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{{Short description|Colonial empire governed by Germany between 1884 and 1918}}
{{About|colonies of the German Empire|the territories of Nazi Germany|Reichskommissariat|the Templer colonies in Israel|German Colony, Jerusalem{{!}}German Colony}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{native name|de|Deutsches Kolonialreich}}<br>
| conventional_long_name = German colonial empire
| common_name            = German
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
| status                 = [[Colonial empire]]|
| event_start            = [[Berlin Conference|Established]]
| year_start             = 1884
| year_end               = 1920
| event1                 = [[Abushiri revolt]]
| date_event1            = 1888
| event2                 = [[Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty]]
| date_event2            = 1890
| event3                 = [[Adamawa Wars]]
| date_event3            = 1899
| event4                 = [[Herero Wars]]
| date_event4            = 1904
| event5                 = [[Maji Maji Rebellion]]
| date_event5            = 1905
| event6                 = [[Treaty of Versailles]]
| date_event6            = 1919
| image_flag             = Reichskolonialflagge.svg
| flag                   = Colonial flag of Imperial Germany
| image_coat             = Wappen Deutsches Reich - Reichsadler 1889.svg
| symbol                 = Coat of arms of German Empire
| symbol_type            = 
| image_map              = German_colonial.PNG
| image_map_caption      = German colonies and protectorates in 1914
| capital                = [[Berlin]]
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| common_languages       = {{ubl|[[German language|German]]| {{hidden|'''Local:'''|[[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Rwanda-Rundi]] (Burundi, Rwanda, Buha kingdom in Tanzania),[[Papuan language|Papuan]],[[Samoan language|Samoan]] (in [[New Guinea]] and [[Samoa]])
|[[Oshiwambo]], [[Afrikaans]],[[Samoan language|Samoan]] (South West Africa)
|[[Qingdao dialect|Qingdao Chinese]] and [[Mandarin Chinese]] (Tianjin and Kiautschou Bay)|[[Papuan languages]](German New Guinea)|[[Samoan language|Samoan]](German Samoa)|style=font-size:100%;padding:0.25em 0 0; |headerstyle=text-align:left;font-weight:normal;}}}}
| stat_year1             = 1912
| stat_area1             = {{#expr:835100+495000+87200+995000+240000+400+515+2376+2570}}<ref name="Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien" />
| stat_pop1              = 11,979,000<ref name="Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien" />
}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA6369, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Askari.jpg|thumb|upright|An [[German East Africa|East African]] [[Askari]] soldier holding Germany's colonial flag]]

The '''German colonial empire''' ({{lang-de|Deutsches Kolonialreich}}) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the [[German Empire]]. Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was [[Otto von Bismarck]]. Short-lived attempts at [[colonization]] by [[Kleinstaaterei|individual German states]] had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the [[Scramble for Africa]] in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest [[colonial empire]] at the time, after the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Second French colonial empire|French]].<ref>[https://www.welt.de/kultur/article168705897/Diese-deutschen-Woerter-kennt-man-noch-in-der-Suedsee.html Diese deutschen Wörter kennt man noch in der Südsee, von Matthias Heine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019142308/https://www.welt.de/kultur/article168705897/Diese-deutschen-Woerter-kennt-man-noch-in-der-Suedsee.html |date=19 October 2017 }} "Einst hatten die Deutschen das drittgrößte Kolonialreich[...]"</ref> The German colonial empire encompassed parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day [[Burundi]], [[Rwanda]], [[Tanzania]], [[Namibia]], [[Cameroon]], [[Gabon]], [[Republic of the Congo|Congo]], [[Central African Republic]], [[Chad]], [[Nigeria]], [[Togo]], [[Ghana]], as well as northeastern [[New Guinea]], [[Samoa]] and numerous [[Micronesia]]n islands. 

Germany lost control of most of its colonial empire at the beginning of the [[World War I|First World War]] in 1914, but some German forces held out in [[German East Africa]] until the end of the war. After the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|German defeat in World {{nobr|War I}}]], Germany's colonial empire was officially confiscated as part of the [[Treaty of Versailles]] between the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] and German [[Weimar Republic]]. Each colony became a [[League of Nations mandate]] under the administration, although not sovereignty, of one of the Allied powers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Biskup |first1=Thomas |last2=Kohlrausch |first2=Martin |title=Germany 2: Colonial Empire |url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyempire/germany_2_colonial_empire/0 |website=Credo Online |publisher=Credo Reference |access-date=21 April 2019 |archive-date=14 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214095422/https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyempire/germany_2_colonial_empire/0 |url-status=live }}</ref> Talk of regaining the last Kaiser's lost colonies persisted in Germany until 1943, but never became an official goal of the German government.

==Origins==
{{see also|German colonial projects before 1871}}
[[File:GroßFriedrichsburg.JPG|thumb|right|[[Brandenburger Gold Coast|Groß-Friedrichsburg]], a [[Brandenburg]] colony (1683–1717) in the territory of modern [[Ghana]]]]
Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the [[Hanseatic League]]; German emigrants had flowed eastward in the direction of the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] [[Terra Mariana|littoral]], [[History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union|Russia]] and [[Transylvanian Saxons|Transylvania]] and westward to the [[Americas]]; and North German merchants and [[missionaries]] showed interest in overseas engagements.<ref>See [[North German Missionary Society]].</ref> The Hanseatic republics of [[Hamburg]] and [[Bremen]] sent traders across the globe. Their [[trading house]]s conducted themselves as successful ''Privatkolonisatoren'' [independent colonizers], concluding treaties and land purchases in Africa and the [[Pacific]] with chiefs and/or other tribal leaders. These early agreements with local entities later formed the basis for annexation treaties, diplomatic support and military protection by the [[German Empire|German government]].<ref>Washusen, p. 61.</ref>

However, until their [[unification of Germany|1871 unification]], the German states had not concentrated on the development of a navy, and this essentially had precluded German participation in earlier [[imperialism|imperialist]] scrambles for remote [[colony|colonial]] territory. Without a blue-water navy, a would-be colonial power could not reliably defend, supply or trade with overseas dependencies. The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and [[History of German foreign policy|German foreign policy]] up to and including the age of [[Otto von Bismarck]] (1815–1898; in office as Prussian Foreign Minister from 1862 to 1890) concentrated on resolving the "[[German question]]" in Europe and on securing German interests on the continent.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} However, by 1891 the Germans were mostly united under Prussian rule.<ref name="ReferenceA">Biskup, Thomas; Kohlrausch, Martin. "Germany 2: Colonial Empire". Credo Online. Credo Reference.</ref> They also sought a more clear-cut "German" state, and saw colonies as a good way to achieve that.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

=== German Confederation and the Zollverein ===
In the states of the [[German Confederation]] founded in 1815 and the [[Zollverein]] founded in 1834, there was some call from private and economic interests for the establishment of German colonies, especially in the 1840s.<ref>Michael Fröhlich: ''Imperialismus. Deutsche Kolonial- und Weltpolitik 1880–1914.'' dtv, München 1994, {{ISBN|3-423-04509-4}}, pp.&nbsp;18 & 22.</ref> However, governments had no such aspirations. In 1839, private interests founded the {{interlanguage link|German Colonisation Society|de|Deutsche Colonisations-Gesellschaft|lt=Hamburg Colonial Society}}, which sought to purchase the [[Chatham Islands]] east of New Zealand and settle German emigrants there, but [[Great Britain]] had a preexisting claim to the island. [[Hamburg]] relied on the [[Royal Navy]] for its worldwide shipping interests and therefore gave no political support to the Colonial Society.<ref>[[Walter Nuhn]]: ''Kolonialpolitik und Marine. Die Rolle der Kaiserlichen Marine bei der Gründung und Sicherung des deutschen Kolonialreiches 1884–1914''. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 2002, p.&nbsp;27.</ref> The [[Adelsverein|Society for the Protection of German Immigrants to Texas]], established in [[Mainz]] in 1842, sought to expand the German settlements into a colony of "New Germany" ({{lang-de|Neu Deutschland}}). About 7400 settlers were involved. The venture proved a complete failure. There was a constant lack of supplies and land and around half of the colonists died. The plan was definitively ended with the [[annexation of Texas]] by the United States in 1845.<ref name="Germany: 2. Colonial empire"/>

Starting in the 1850s German commercial enterprises spread into areas that would later become German colonies in West Africa, [[East Africa]], the [[Samoan Islands]], the unexplored north-east quarter of [[New Guinea]] with its adjacent islands, the [[Douala]] delta in [[Cameroon]], and the mainland coast across from [[Zanzibar]].<ref>Washausen, p. 67-114; the West and East Africa firms</ref>

=== First state-sponsored colonial venture (1857–1862) ===
In 1857, the Austrian [[frigate]] ''[[SMS Novara (1850)|Novara]]'' departed from [[Triest]] on the Novara Expedition, which aimed to explore and take possession of the [[Nicobar islands]] in the [[Indian Ocean]]. The ''Novara'' arrived at the Nicobars in 1858, but the Austrians did not subsequently lay claim to the islands.
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild134-B0335, Fregatte "Thetis" vor Anker.jpg|thumb|The ''Thetis'', one of the ships of the East Asia Squadron]]
The next state-sponsored attempt to acquire a colony occurred in 1859, when [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]] attempted to claim the island of [[Formosa]] (modern [[Taiwan]]). Prussia had already sought the approval of the [[Second French Empire|French]] Emperor [[Napoleon III]] for the undertaking, since France was also seeking to acquire colonies in East Asia at that time. Since French interests focused on [[Nguyễn dynasty|Vietnam]], not Formosa, Prussia could seek to acquire the island. A Prussian [[Eulenburg expedition|naval expedition]], which departed Germany at the end of 1859, was tasked with concluding trade treaties in Asia for Prussia and the other states of the Zollverein and with occupying Formosa. However, this task was not carried out, due to the limited strength of the expedition forces and because they did not wish to preclude a trade treaty with [[Qing China]]. In a cabinet order of 6 January 1862, the expedition's ambassador, [[Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg]] was "released from carrying out the part of his task concerned with identification of overseas settlements suitable for Prussian settlement."

