Perkins on Wareham, 'Race and Realpolitik: the Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa'

H-German Perkins on Wareham, 'Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa'

Review published on Thursday, April 1, 2004

Evelyn Wareham. Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. 205 pp. $35.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8204-5961-5.

Reviewed by John Perkins (Department of Modern History, Macquarie University) Published on H- German (April, 2004)

The amount of scholarly attention that has been devoted to the German colonial empire is, to this reviewer at least, somewhat surprising. Its existence was brief, from the mid-1880s until (effectively) 1914. The colonies acquired consisted of territories that other imperial countries had no desire to annex. The total area was relatively limited and much of that embraced desert and sparsely populated jungle. Very few Germans were attracted to settle in the colonies acquired. At the peak, on the eve of the First World War, the total was less than forty thousand. Overall, in spite of the parsimonious approach of the German government, the administrative costs of empire considerably exceeded revenue. The trade of Germany with its colonies, at its peak, amounted to less than one per cent of the total.

Several factors have contributed to the significant interest since 1945 in the pre-1914 German empire. They include, particularly evident among Australian scholars and reminiscent of what happened in the interwar era, a reaction against the anti-German attitudes inculcated during World War II. The results have been generally positive as regards German colonialism in the South Pacific. In the Federal Republic of Germany a largely invented nostalgia emerged toward the one-time "protectorates," especially towards those in the Pacific. This development evoked a negative response, mostly among scholars in the former German Democratic Republic and mostly focusing on the colonies in Africa. It might also be suggested that a largely mythical perception of the Pacific Islands has not been without attraction among German academics.

The core of the German colonial empire was in Africa. The remnants were in the Pacific. The United Kingdom reluctantly annexed Papua, in response to Australian pressure, after Germany declared a protectorate over New Guinea in 1884. In 1899 Spain sold Germany the then Carolinas, Marianas and Palau islands, an area of 2,376 square kilometers. After ceding the Philipinnes to the United States as an outcome of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the remnants of Spain's Pacific empire were no longer perceived as viable for such a impoverished European country. Western Samoa was added at the end of 1899, in an agreement ceding the eastern islands, with the strategic port of Pago Pago going to the United States.

The last German colony to be acquired, the islands of Western Samoa, a mere 2,570 square kilometers in extent, never had more than three hundred resident German citizens (around half the total Europeans) and the non-European population was less than forty thousand. The German administration, the focus of this study, never exceeded fifty officials. The islands were not of significance for naval strategy. The Samoans were not easy people to rule, divided as they were into

According to the author, her work, originating in a master's thesis at the Victoria University of Wellington, is an exploration of the influence of German racial theories on the policies pursued by the administration of German Samoa and their role in the tensions within the colony. Neither of these objectives is satisfactorily achieved. It is accepted that theories of race cannot be isolated from the political, social and economic context within which they were generated and that in which the effort was made in this case to apply them. It is further conceded that policy, both in Berlin and in Samoa, was heavily influenced by that of other colonial powers. For German Samoa, for example, the policy implemented by Sir Arthur Gordon in Fiji was an important model. With a significant number of residents of Samoa being "natives" of other imperial powers it would have been difficult for the German colonial officials to pursue quite divergent "native" policies.

The German discourse on race apparently, incorrectly, occurred in isolation from that of the rest of Europe. German theorists probably contributed more than their "fair" share to the "theory." Nevertheless, their conclusions were profoundly influenced by those of other colonial powers, most notably the United Kingdom. The important contribution by German colonial officials in the provision of the empirical evidence for the theories is simply overlooked. Some of the administrators also made significant contributions towards the evolution of "racial science." The text provides no guide as to the extent to which the colonial administrators actually read the tomes of the race theorists. Some of the theoretical work considered appeared years after the debate on the ground had ended. To cite the author in one instance: "Richard Thurwald's [1910 ethnological] study of [racial] capacities to work is a clear example of a type of thinking which informed the initial debate over potential labour supplies for German Samoa, although published seven years after it had concluded" (p. 95).

A notable feature of German colonial praxis was the range of "native" policies adopted. In Southwest Africa it embraced genocide, with the Herero war of 1904-05. In Western Samoa the preservation of the indigenous Polynesian population was at the forefront. To that end strict limits were placed on the alienation of land for European plantations. Communal copra production was encouraged. Wareham views this measure as encouraging integration in the global capitalist economy. Rather it was intended to promote an economy of peasant cultivators, where the market served as a vent for surplus and a medium of necessary exchange. The latter included the necessity to pay the poll-tax as a contribution to the cost of the administration.

By far the best chapter in the book is that devoted to the official policy towards miscegenation. (Here the issue is referred to as that of "half-castes": a term which seems to infer that the progeny resulting from interracial relations were mules as regards their fecundity). Administrators, "theorists" and European residents were divided on the question. Some planters viewed miscegenation involving Samoan women and Chinese males--single men imported as indentured laborers--as "improving" the Samoan race, which essentially meant creating a willingness to work for minuscule wages. For themselves, most planters were led, either by their sexual desires or practical housekeeping concerns, into liaisons with Samoan women, rather than being influenced by "racial theorists." Initially, the colonial administrators adopted the missionary position and endeavored to encourage the sanctification of these liaisons by marriage. The progeny of the relationships were perceived as a

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Perkins on Wareham, 'Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa'. H-German. 09-30-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/reviews/43849/perkins-wareham-race-and-realpolitik-politics-colonisation-german-samoa Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-German problem by the administration. Until 1910 they were officially accepted as "foreigners" (i.e. Europeans), even as German nationals, if they were deemed to be "culturally European." In that era identity was also a problem for the progeny. Readily accepted by the Samoan community, adopting a Samoan identity gave them access to land. On the other hand, as with the "natives" generally, this action denied them access to liquor outlets. For "pure-blooded" Samoans, having a "half-caste" male relative was a useful means of obtaining alcoholic beverages. From 1910 interracial marriage was prohibited and the claim of progeny to European status automatically denied. Prohibitions against them naturally did not change the incidence of interracial liaisons.

For reasons unclear to this reviewer, eleven pages of a relatively slim volume are devoted to the German, and in a few cases French, quotations translated in the text. A sampling by the author convinces that they are worth at least an A+. A useful bibliography is appended. The German and New Zealand archives, along with those of relevant missions have been trawled. The outcome, however, does not add a great deal to the knowledge and interpretation of the history of German Samoa.

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Citation: John Perkins. Review of Wareham, Evelyn,Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa. H-German, H-Net Reviews. April, 2004.URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9155

Copyright © 2004 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at [email protected].