Y.: Edwin Mellen, 1998. English translation of. Bedarf Deutschland, der CoLonien, first published in 1879. One of Before the nineteenth century, East Asia was dominated the most influential tracts written advocating German colonial by the last of a series of powerful land centered expansion abroad. on the Chinese mainland. The Manchu rulers of the Friedrichsmeyer, Sara, Sara Lennox, and Susanne Zantop, eds. The Imperialist Im,agination: German and Its Qing Empire (7644-LgL2) not only conquered the territory Legacy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. controlled earlier by the Chinese (1368- Contains many stimulating chapters on the impact of the 1644) but expanded the borders of the empire to include colonial experienceon , culture, and politics. (now Gall, Lothar. Bisrnarck, the White Reuolutionary. 2 vols. Trans- Manchuria, Mongolia, East Turkestan known as lated by J. A. Underwood. London and Boston: Allen & Unwin, Xinjiang), and . The Qing Empire used a variety of 1986.English translation ofB ismarck: Der weisseReuolutionar, sophisticated ideologies and practices to rule its far-flung first published in 1980.A brilliant study of Bismarck's style of domains and to mediate its relations with its neighbors. politics and the comlrlex of motives driving his bid for colonies. Grimmer-Solem, Erik. "The Professors' Africa: Economists, the The court generally required peoples of the East Asian Elections of 1907, and the Legitimation of German Imperial- coastal region, including Korea, Liuqiu (RyUkyU), and ism." German (2007): History 25, no. 3 313-347. Analyzes the Annam (Indochina), to adhere to a traditional Sinocentric transformation of German imperialist ideology following the colonial crisis of 1906-1907. tribute system, in which the empire's tributaries declared Iliffe, John. Tanganyiha under German Rule, 1905-1912.London: their acceptanceof Qing in return for implied Cambridge University Press, 1"969.An important study of the security guarantees and somedegree of commercial access. colonial administration of German East Africa shortly before World War I. It pacified and governed other areas and borders through Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860- military colonization, utilization oflocal elites, adept use of 1914,Boston and London: Allen & Unwin, 1980. A thorough Buddhist symbolism, and deft diplomacy. Inner Asian analysis of the sources of friction, colonial and other, between peoples such as the Mongols and the Zunghars presented Germany and Britain that led to World War I. Madley, Benjamin. "Patterns of Frontier Genocide 1803-1910: significant challenges to Qing rule, but were ultimately The Aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the co-optedor conquered. Herero of Namibia." Journal of Genocide Rese:arch6, no. 2 The chief land-based competitor to dominance in (June 2004): 167-192. Reveals the common processesat work Qing in the genocidal confrontation between native peoples and Asia was the empire of Tsarist Russia. Russia's eastward settlers over resources. expansion increased the length of its empire's border