Despite this, one ship from the expedition, the ''[[HMS Thetis (1846)|Thetis]]'' was sent to [[Patagonia]] in South America to investigate its prospects as a colony, since the Prussian naval command in particular were interested in the establishment of a naval strong point on the South American coast. The ''Thetis'' had already reached [[Buenos Aires]] which the commander of the ship decided to return to Germany due to the exhaustion of the men after the year-long expedition and the need for repairs to the ship.<ref>Lawrence Sondhaus: ''Preparing for Weltpolitik. German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era''. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1997, p.&nbsp;68.</ref>

=== Bismarck's rejection of colonization (1862–1871) ===
[[File:Kamerun Alte Woermann-Faktorei.jpg|thumb|[[Woermann-Linie]] [[Factory (trading post)|factory]] in [[Cameroon]]. From the 1830s, German shipping participated in trade with Africa and established factories there. From the 1850s, trade and plantation agriculture were undertakend by German companies in the [[South Seas]]. Some of these economic enterprises eventually formed the basis for the regions' conversion into German colonies.<ref>[[Percy Ernst Schramm]]: ''Deutschland und Übersee. Der deutsche Handel mit den anderen Kontinenten, insbesondere Afrika, von Karl V. bis zu Bismarck. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rivalität im Wirtschaftsleben''. Georg Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig 1950.</ref>]]
After the [[Second Schleswig War]] in 1864, colonialist societies in Prussia aspired to take possession of the [[Nicobar islands]] which had previously been in [[Denmark|Danish]] possession.<ref>Franz Theodor Maurer: [https://books.google.com/books?id=-V8oAAAAYAAJ&dq=Nikobare&pg=PR4 ''Die Nikobaren: Colonial-Geschichte und Beschreibung nebst motivirtem Vorschlage zur Colonisation dieser Inseln durch Preussen''], Carl Heymanns Verlag, Berlin 1867.</ref> For its part, Denmark unsuccessfully proposed to exchange the [[Danish West Indies]] for some of the lost territory in [[Duchy of Schleswig|Schleswig]] in 1865. In 1866 and then again in 1876, Jamal ul-Azam, Sultan of the [[Sultanate of Sulu|Sulu Islands]], located between [[Borneo]] and the Philippines, offered to place his islands under Prussian and then Imperial German control, but both times he was rebuffed.<ref>Percy Ernst Schramm: ''Deutschland und Übersee. Der deutsche Handel mit den anderen Kontinenten, insbesondere Afrika, von Karl V. bis zu Bismarck. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rivalität im Wirtschaftsleben''. Georg Westermann Verlag, Braunschweig 1950, p.&nbsp;92.</ref> Ahmad ibn Fumo Bakari, the Sultan of [[Wituland]] asked the Prussian traveler {{interlanguage link|Richard Brenner|de}} to establish a Prussian protectorate over his lands, but this request was never considered in Berlin.<ref>[[Hans-Ulrich Wehler]]: ''Bismarck und der Imperialismus.'' fourth edition, dtv, München 1976, {{ISBN|3-423-04187-0}}, pp.&nbsp;367&nbsp;f.</ref>

In the 1867 constitution of the [[North German Confederation]], article 4.1 declared "colonization" as one of the areas under the "oversight of the Confederation", which remained the case in the [[Constitution of the German Empire|Imperial constitution]] established in 1871.

In 1867/8, [[Otto von Bismarck]] dispatched the warship ''[[SMS Augusta|Augusta]]'' to the [[Caribbean]] to show the flag of the North German Confederation. At the personal urging of [[Prince Adalbert of Prussia (1811–1873)|Prince Adalbert]], the commander of the [[North German Federal Navy]], and without Bismarck's knowledge, the commander of the ''Augusta'', {{interlanguage link|Franz Kinderling|de}} conducted negotiations with [[José María Castro Madriz]], President of [[Costa Rica]] with a view to establishing a naval base at [[Puerto Limón]]. Bismarck rejected the acquisition, due to the American [[Monroe Doctrine]]. This desire to avoid antagonising the United States also led him to reject a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] offer to establish a naval base on the Dutch island of [[Curaçao]].<ref>Lawrence Sondhaus: ''Preparing for Weltpolitik. German Sea Power Before the Tirpitz Era''. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1997, p.&nbsp;98.</ref>

In 1868, Bismarck made his opposition to any colonial acquisitions clear in a letter to the Prussian [[Ministry of War (Prussia)|Minister of War]] [[Albrecht von Roon]]:<ref>Michael Fröhlich: ''Imperialismus. Deutsche Kolonial- und Weltpolitik 1880–1914.'' dtv, München 1994, S.&nbsp;32.</ref>
{{Blockquote|On the one hand, the benefits which one might derive from colonies for the Motherland's trade and industry are mostly illusory. Then, the costs which the foundation, maintenance, and especially the establishment of claims to colonies entail very often exceed the utility which the Motherland gets from them, entirely apart from the fact that it is difficult to justify placing significant tax burdens on the whole nation for the benefit of individual commercial and industrial interests. On the other hand, is not sufficiently developed to be able to undertake the task of firmly protecting distant states.}}
He also repeatedly stated "...&nbsp;I am no man for colonies"<ref>Taylor, ''Bismarck. The Man and the Statesman'', p. 215</ref> 
  
The policy of the North German Confederation at this time focussed on the acquisition of individual [[naval base]]s, not colonies. With these it would be able to use [[gunboat diplomacy]] to protect the global trade interests of the Confederation through a kind of informal imperialism. In 1867, it was decided to establish five overseas bases. Accordingly, in 1868, land was bought in [[Yokohama]] in [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] for a German naval hospital, which remained in operation until 1911. In 1869 the "East Asian Station" (''Ostasiatische Station'') was established there by the navy as the first overseas base, with a permanent presence of German warships. Until the German Empire's acquisition of [[Qingdao]] in China as a military port in 1897, Yokohama remained the base of the German fleet in East Asia. It later proved useful following the acquisition of colonies in the Pacific and in [[Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory|Kiaochow]].<ref>Cord Eberspächer: ''Die deutsche Yangtse-Patrouille. Deutsche Kanonenbootpolitik in China im Zeitalter des Imperialismus 1900–1914'', Verlag Dr. Dieter Winkler, Bochum 2004, p.&nbsp;24.</ref>

In 1869, the [[Rhenish Missionary Society]], which had been established in southwestern Africa for several decades asked [[William I, German Emperor|King William of Prussia]] for protection and suggested the establishment of a naval station at [[Walvis Bay]]. William was very interested in this suggestion, but the matter was forgotten following the outbreak of the [[Franco-Prussian War]].<ref>Martha Mamozai: ''Herrenmenschen – Frauen im deutschen Kolonialismus'', Rowohlt, Hamburg 1990, p. 82.</ref>

===Debate and tentative steps under the new German Empire (1871–1878)===
[[File:Kladderadatsch 1884 - Die Südsee ist das Mittelmeer der Zukunft.png|thumb|''Kladderadatsch'' caricature, 1884. Bismarck sits atop the globe, smoking a long pipe and reading a book entitled "Social Reforms", while personifications of Britain, France, Russia, and other nations quarrel below. The title reads "The South Seas are the Mediterranean of the Future" and the caption says "I'm fine with the others keeping themselves busy down there. Then there will finally be peace up here."]]
A French proposal after the Franco-Prussian War to hand over the French colony of [[Cochinchina]] instead of [[Alsace–Lorraine]], was rejected by Bismarck and a majority of the delegates in the North German [[Reichstag (North German Confederation)|Reichstag]] in 1870. After [[German Unification]] in 1871, Bismarck maintained his earlier position. During the 1870s, colonialist propaganda achieved increasing public profile in Germany. In 1873, the {{interlanguage link|African Society in Germany|de|Afrikanische Gesellschaften}} was established, which considered exploration of Africa its main function. In 1878 the foundation of the {{interlanguage link|Central Society for Commercial Geography and Promotion of German Interests Abroad|de|Centralverein für Handelsgeographie und Förderung deutscher Interessen im Auslande}} was established, which sought to acquire colonies for Germany, and in 1881 {{interlanguage link|West German Society for Colonization and Export|de}} was founded, which included the "acquisition of agricultural and commercial colonies for the German Empire" in its founding statute. In 1882, the first {{interlanguage link|Society for German Colonization (1882)|de|Deutscher Kolonialverein (1882)|lt=Society for German Colonization}} was established, which was a [[lobby group]] for colonialist propaganda. In 1887, the competing [[Society for German Colonization]] was established with the goal of actually undertaking colonization. The two societies merged in 1887 into the [[German Colonial Society]]. Generally, four arguments were advanced in favor of the acquisition of colonies:<ref>{{interlanguage link|Winfried Speitkamp|de}}: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, pp.&nbsp;18&nbsp;f.</ref>
* Once developed, colonies would offer [[captive market]]s for German industrial products and thus provide a substitute for the decreasing consumer demand in Germany following the [[Panic of 1873]].
* Colonies would provide a space for the [[German diaspora]], so that they would not be lost to the nation. Since the diaspora had mainly emigrated to English-speaking areas up to this point, the prominent colonialist {{interlanguage link|Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden|de}} held that if they were allowed to leave, the Anglo-Saxon race would irretrievably overtake the German one demographically.
* Germany had, as the theologian {{interlanguage link|Friedrich Fabri|de}} put it, a "cultural mission" to spread its supposedly superior culture across the globe.
* The acquisition of colonies provided a possible solution for the [[Social Question]] – workers would commit themselves to an absorbing national task and abandon [[social democracy]]. Through this and through the emigration of the overly rebellious masses to the colonies the internal unity of the nation would be strengthened.

Moreover, German public opinion in the late-19th century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved full nationhood,<ref>Hartmut Pogge Von Strandmann, "Domestic origins of Germany's colonial expansion under Bismarck." ''Past & Present'' 42 (1969): 140–159. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/650184 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119083026/https://www.jstor.org/stable/650184 |date=19 November 2021 }}</ref> and eventually arrived at an understanding that prestigious African and Pacific colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a [[High Seas Fleet]].{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

Bismarck remained opposed to these arguments and preferred an informal commercial imperialism, in which German companies carried out profitable trade with areas outside Europe and made economic inroads without the occupation of territories or the construction of states.<ref>Hans-Ulrich Wehler: ''Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte'', Vol.&nbsp;3: ''Von der „Deutschen Doppelrevolution" bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1845/49–1914''. C.H. Beck, München 1995, pp.&nbsp;980&nbsp;f.</ref> Bismarck and many deputies in the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|''Reichstag'']] had no interest in making colonial conquests merely to acquire square miles of territory.<ref>
''Reichstag'' deputy [[Friedrich Kapp]] stated in debate in 1878 that whenever there is talk of "colonization" he would recommend to keep pocketbooks out of sight, "even if the proposal is for the acquisition of paradise". [Washausen, p. 58].
</ref>

As a result, the first colonial enterprises abroad were extremely hesitant: a {{interlanguage link|Treaty of Friendship between the German Empire and Tonga|de|Freundschaftsvertrag zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und Tonga}} was signed in 1876, which provided for the establishment of a coal station on the [[Tonga]]n island of [[Vavaʻu]], guaranteeing all usage rights of the specified area to the German Empire, but leaving the King of Tonga's sovereignty untouched.<ref>''[[s:Freundschaftsvertrag zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und Tonga|Freundschaftsvertrag zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und Tonga]]'', Wikisource</ref> No actual colonization occurred. On 16 July 1878, the commander of the [[SMS Ariadne (1871)|SMS ''Ariadne'']], {{interlanguage link|Bartholomäus von Werner|de}} occupied [[Falealili]] and [[Saluafata]] on the [[Samoa]]n island of [[Upolu]] "in the name of the Empire". The German occupation of these places was revoked in January 1879 with the conclusion of a treaty of friendship between the local rulers and Germany.<ref>[[Hermann Joseph Hiery]] ''Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914''. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, p.&nbsp;2.</ref> On 19 November 1878, von Werner established a treaty with the leaders of [[Jaluit Atoll]] and the [[Ralik]] islands of Lebon and Letahalin, granting privileges like the exclusive right to establish a coal station. An official German colony in the [[Marshall Islands]] was only established in 1885.<ref>Norbert Berthold Wagner: ''Die deutschen Schutzgebiete. Erwerb, Organisation und Verlust aus juristischer Sicht''. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2002, pp.&nbsp;94–96.</ref> Von Werner also acquired a harbor on the islands of [[Makada]] and [[Mioko Island|Mioko]] in the [[Duke of York Islands]] in December 1878, which would become a component part of the future protectorate of [[German New Guinea]] in 1884.<ref>Hermann Joseph Hiery: [http://www.neueste.uni-bayreuth.de/VerwNeuguinI.htm Die deutsche Verwaltung Neuguineas 1884–1914] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111131305/http://www.neueste.uni-bayreuth.de/VerwNeuguinI.htm |date=11 January 2014 }}</ref> On 20 April 1879, the commander of the [[SMS Bismarck|SMS ''Bismarck'']], {{interlanguage link|Karl August Deinhard|de}} and the German Consul for the South Seas Islands, Gustav Godeffroy Junior established a treaty of commerce and friendship with "the government" of [[Huahine]], one of the [[Society Islands]], which granted the German fleet the right to anchor at all harbors on the island, among other things.<ref>Hermann Joseph Hiery: ''Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914''. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, pp.&nbsp;3 and 6.</ref>

==Establishment of the empire (1884–1890)==
[[File:Bismarckkolonien.jpg|thumb|Cartoon on Bismarck's colonial policy: "The new [[crinoline]]." The caption reads: "Must I then participate in the fashion? – Have courage, good lady! Even if you are a bit embarrassed by the novel to start with, it will give you a brilliant appearance on the outside." At left in the background, the [[Centre Party (Germany)|German Centrist]] [[Ludwig Windthorst]] is depicted as a governess. Engraving by Gustav Heil for the satirical magazine ''Berliner Wespen'' 13 March 1885]]
Although Bismarck "remained as contemptuous of all colonial dreams as ever",<ref>Crankshaw, ''Bismarck'', p. 395</ref> in 1884, he consented to the acquisition of colonies by the German Empire, in order to protect trade, safeguard raw materials and export-markets and to take advantage of opportunities for capital investment, among other reasons.<ref>Washausen, p. 115</ref> In the very next year Bismarck shed personal involvement when "he abandoned his colonial drive as suddenly and casually as he had started it" – as if he had committed an error in judgment that could confuse the substance of his more significant policies.<ref name="Crankshaw, p. 397">Crankshaw, p. 397.</ref> "Indeed, in 1889, [Bismarck] tried to give [[German South West Africa]] away to the British. It was, he said, a burden and an expense, and he would like to saddle someone else with it."<ref>Taylor, p. 221.</ref>

Following 1884, Germany invaded several territories in Africa: [[German East Africa]] (including present-day [[Burundi]], [[Rwanda]], and the mainland part of [[Tanzania]]); [[German South West Africa]] (present-day [[Namibia]]), [[German Cameroon]] (including parts of present-day [[Cameroon]], [[Gabon]], [[Republic of the Congo|Congo]], [[Central African Republic]], [[Chad]] and [[Nigeria]]); and [[Togoland]] (present-day [[Togo]] and parts of [[Ghana]]). Germany was also active in the Pacific, annexing a series of islands that would be called [[German New Guinea]] (part of present-day [[Papua New Guinea]] and several nearby island groups). The northeastern region of the island of New Guinea was called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland; the Bismarck Archipelago to the islands' east also contained two larger islands named New Mecklenburg and New Pomerania. They also acquired the Northern Solomon Islands. These islands were given the status of protectorate.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

=== Bismarck moves towards a colonial policy (1878–1883)===
The shift in Bismarck's policy on the acquisition of colonies began as part of his 1878 {{interlanguage link|Schutzzollpolitik|de}} policy on the protection of the German economy from foreign competition. The beginning of his colonial policy in connection with the Schutzzollpolitik<ref>Helmut Böhme: ''Probleme der Reichsgründungszeit 1848–1879'', Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln/Berlin 1968, p.&nbsp;346.</ref> was the acquisition of [[Samoa]], where there were significant German economic interests. In June 1879, as [[Chancellor of Germany#Chancellor of the German Reich|Imperial Chancellor]], he acknowledged the "Treaty of Friendship"<ref>Klaus J. Bade: ''Friedrich Fabri und der Imperialismus in der Bismarckzeit'', Atlantis Verlag, Freiburg 1975, p.&nbsp;198.</ref> agreed between the Samoan chiefs and the German consul in Samoa in January 1879, with the result that the consul assumed control of the administration of the city of [[Apia]] on the island of [[Upolu]], along with the consuls of Britain and America.<ref>Hermann Joseph Hiery: ''Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914''. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, pp.&nbsp;649 and 694.</ref> In the 1880s, Bismarck would unsuccessfully attempt to annex Samoa several times.<ref>[[Hermann Joseph Hiery]]: ''Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914''. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, p.&nbsp;695.</ref> The western Samoan islands, which included Apia, the main city, became a German colony in 1899.

In April 1880, Bismarck actively intervened in domestic politics in favor of colonial matters, when he presented the [[Samoa Bill]] to the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]]. It had been endorsed by the [[Bundesrat (German Empire)|Federal Council]], but was rejected by the Reichstag. The bill would have provided German financial support to a private German colonial trade company that had fallen into difficulties.

In May 1880, Bismarck asked the banker [[Adolph von Hansemann]] to produce a report on German colonial goals in the Pacific and the possibility of enforcing them. Hansemann submitted his ''Memorandum on Colonial Aspirations in the South Seas'' to Bismarck in September of the same year. The proposed territorial acquisitions were almost all taken or claimed as colonies four years later.<ref>Hermann Joseph Hiery: ''Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914''. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, pp.&nbsp;2&nbsp;f.</ref> Those Pacific territories that were claimed in 1884 but not taken were finally brought under German colonial administration in 1899. Significantly, Hausemann was a founding member of the [[German New Guinea Company|New Guinea Consortium]] for the acquisition of colonies in [[New Guinea]] and the Pacific in 1882.

In November 1882, the [[Bremen]]-based tobacco merchant [[Adolf Lüderitz]] contacted the [[Federal Foreign Office|Foreign Office]] and requested protection for a trade station south of [[Walvis Bay]] on the southwest African coast. In February and November 1883, he asked the British government whether the United Kingdom would provide protection to Lüderitz's trade station. Both times the British government refused.<ref>Michael Fröhlich: ''Imperialismus. Deutsche Kolonial- und Weltpolitik 1880 bis 1914.'' dtv, München 1994, p.&nbsp;37.</ref>

From March 1883, [[Adolph Woermann]], a [[Hamburg]] bulkgoods trader, shipowner, and member of the [[Hamburg Chamber of Commerce]], engaged in extremely confidential negotiations with the Foreign Office, which was headed by Bismarck, for the acquisition of a colony in [[West Africa]]. The reason for this was the fear of tariffs that Hamburg traders might have to pay if the whole of West Africa were to come under British or French control. Finally a secret request from the Chamber of Commerce to Bismarck for the establishment of a colony in West Africa was submitted to Bismarck on 6 July 1883, stating that "through such acquisitions, German trade in Trans-Atlantic lands could only be given a firmer position and a surer support, while without political protection trade cannot now thrive and progress."<ref>[[Klaus Jürgen Bade]]: ''Friedrich Fabri und der Imperialismus in der Bismarckzeit'', Atlantis Verlag, Freiburg 1975, pp.&nbsp;316–318.</ref>

After this, in March 1883, the [[Sierra Leone Convention]] between the United Kingdom and France was published, in which the two countries' [[sphere of interest|spheres of interest]] were laid out without consideration of other trading nations. In response the German government asked the senates of the cities of [[Lübeck]], Bremen, and Hamburg for their opinions. In their answer, the Hamburg merchants demanded the acquisition of colonies in West Africa. In December 1883, Bismarck let Hamburg known that an Imperial commissioner would be sent to West Africa to secure the safety of German trade and to conclude a treaty with "independent Negro states". A warship, the [[SMS Sophie|SMS ''Sophie'']] would be sent to provide military protection. Additionally, Bismarck requested suggestions on this plan and asked for Adolph Woermann's advice personally on what instructions should be given to the Imperial commissioner. In March 1884, [[Gustav Nachtigal]] was named as the Imperial Commissioner for the West African Coast and set sail for West Africa in the [[SMS Möwe (1879)|SMS ''Möwe'']].<ref>Harry R. Rudin: ''Germans in the Cameroons 1884–1914. A Case Study in Modern Imperialism''. Yale University Press, New Haven 1938, S.&nbsp;34–39.</ref><ref>Kurt Grobecker: ''325 Jahre Handelskammer Hamburg 1665–1990''. Handelskammer Hamburg, Hamburg 1990, S.&nbsp;79–81.</ref>

=== Colonization under Bismarck (1884–1888)===
[[File:Luederitzbay.jpg|thumb|[[Lüderitz Bay]] (around 1900), the first colonial acquisition of the German Empire]]
[[File:SMS OLGA bei der Beschießung von Hickorytown (Duala), Kamerun, Dezember 1884.jpg|thumb|[[SMS Olga|SMS ''Olga'']] during the bombardment of Hickorytown ([[Douala]]), Cameroon, December 1884]]
[[File:Deutsche kolonien 1885.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|German colonies in Africa and Papua New Guinea in 1885]]
The year 1884 marks the beginning of actual German colonial acquisitions, building on the overseas possessions and rights that had been acquired for the German Empire since 1876. In one year, Germany's holdings became the third-largest colonial empire, after the [[British Empire|British]] and [[French colonial empire|French empires]]. Following the British model, Bismarck placed many possessions of German merchants under the protection of the German empire. He took advantage of a period of foreign peace to begin the "colonial experiment", which he remained skeptical of. The transition to official acceptance of colonialism and to colonial government thus occurred during the last quarter of Bismarck's tenure of office.<ref name="Miller, p. 7">Miller, p. 7</ref>

First, Adolf Lüderitz's trading post in the Bay of Angara Pequena ('[[Lüderitz Bay]]') and the surrounding hinterland ('{{interlanguage link|Lüderitzland|de}}') was placed under the protection of the German Empire in April 1884 as [[German South West Africa]]. In July, [[Togoland]] and [[Adolph Woermann]]'s possessions in [[Cameroon]] followed, then the northeastern section of New Guinea ('[[Kaiser-Wilhelmsland]]') and the neighboring islands ('the [[Bismarck Archipelago]]'). In January 1885, the German flag was raised at [[Kapitaï and Koba]] on the west African coast. In February, imperialist and "man-of-action" [[Carl Peters]] accumulated vast tracts of land for his [[Society for German Colonization]], "emerging from the bush with X-marks [affixed by unlettered tribal chiefs] on documents ... for some {{cvt|60000|mi2|disp=flip}} of the Zanzibar Sultanate's mainland property."<ref>Miller, ''Battle for the Bundu'', p. 6</ref> which became [[German East Africa]]. Such exploratory missions required security measures that could be solved with small private, armed contingents recruited mainly in the Sudan and usually led by adventurous former military personnel of lower rank. Brutality, hanging and flogging prevailed during these land-grab expeditions under Peters' control as well as others as no-one "held a monopoly in the mistreatment of Africans",<ref>Miller, p. 10</ref><ref>''German Colonialism: A Short History'', Sebastian Conrad, p. 146, Cambridge University Press, 2012.</ref> and in April 1885, the brothers [[Clemens Denhardt|Clemens]] and [[Gustav Denhardt]] acquired [[Wituland]] in modern [[Kenya]]. With this, the first wave of German colonial acquisitions was largely completed.

The raising of German flags on Pacific islands claimed by [[Restoration (Spain)|Spain]] between August and October 1885 sparked the [[Carolines Question|Carolines Crisis]], in which Germany ultimately backed down.

In October 1885, the [[Marshall Islands]] were also claimed and finally several of the [[Solomon Islands]] in October 1886. In 1888, Germany ended the [[Nauruan Civil War|civil war]] on [[Nauru]] and annexed the island.

====Causes====
The causes of Bismarck's sudden shift to a policy of colonial acquisition remain a matter of controversy among historians. There are two dominant schools of thought: one which focusses on German domestic politics and one which focusses on foreign affairs.

In terms of internal politics, the key aspect is the public pressure which led to the development of a "Colonial fever" (''Kolonialfieber'') among the German populace. Although the colonial movement was not very strong institutionally, it succeeded in bringing its position into the public debate.<ref>[[Horst Gründer]]: ''Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien''. 5. Auflage, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, p.&nbsp;52.</ref> A memorandum authored by Adolph Woermann and sent to Bismarck by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on 6 July 1883 is considered to have been particularly important in this respect.<ref>Horst Gründer: ''"... da und dort ein junges Deutschland gründen". Rassismus, Kolonien und kolonialer Gedanke vom 16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert.'' dtv, München 1999, S.&nbsp;68 u.&nbsp;ö.; Karsten Linne: ''Deutschland jenseits des Äquators? Die NS-Kolonialplanungen für Afrika''. Ch. Links, Berlin 2008, S.&nbsp;12.</ref> The approach of the [[1884 German federal election]] and Bismarck's desire to strengthen his own position and bind the [[National Liberal Party (Germany)|National Liberal Party]], which supported colonialism, to himself, have also been proposed as domestic factors in the adoption of the colonial policy.<ref>Beate Althammer: ''Das Bismarckreich 1871–1890''. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, pp.&nbsp;228&nbsp;f.</ref> [[Hans-Ulrich Wehler]] advanced the [[social imperialism]] thesis, which holds that the colonial expansion served to "divert" social tensions created by economic crisis to the foreign sphere and helped to reinforce Bismarck's authority.<ref>Hans-Ulrich Wehler: ''Bismarck und der Imperialismus''. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 1969; ''Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte'', Vol.&nbsp;3: ''Von der "Deutschen Doppelrevolution" bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1845/49–1914''. C.H. Beck, München 1995, pp.&nbsp;985–990.</ref> The so-called "Crown-prince thesis" holds that Bismarck was attempting to deliberately worsen the German relationship with the United Kingdom before the anticipated succession of the "[[anglophile]]" [[Frederick III, German Emperor|Frederick III]] to the German throne in order to prevent him from instituting liberal English-style policies.<ref>Beate Althammer: ''Das Bismarckreich 1871–1890''. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, pp.&nbsp;229&nbsp;f.</ref>

In terms of foreign policy, the decision to colonize is seen as an extension of the concept of the European [[Balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] to a global context. Participating in the [[Scramble for Africa]] would also reinforce its position as one of the [[Great Power]]s.<ref>Beate Althammer: ''Das Bismarckreich 1871–1890''. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, p.&nbsp;231.</ref> Improving relations with France through a "colonial entente" that would divert French attention from [[revanchism]] related to [[Alsace-Lorraine]], which had been annexed by Germany in 1871, has also been seen as a motive.<ref>[[Horst Gründer]]: ''Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien'', fifth edition, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, p.&nbsp;55.</ref>

==== Company land acquisitions and stewardship====
It is no longer believed that the initiation of colonial expansion represented a radical reversal of Bismarck's politics. The liberal-imperialist ideal of an overseas policy grounded in private economic initiatives, which he had held from the beginning, was not changed much by placing German merchants' possessions under the protection of the Empire.<ref>Hans-Ulrich Wehler: ''Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte'', Vol.&nbsp;3: ''Von der „Deutschen Doppelrevolution" bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges 1845/49–1914''. C.H. Beck, München 1995, p.&nbsp;985; Gründer 2004, p.&nbsp;58&nbsp;f.; [[Sebastian Conrad]]: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Beck, München 2008, p.&nbsp;23.</ref>

[[File:Kongokonferenz.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Berlin Conference (1884)|Congo conference]] 1884/1885 in Berlin laid the basis for the [[Scramble for Africa]], the colonial division of the continent.]]
As Bismarck was converted to the colonial idea by 1884, he favored "chartered company" land management rather than establishment of colonial government due to financial considerations.<ref>Washausen, p. 116</ref> He used official letters of protection to transfer the commerce and administration of individual "German protectorates" to private companies. The administration of these areas was assigned to the [[German East Africa Company]] (1885–1890), the German Witu Company (1887–1890), the [[German New Guinea Company]] (1885–1899), and the {{interlanguage link|Jaluit-Gesellschaft|de|Jaluit Company}} in the Marshall Islands (1888–1906). Bismarck would have liked the [[German West Africa|German colonies in west Africa]] and [[German South West Africa|southwest Africa]] to be administered in this way as well, but neither the {{interlanguage link|Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwestafrika|de|German Colonial Society for South West Africa}} nor the Syndicate for West Africa<ref>[[Wolfgang J. Mommsen]]: ''Das Ringen um den nationalen Staat. Die Gründung und der innere Ausbau des Deutschen Reiches unter Otto von Bismarck 1850 bis 1890''. Vol. 7, Part 1, Propyläen, Berlin 1993, {{ISBN|3-549-05817-9}}, p.&nbsp;523.</ref> were willing to take on the role.

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-003030, Togo, Baumwoll-Transport.jpg|thumb|Cotton transport in Togo, c. 1900. Coffee, cacao, cotton, and products from the [[coconut palm]] were pretty much the only goods produced for the German and international markets in Togo, as in the other German tropical colonies.]]
These areas were brought into German possession with extremely [[unequal treaty|unequal treaties]] following demonstrations of military power. Indigenous rulers ceded vast areas, which they often had no legal claim to, in exchange for vague promises of protection and laughably low purchase prices. Details of the treaties often remained unclear to them due to the language barrier. They engaged with these deals, however, because the long negotiations with the colonizers and the ritual act of signing a treaty enormously enhanced their authority. These treaties were approved by the German government, which granted complete authority without oversight to the colonial companies, while retaining for itself only ultimate [[sovereignty]] and a few unspecified rights to intervene. In this way, state financial and administrative engagement with the colonies was kept to a minimum.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p.&nbsp;26–30.</ref>

However, this strategy failed within a few years. The poor financial situation of almost all of the "protectorates" as well as the precarious security situation (indigenous revolts broke out in South West Africa and East Africa in 1888, while in Cameroon and Togo border conflicts with the neighboring British colonies were feared, and in general the demands of efficient administration overwhelmed the colonial companies) compelled Bismarck and his successors to implement direct and formal rule in all the colonies.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, pp.&nbsp;30–35.</ref>

Although temperate zone cultivation flourished, the demise and often failure of tropical low-land enterprises contributed to changing Bismarck's view. He reluctantly acquiesced to pleas for help to deal with revolts and armed hostilities by often powerful [[Sultan of Zanzibar|rulers]] whose lucrative slaving activities seemed at risk. German native military forces initially engaged in dozens of punitive expeditions to apprehend and punish freedom fighters, at times with British assistance.<ref>Miller, p. 9</ref> The author Charles Miller offers the theory that the Germans had the handicap of trying to colonize African areas inhabited by aggressive tribes,<ref>once the military command was able to harness this aggressiveness through training, the German Askari forces of the ''[[Schutztruppe]]'' demonstrated that fierce spirit in their élan and war time performance [Miller, p. 28]</ref> whereas their colonial neighbors had more docile peoples to contend with. At that time, the German penchant for giving muscle priority over patience contributed to continued unrest. Several of the African colonies remained powder kegs throughout this phase (and beyond).<ref name="Miller, p. 7"/>

===Halt to colonial acquisitions (1888–1890)===
After 1885, Bismarck opposed further colonial acquisitions and maintained his policy focus on maintaining good relationships with the Great Powers of England and France. In 1888, when the journalist [[Eugen Wolf]] urged him to acquire further colonies for Germany, so that it would not fall behind in the [[Scramble for Africa|scramble]] with the other Great Powers for colonies, which he understood in a [[Social Darwinism|social Darwinian]] sense, Bismarck replied that his priority was rather the protection of the recently won national unity, which he considered to be under threat due to Germany's central location:<ref>Hans-Ulrich Wehler: ''Bismarck und der Imperialismus'', fourth ed, München 1976, p.&nbsp;423&nbsp;f.</ref>
{{Blockquote|Your map of Africa is very pretty, but my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, here is France, and we are in the middle. That is my map of Africa.}}

In 1889, Bismarck considered withdrawing Germany from colonial policy, wishing to entirely end Germany's activities in East Africa and Samoa, according to eyewitnesses. It was further reported that Bismarck wanted nothing more to do with the administration of the colonies and intended to hand them over to the admiralty. In May 1889, Bismarck offered to sell the German possessions in Africa to the Italian Prime Minister, [[Francesco Crispi]] – who countered with an offer to sell [[Italian Empire|Italy's colonies]] to Germany.<ref>Hans-Ulrich Wehler: ''Bismarck und der Imperialismus'', fourth ed., München 1976, pp.&nbsp;408, n.&nbsp;2.</ref>

Bismarck also found the colonies useful as bargaining chips. Thus, at the [[Congo Conference]] held in Berlin from 1884 to 1885, he divied Africa up between the Great Powers. In 1884, a treaty was concluded in the name of Lüderitz with the [[Zulu Kingdom|Zulu]] king [[Dinuzulu]], which would have given Germany a claim to [[St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal|St Lucia Bay]] in Zululand. However, the claim was dropped as part of a concession to Britain in May 1885,<ref>[http://www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905/A/Santa+Luc%C4%ABa Santa Lucīa], in: ''Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon''. Band 17, Leipzig 1909, p.&nbsp;587.</ref> along with a claim to [[EmaMpondweni|Pondoland]]. Also in 1885, Germany waived its claim to the west African territories of [[Kapitaï and Koba]] and [[Mahinland]], in favor of France and Britain respectively. In 1886, Germany and Britain agreed on the boundaries of their spheres of interest in East Africa.

After Bismarck had ended the policy of colonial acquisition in March 1890, he concluded the [[Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty]] with Britain on 1 July 1890, in which Germany renounced all remaining claims north of German East Africa. In this way, he established a balance with Great Britain. Renouncing the [[German attempts to colonise the Somali Coast|German claims to the Somali coast]] between [[Burgabo]] and [[Alula, Somalia|Alula]] also improved relations with Italy, one of Germany's partners in the [[Triple Alliance (1882)|Triple Alliance]]. In exchange for this, Germany acquired the [[Caprivi Strip]], which extended German South West Africa east to the [[Zambezi River]] (it was hoped that the river would enable overland transport between German South West Africa and German East Africa). In these circumstances, further German colonial aspirations in South East Africa were brought to an end.<ref>Horst Gründer: ''Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien''. 5. Auflage, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, {{ISBN|3-8252-1332-3}}, pp.&nbsp;80&nbsp;f.</ref>

German interest in African colonies was accompanied by a growth of scholarly interest in Africa. In 1845, the orientalist [[Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer]] of [[Leipzig University]] and others founded the [[Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft]]. The linguist [[Hans Stumme]], also of Leipzig, researched African languages. Leipzig established a professorship of Anthropology, Ethnography, and Pre-history in 1901 ([[Karl Weule]], who established an ethnological and [[biological determinism|biological determinist]] school of African research) and a professorship for "Colonial geography and colonial policy" in 1915. The researcher [[Hans Meyer (geographer)|Hans Meyer]] was director of the "Institute for Colonial Geography". In 1919, the Seminar for Colonial geography and colonial policy" was established.<ref>[https://www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de/institut-fuer-afrikastudien/institut/geschichte/ www.gkr.uni-leipzig.de]</ref>

== The empire under Kaiser Wilhelm (1890–1914)==
Kaiser [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]] (1888–1918) was keen for Germany to expand its colonial holdings. Bismarck's immediate successor in 1890, [[Leo von Caprivi]], was willing to maintain the colonial burden of what already existed, but opposed new ventures.<ref>Washausen, p. 162</ref> Others who followed, especially [[Bernhard von Bülow]], as foreign minister and chancellor, sanctioned the acquisition of further Pacific Ocean colonies and provided substantial treasury assistance to existing protectorates to employ administrators, commercial agents, surveyors, local "peacekeepers" and tax collectors. This accorded with the expansionistic policy and a forced upgrade of the [[Imperial German Navy]]. Colonial acquisition became a serious factor in German domestic politics. The German colonial society was joined in 1891 by the extremely nationalistic [[Pan-German League]]. In addition to the arguments previously made in support of colonialism, it was now argued that Germany had a duty to end the [[Indian Ocean slave trade|slave trade]] in the colonies and free indigenous people from their Muslim enslavers. These [[abolitionist]] demands, with their clear anti-Muslim bias turned the 1888 "[[Abushiri revolt|Arab revolt]]" on the East African coast into a [[holy war]].<ref>Horst Gründer: "'Gott will es'. Eine Kreuzzugsbewegung am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts," ''[[Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht]]'' 28 (1977), pp.&nbsp;210–224.</ref> Pre-eminent, however, was the matter of German national prestige and the belief that Germany was locked in a [[Social Darwinist]] competition with the other Great Powers, in which Germany as a "late-comer" had to claim her due share.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, S.&nbsp;35&nbsp;f.</ref>

Wilhelm himself lamented his nation's position as colonial followers rather than leaders. In an interview with [[Cecil Rhodes]] in March 1899 he stated the alleged dilemma clearly: "...&nbsp;Germany has begun her colonial enterprise very late, and was, therefore, at the disadvantage of finding all the desirable places already occupied."<ref>Louis (1963), ''Ruanda-Urundi'', p. 163</ref> Under the new [[Weltpolitik]] ("Global policy"), a "place in the Sun" was sought for the "latecoming nation" (as the chancellor [[Bernhard von Bülow]] put it in a speech to the Reichstag on 6 December 1897), which entailed the possession of colonies and a right to have a say in other colonial matters.<ref>Michael Fröhlich: ''Imperialismus. Deutsche Kolonial- und Weltpolitik 1880–1914'', dtv, München 1994, S.&nbsp;73–88.</ref> This policy focussed on national prestige sharply contrasted with the pragmatic colonial policy advanced by Bismarck in 1884 and 1885.

===Acquisitions after 1890===
[[File:Lange diercke sachsen asien tsingtau.jpg|thumb|The German leased territory of [[Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory|Kiautschou]] and the port of [[Qingdao]]]]
After 1890, Germany succeeded in acquiring only relatively minor territories. In 1895, [[Concession (contract)|concessions]] were acquired from [[Qing China]] in Hankau and Tientsin (modern [[Wuhan]] and [[Tianjin]]). Following the [[Juye Incident]] of 1 November 1897, in which two German missionaries from the [[Society of the Divine Word]] were murdered, Kaiser Wilhelm dispatched the [[East Asia Squadron]] to occupy [[Jiaozhou Bay]] and its chief port Qingdao on the southern coast of the [[Shandong peninsula]].{{sfnb|Esherick|1988|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jVESdBSMasMC&pg=PA363 123]}}{{dubious|reason=Wilhelm in no way authorized the seizure, Diederichs was very much exceeding his orders when he seized Qingdao|date=September 2023}} This became the [[Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory]] and the area within 50&nbsp;km of Jiaozhou Bay became a "Neutral Zone" in which Chinese sovereignty was limited in favor of Germany. Furthermore, Germany received mining and railway concessions in [[Shandong]] province.
[[File:German_new_guinea_1888_1899.png|thumb|Borders of [[German New Guinea]] before (in blue) and after (in red) the [[German–Spanish Treaty (1899)|1899 German-Spanish treaty]]]]
Through the [[German–Spanish Treaty (1899)|German–Spanish Treaty of 1899]], Germany acquired the [[Caroline Islands]], [[Mariana Islands]], and [[Palau]] in [[Micronesia]] for 17 million [[German gold mark|gold mark]]s. Through the [[Tripartite Convention]] of 1899, the west part of the [[Samoan islands]] became a German protectorate. Simultaneously, the control of existing colonies was extended inland; for example the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Burundi|Burundi]] and [[Kingdom of Rwanda|Rwanda]] were added to German East Africa.<ref>Helmut Strizek: ''Geschenkte Kolonien. Ruanda und Burundi unter deutscher Herrschaft.'' Ch. Links, Berlin 2006, {{ISBN|3-86153-390-1}}.</ref> However, from 1891, German efforts in this regard encountered sharp resistance in the [[Bafut Wars]] in Cameroon and the conflict with the [[Hehe people|Hehe]] in East Africa

On 6 March 1901, as part of preparatory work by the [[Reichspost|Imperial postal service]] for laying a German [[Submarine communications cable|underwater telegraph cable]], the colonial official {{interlanguage link|Arno Senfft|de}} took possession of [[Sonsorol]] island. The next day, he also claimed the islands of [[Merir]] and [[Pulo Anna]], followed on 12 April by the island of [[Tobi (island)|Tobi]] and the [[Hatohobei#Helen Reef|Helen Reef]]. These islands were placed under the administration of German New Guinea.<ref name="MacLeod">Roy M. MacLeod, Milton James Lewis: Disease, medicine, and empire: Perspectives on western medicine and the experience of the european expansion, 1988, {{ISBN|0-415-00685-6}}</ref>

In 1900, the Imperial Navy attempted to lease the island of [[Langkawi]] from the [[Sultan of Kedah]] for fifty years through the [[Behn Meyer]] company, based in [[Singapore]]. The deal fell through when the British government intervened based on a secret 1897 treaty with [[Siam]] which gave England the right to veto any Siamese concessions to a third power, so Kedah, which was a vassal of the Bangkok government, was prevented from loaning Langkawi to the German government.<ref>Khoo Salma Nasution: ''More than Merchants: A History of the German-speaking Community in Penang, 1800s–1940s''. Areca Books, Penang 2006, pp.&nbsp;70–71.</ref><ref>Tom Marks: ''The British Acquisition of Siamese Malaya (1896–1909)''. White Lotus, Huay Yai 1997, pp.&nbsp;25, 26, 33.</ref> The Kaiser's attempt to acquire the [[Baja California peninsula]] from Mexico as another naval base for the German fleet in the Pacific also failed.<ref>[[Barbara W. Tuchman]]: ''The Zimmermann Telegramm''. Ballantine Books, New York 1985, {{ISBN|0-345-32425-0}}, pp.&nbsp;27&nbsp;f.</ref>
[[File:Cameroon border changes.svg|thumb|{{legend|#FED0D0|Kamerun, annexed to French Cameroon}}{{legend|#CEFEF2|Kamerun, annexed to British Northern Cameroons}}{{legend|#F6D3A9|Kamerun, annexed to British Southern Cameroons}}{{legend|#f8a30c|Neukamerun, annexed to French Equatorial Africa}}{{legend|#3CE67B|Kamerun, annexed to French Chad}}]]
During the [[Agadir Crisis]] in 1911, the German government attempted to get the whole of [[French Congo]] as compensation for German recognition of the [[French protectorate in Morocco]]. In the end they were given parts of northwestern French Congo, which were added to German Cameroon and dubbed [[Neukamerun]]. This acquisitive German colonial policy led to the increasing isolation of Germany among the Great Powers, seen in Germany as an "encirclement".<ref>[[Klaus Hildebrand]]: ''Deutsche Außenpolitik 1871–1918'' (= ''Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte'', Vol.&nbsp;2). Oldenbourg, München 1989, pp.&nbsp;35–38.</ref>

For the academic development of the colonies, the {{interlanguage link|Kolonialwirtschaftliches Komitee|de|Colonial Academic Committee}} was established in 1896. In 1898, the {{interlanguage link|Deutsche Kolonialschule für Landwirtschaft, Handel und Gewerbe|de|German Colonial School for Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce}} was established in [[Witzenhausen]], to provide agricultural training to people for settlement in the colonies. It is now part of the [[University of Kassel]]. In 1900, the [[Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine|Institute for Naval and Tropical Medicine]] was established in Hamburg to train naval and colonial doctors.

Of the German colonies, only [[Togoland]] and [[German Samoa]] became profitable and self-sufficient; the balance sheet for the colonies as a whole revealed a fiscal net loss for Germany.<ref>Haupt, ''Deutschlands Schutzgebiete'', p. 85</ref> Despite this, the leadership in [[Berlin]] committed the nation to the financial support, maintenance, development and defense of these possessions.

=== Anticolonial Resistance (1897–1905) ===
{{Main|Herero Wars|Maji-Maji Rebellion}}
The forcefulness with which the German colonial rulers imposed their claim to control led to ever more revolts by the indigenous population.<ref>[[Fabian Klose]]: [https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/postkolonialismus-und-globalgeschichte/219134/koloniale-gewalt-und-kolonialkrieg ''Koloniale Gewalt und Kolonialkrieg''], [[Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung]], 2016 (accessed on 20 January 2021).</ref> The native population was forced into unequal treaties by the German colonial governments. This led to the local tribes and natives losing their influence and power and eventually forced some of them to become [[Slavery|slave]] laborers. The result was several military and genocidal campaigns by the Germans against the natives.<ref>[[Hull, Isabel V.]], ''Absolute destruction: military culture and the practices of war in Imperial Germany'', pp 3ff.</ref> Both the colonial authorities and settlers were of the opinion that native Africans were to be a lower class, their land seized and handed over to settlers and companies, while the remaining population was to be put in reservations; the Germans planned to make a colony inhabited predominantly by whites: a "new African Germany".<ref>A. Dirk Moses, ''Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History'', p. 301</ref>

Since the Germans were materially and technologically superior but had only a minimal military presence, the indigenous peoples largely adopted [[guerrilla]] tactics. The German colonial forces reacted similarly to other cases of [[asymmetric warfare]] involving colonial powers: they waged war against the whole population. In a [[scorched earth]] strategy, they destroyed villages, prevented economic activity, and withheld any protection against wild animals. Through these actions, they forced the population to flee into inhospitable regions, where many starved to death. Through this conscious strategy, the Germans caused lasting changes to the whole landscape, making it uninhabitable for decades.<ref>Susanne Kuß, "Kolonialkriege und Raum." ''[[Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift]]'' 73, Heft 2 (2015), S. 333–348, hier S. 338–341 (via [[De Gruyter]] Online).</ref>

The most significant of these actions against local populations were reprisals against the Chinese following the [[Boxer Rebellion]] in 1901–1902,<ref>Cohen, Paul A. ''History in Three Keys: The Boxers As Event, Experience, and Myth'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0231106505}} (1997), pp. 185–185</ref> the [[Herero and Namaqua genocide]] in 1904–1905, and the suppression of the [[Maji Maji Rebellion]] in 1905–1907.
[[File:Herero and Nama prisoners.jpg|thumb|A photograph of chained [[Herero people|Herero]] and [[Nama people|Nama]] prisoners during [[Herero and Namaqua genocide|the genocide]]]]
[[File:Wilhelm Kuhnert Schlacht bei Mahenge 2.jpg|thumb|"Battle of Mahenge", [[Maji-Maji rebellion]], painting by [[Friedrich Wilhelm Kuhnert]], 1908]]
After the outbreak of a cattle disease in South West Africa in 1897, the [[Herero people|Herero]] spread their surviving cattle out over the area of the colony. However, these new pastures had been bought by settlers, who now claimed the Herero's cattle for themselves. In 1904, the situation finally escalated into the revolt of the Herero and the [[Nama people|Nama]], which the understaffed [[Imperial Schutztruppe for German South West Africa]] were not able to quell. The German government therefore dispatched a naval expeditionary force and subsequently reinforcement Schutztruppe. In total, around 15,000 men under Lieutenant-general [[Lothar von Trotha]] defeated the Herero forces in August 1904 at the [[Battle of Waterberg]]. Von Trotha issued the so-called "extermination order" (''Vernichtungsbefehl''), under which the surviving Herero were driven into the wilderness. 1800 of the survivors had reached British [[Bechuanaland Protectorate|Bechuanaland]] by the end of November 1904, while thousands more fled to the northernmost parts of South West Africa, and into the desert. The Herero population is estimated at 50,000, of which around half had died by 1908.<ref>[[Bartholomäus Grill]]: [http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-145210842.html ''Kolonialgeschichte: Gewisse Ungewissheiten''], in: [[Der Spiegel]], 11 June 2016.</ref> The Nama suffered 10,000 deaths, also around half of their population. They had fought on the German side against the Herero until the end of 1904.<ref>Sebastian Conrad: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. second edition, Beck, München 2012, p.&nbsp;53.</ref> This was the first [[genocide]] of the 20th century.<ref>Jürgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller (ed.): ''Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Der Kolonialkrieg (1904–1908) in Namibia und seine Folgen.'' Links, Berlin 2003, {{ISBN|3-86153-303-0}}.</ref><ref>Tilman Dedering: "The German-Herero War of 1904: Revisionism of Genocide or Imaginary Historiography?" ''Journal of Southern African Studies'', Vol. 19, No. 1, 1993, p. 80.</ref><ref>Dominik J. Schaller: "'Ich glaube, dass die Nation als solche vernichtet werden muss': Kolonialkrieg und Völkermord in 'Deutsch-Südwestafrika' 1904–1907", ''Journal of genocide research'', Vol. 6, 2004 {{ISSN|1462-3528}}, pp. 395–430, at p. 385, [[doi:10.1080/1462352042000265864]].</ref><ref>Reinhart Kößler, [[Henning Melber]]: "Völkermord und Gedenken. Der Genozid an den Herero und Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904–1908". In [[Irmtrud Wojak]], Susanne Meinl (edd.): ''Völkermord. Genozid und Kriegsverbrechen in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts'' (=&nbsp;''Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust''. Vol. 8). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 37–76.</ref>

The Maji-Maji rebellion broke out in German East Africa in 1905/6 and its suppression led to an estimated 100,000 native deaths, many from famine resulting from German [[scorched earth]] tactics.

The lack of any true war in Togoland led some in Europe to call it Germany's "model colony."<ref name="Lauman, Dennis 2003"/> But it saw its own share of bloodshed. The Germans used forced labor and harsh punishment to keep the Africans in line.<ref name="Lauman, Dennis 2003">Lauman, Dennis (2003). "A Historiography of German Togoland, or the Rise and Fall of a "Model Colony". ''History in Africa''. 30: 195–211.</ref>

To minimize dissent the German Colonial Press Law (written 1906–1912) kept the pugnacious settler press under control with censorship and prohibition of unauthorized publications. However, in Togoland, African writers avoided the law by publishing critical articles in the adjacent British Gold Coast Colony. In the process they built an international network of sympathizers.<ref>Jeremy Sarkin, and Carly Fowler, "Reparations for Historical Human Rights Violations: The International and Historical Dimensions of the Alien Torts Claims Act Genocide Case of the Herero of Namibia." ''Human Rights Review'' 9.3 (2008): 331–360.</ref> Exposés followed in the print media throughout Germany of the [[Herero people|Herero]] rebellions in 1904 in [[German South West Africa]] ([[Namibia]] today) where in [[Herero Wars|military interventions]] between 50% and 70% of the Herero population perished, known as the [[Herero and Namaqua Genocide]].<ref>Sarkin, Jeremy, and Carly Fowler. "Reparations for Historical Human Rights Violations: The International and Historical Dimensions of the Alien Torts Claims Act Genocide Case of the Herero of Namibia." Human Rights Review 9.3 (2008): 331–360.</ref> The subduing of the Maji Maji uprising in German East Africa in 1905 was prominently published. The rejection of a supplementary budget to provide further funding for colonial conflicts at the end of 1906 led to the dissolution of the Reichstag and new elections.<ref>Gründer 2004, S.&nbsp;241.</ref> "A wave of anti-colonial feeling began to gather momentum in Germany" and resulted in large voter turnouts in the so-called "[[1907 German federal election|Hottentot election]]" for the ''Reichstag'' in January 1907.<ref name="Miller, p. 19">Miller, p. 19.</ref> The conservative Bülow government barely survived, but in January 1907 the newly-elected ''Reichstag'' imposed a "complete overhaul" upon the colonial service.<ref name="Miller, p. 19"/>

=== New colonial policies (1905–1914) ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2007-0013, Reise Bernhard Dernburgs duch Deutsch-Ostafrika.jpg|thumb|German Colonial Secretary Bernhard Dernburg (2nd from right) on an inspection tour in East Africa, with British officials at [[Nairobi]] in 1907]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA0371, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Daressalam, Hafen Panorama.jpg|thumb|Port of [[Dar es Salaam]], German East Africa, c. 1910]]
As a result of the colonial wars in South West Africa and East Africa, which had been caused by poor treatment of native peoples, it was considered necessary to change the German colonial administration, in favor of a more scientific approach to the employment of the colonies that improved the lives of the people in them. Therefore, the highest authority in colonial administration, the Colonial Department (''Kolonialabteilung'') was separated from the [[Federal Foreign Office#Wilhelm II|Foreign Office]] and, in May 1907, it became its own ministry, the [[Imperial Colonial Office]] (''Reichskolonialamt'').
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 137-039348, Tsingtau, Deutsche Bauten.jpg|thumb|Tsingdao with German buildings, {{circa| 1900}}]]
The creator of the new colonial policy was a successful banker and private-sector [[restructuring|restructurer]], [[Bernhard Dernburg]] from [[Darmstadt]], who was placed in charge of the Colonial Department in September 1906 and retained the role as Secretary of State of the revamped Colonial Office until 1910. Entrenched incompetents were screened out and summarily removed from office and "not a few had to stand trial. Replacing the misfits was a new breed of efficient, humane, colonial civil servant, usually the product of Dernburg's own creation, the ... Colonial Institute at Hamburg."<ref name="Miller, p. 20">Miller, p. 20</ref> In African protectorates, especially [[Togoland]] and [[German East Africa]], "improbably advanced and humane administrations emerged."<ref name="Garfield, p. 83">Garfield, ''The Meinertzhagen Mystery'', p. 83</ref> Dernburg went on tours of the colonies, to learn about their problems first-hand and find solutions. Capital investments by banks were secured with public funds of the imperial treasury to minimize risk. Dernburg, as a former banker, facilitated such thinking; he saw his commission to also turn the colonies into paying propositions. He oversaw large-scale expansion of infrastructure. Every African protectorate built rail lines to the interior.<ref>Miller, p. 23, German East Africa [[Usambara Railway]] and [[Central Line (Tanzania)|Central Railway]]; Haupt, p. 82, Togoland coast line and ''Hinterlandbahn''; Haupt, p. 66, Kamerun northern and main line; Haupt, p. 56, map of rail lines in German South West Africa</ref> [[Dar es Salaam]] evolved into "the showcase city of all of tropical Africa,"<ref name="Miller, p. 22"/> [[Lomé]] grew into the "prettiest city in western Africa",<ref>Haupt, p. 74</ref> and Qingdao in China was, "in miniature, as German a city as [[Hamburg]] or [[Bremen]]".<ref>Haupt, p. 129</ref> Whatever the Germans constructed in their colonies was made to last.<ref name="Miller, p. 22">Miller, p. 22</ref> Scientific and technical institutions for colonial purposes were established or expanded, in order to develop the colonies on these terms. Two of these, the [[Hamburg Colonial Institute]] and the German Colonial School are predecessor organizations of the modern universities of Hamburg and Kassel.

Dernburg declared that the indigenous population in the protectorates "was the most important factor in our colonies" and this was affirmed by new laws and initiatives.<ref name="Miller, p. 20"/> [[Corporal punishment]] was abolished. Every colony in Africa and the Pacific established the beginnings of a public school system,<ref>Miller, p. 21, school system in German East Africa; Garfield, p. 83, "hundreds of thousands of African children were in school"; Schultz-Naumann, p. 181, school system and Chinese student enrollment in Kiautschou; Davidson, p. 100, New Zealand building on the German educational infrastructure</ref> and every colony built and staffed hospitals.<ref>Miller, p. 68, German East Africa, Tanga, shelling of hospital by HMS ''Fox''; Haupt, p. 30, photograph of Dar es Salaam hospital; Schultz-Naumann, p. 183, Qingdao European and Chinese hospital; Schultz-Naumann, p. 169, Apia hospital wing expansion to accommodate growing Chinese labor force</ref> In some colonies, native agricultural holdings were encouraged and supported.<ref>Lewthwaite, pp. 149–151, in Samoa "German authorities implemented policies to draw [locals] into the stream of economic life", the colonial government enforced that native cultivable land could not be sold; Miller, p. 20, in German East Africa "new land laws sharply curtailed expropriation of tribal acreage" and "African cultivators were encouraged to grow cash crops, with technical aid from agronomists, guaranteed prices and government assistance in marketing the produce."</ref> In January 1909, Derburg said "The goal must be colonies closely bound to the Fatherland, administratively independent, intellectually self-sufficient, and healthy."
[[File:Bahnhof Lüderitz.jpg|thumb|Railway station (1914) in [[Lüderitz]], Namibia, pictured in 2006]]
[[Wilhelm Solf]], who was Colonial Secretary from 1911 until 1918, also undertook tours in Africa in 1912 and 1913. The resulting impressions informed his colonial plans, which included an expansion of the powers of the governors and a ban on [[forced labor]] for Africans.<ref name="Miller, p. 20"/> As governor of Samoa, he had referred to the islanders as "''unsere braunen Schützlinge''" (our brown charges), who could be guided but not forced.<ref>Churchill, Llewella P. ''Samoa 'uma''. New York: F&S Publishing Co., 1932, p. 231</ref> Similarly, [[Heinrich Schnee]], governor of East Africa from 1912, proclaimed that "the dominant feature of my administration [will be] ... the welfare of the natives entrusted into my care."<ref name="Miller, p. 21">Miller, p. 21</ref> Solf also advocated a network of [[motorway]]s in the colonies. He secured support for this comparatively peaceful colonial policy, instead of the highly militarized approach that had been taken up to this point, from all parties in the Reichstag, except for the right.

There were no further major revolts in the German colonies after 1905 and the economic efficiency of the overseas possessions rapidly increased, as a result of these new policies and improvements in shipping, especially the establishment of scheduled services with refrigerated holds, increased the amount of agricultural products from the colonies, exotic fruits and spices, that were sold to the public in Germany. Between 1906 and 1914, the production of [[palm oil]] and [[Cocoa bean|cocoa]] in the colonies doubled, the [[rubber]] production of the African colonies quadrupled, and the [[cotton]] exports from German East Africa increased tenfold. The total trade between Germany and its colonies increased from 72 million marks in 1906 to 264 million marks in 1913. Due to this economic growth, the income from colonial taxes and duties increased sixfold. Instead of being dependent on financial support from Germany, the colonies became or were on track to become financially independent. By 1914, only German New Guinea, Kiautschou, and the African Schutztruppen were subsidized.<ref>Hans Georg Steltzer: ''Die Deutschen und ihr Kolonialreich''. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1984, S.&nbsp;281&nbsp;f.; Wilfried Westphal: ''Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien''. C. Bertelsmann, München 1984, S.&nbsp;262–265, 287–288.</ref> "The colonial economy was thriving ... and roads, railways, shipping and telegraph communications were up to the minute."<ref name="Garfield, p. 83"/>

The colonies were romanticized. Geologists and cartographers explored what were then unmarked regions on European maps, identifying mountains and rivers, and demarcating boundaries. [[Hermann Detzner]] and one Captain Nugent, R.A., had charge of a joint project to demarcate the British and German frontiers of [[Cameroon]], which was published in 1913.<ref>Detzner, Hermann, (Oberleut.) "Kamerun Boundary: Die nigerische Grenze von Kamerun zwischen Yola und dem Cross-fluss." ''M. Teuts. Schutzgeb''. 26 (13): 317–338.</ref> Travelers and newspaper reporters brought back stories of black and brown natives serving German managers and settlers. There were also suspicions and reports of colonial malfeasance, corruption and brutality in some protectorates, and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] and [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] missionaries dispatched disturbing reports to their mission headquarters in Germany.<ref>Louis (1963), p. 178</ref>

Idealists often volunteered for selection and appointment to government posts; the commercially minded, to grow dividends at home for the Hanseatic trading houses and shipping lines. Subsequent historians would commend German colonialism in those years as "an engine of modernization with far-reaching effects for the future."<ref>Gann, L. H. & Duignan, Peter. ''The Rulers of German East Africa, 1884–1914''. Palo Alto, California: Stanford University Press. 1977, p. 271</ref>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Postcard from New Guinea.jpg|Postcards depicted romanticized images of natives and exotic locales, such as this early 20th-century card of the German colonial territory in [[New Guinea]].
File:Tsingtau Postkarten ca 1900 Kiautschou.jpg|Colonial postcard from Qingdao, {{circa|1900}}
</gallery>

==End of the German colonial empire (1914–1918)==
===Conquest in World War I===
[[File:Bombardement Tschaukaib 1914.jpg|thumb|left|Austrian lieutenant Paul Fiedler<ref>Reinhard Karl Boromäus Desoye: ''Die k.u.k. Luftfahrtruppe – Die Entstehung, der Aufbau und die Organisation der österreichisch-ungarischen Heeresluftwaffe 1912–1918'', 1999, page 76 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=AVF2AQAAQBAJ&dq=Leutnant+Paul+Fiedler&pg=PA76 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191116164532/https://books.google.com/books?id=AVF2AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=Leutnant+Paul+Fiedler#v=onepage&q=Leutnant%20Paul%20Fiedler&f=false |date=16 November 2019 }})</ref> bombarding a South African military camp at the railway station of Tschaukaib, [[German South West Africa]], December 1914]]
[[File:Der Durchbruch der Schutztruppe Deutsch-Ostafrika über den Rowuma MItte November 1917. Darstellung von Carl Arriens.jpg|thumb|left|General [[Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck]]'s troops defeat Portugal at [[battle of Ngomano|Ngomano]], [[Portuguese East Africa]] on 25 November 1917.]]
[[File:Lettow's surrender.jpg|thumb|[[Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck]]'s force stops fighting the Allies on 25 November 1918 after the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|Armistice]].]]
In the years before the outbreak of the World War, British colonial officers viewed the Germans as deficient in "colonial aptitude", but "whose colonial administration was nevertheless superior to those of the other European states".<ref>Louis (1967), pp. 17, 35.</ref> Anglo-German colonial issues in the decade before 1914 were minor and both the British and German empires took conciliatory attitudes toward one another. Foreign Secretary Sir [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]]—still considered a moderate in 1911—was willing to "study the map of Africa in a pro-German spirit".<ref>Louis (1967), p. 30.</ref> Britain further recognized that Germany really had little of value to offer in territorial transactions; however, advice to Grey and Prime Minister [[H. H. Asquith]] hardened by early 1914 "to stop the trend of what the advisors considered Germany's taking and Britain's giving."<ref>Louis (1967), p. 31.</ref>

Once war was declared in late July 1914 Britain and its allies promptly moved against the colonies. The public was informed that German colonies were a threat because "Every German colony has a powerful wireless station – they will talk to one another across the seas, and at every opportunity they [German ships] will dash from cover to harry and destroy our commerce, and maybe, to raid our coasts."<ref>Louis (1967), p. 37.</ref> The British position that Germany was a uniquely brutal and cruel colonial power originated during the war; it had not been said during peacetime.<ref>Louis (1967), pp. 16, 36</ref> The German overseas Colonies began to fall one by one to the allied forces. The first to go was Togoland to the British and to the French, then the Cameroons to the allied forces. Germany's colonies put up a stout fight but by 1916 Germany lost most of its colonies, except German East Africa, where a German force of General [[Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck]] [[East African campaign (World War I)|held out]] against the Allies until the end of the war.

In the Pacific, Britain's [[Anglo-Japanese Alliance|ally Japan]] [[Japan during World War I|declared war]] on Germany in 1914 and quickly seized several of Germany's island colonies, the [[Mariana Islands|Mariana]], [[Caroline Islands|Caroline]] and [[Marshall Islands]], with virtually no resistance. One reason these colonies fell so easily is because of the departure of Admiral von Spee's fleet. In other parts of the Pacific Western Samoa, another German colony fell without a fight to a New Zealand force. Later on an Australian invasion of Neu-Pommern beat the Germans seizing the entire colony within a few weeks.

South Africa's [[Jan Smuts|J. C. Smuts]], now in Britain's small War Cabinet, spoke of German schemes for world power, militarization and exploitation of resources, indicating Germany threatened western civilization itself. While propaganda was said about both sides it was here in Africa where Germany saw a crushing defeat. It was at Togoland where the Germans were quickly outnumbered leaving them to flee the capital which led to a large pursuit of German forces by allied armies leading to the eventual surrender of German forces on 26 August 1914. Smuts' warnings were repeated in the press. The idea took hold that they should not be returned to Germany after the war.<ref>Louis (1967), pp. 102–116</ref>

===Confiscation===
Germany's overseas empire was dismantled following defeat in World War I. With the concluding [[Treaty of Versailles]], Article 22, German colonies were transformed into [[League of Nations mandates]] and divided between Belgium, the United Kingdom, and certain British Dominions, France and Japan with the determination not to see any of them returned to Germany – a guarantee secured by Article 119.<ref>Louis (1967), p. 9</ref>

In Africa, the United Kingdom and France divided [[German Kamerun]] (Cameroons) and [[Togoland]]. Belgium gained [[Ruanda-Urundi]] in northwestern [[German East Africa]], the United Kingdom obtained by far the greater landmass of this colony, thus gaining the "missing link" in the chain of [[British possessions]] stretching from South Africa to Egypt ([[Cape to Cairo Red Line|Cape to Cairo]]), and Portugal received the [[Kionga Triangle]], a sliver of German East Africa. German South West Africa was taken under mandate by the Union of South Africa.<ref>German South West Africa was the only African colony designated as a Class C mandate, meaning that the indigenous population was judged incapable of even limited self-government and the colony to be administered under the laws of the mandatory as an integral portion of its territory, however, South Africa never annexed the country outright although Smuts did toy with the idea.</ref> In terms of the population of 12.5 million people in 1914, 42 percent were transferred to mandates of Britain and its dominions, 33 percent to France, and 25 percent to Belgium.<ref>J. A. R. Marriott, ''Modern England: 1885–1945'' (4th ed. 1948) p. 413</ref>

In the Pacific, Japan gained Germany's islands north of the equator (the [[Marshall Islands]], the [[Caroline Islands|Carolines]], the [[Marianas]], the [[Palau|Palau Islands]]) and [[Jiaozhou Bay|Kiautschou]] in China. [[German Samoa]] was assigned to New Zealand; [[German New Guinea]], the [[Bismarck Archipelago]] and [[Nauru]]<ref>Australia in effective control, formally together with United Kingdom and New Zealand</ref> went to Australia as mandates.<ref>Louis (1967), pp. 117–130</ref>

British placement of surrogate responsibility for former German colonies on white-settler dominions was at the time determined to be the most expedient option for the British government – and an appropriate reward for the Dominions having fulfilled their "great and urgent imperial service" through military intervention at the behest of and for Great Britain.<ref>{{Cite news |title=New Zealand goes to war: The Capture of German Samoa |url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/new-zealand-goes-to-war-first-world-war |work=nzhistory.net.nz |access-date=20 October 2008 |archive-date=14 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114222018/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/new-zealand-goes-to-war-first-world-war |url-status=live }}</ref> It also meant that British colonies now had colonies of their own – which was very much influenced at the Paris proceedings by [[Billy Hughes|W. M. Hughes]], [[William Massey]], and [[Louis Botha]], the prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.<ref>Louis (1967), p. 132</ref> The principle of "self-determination" embodied in the League of Nations covenant was not considered to apply to these colonies and was "regarded as meaningless".<ref name="Louis (1967), p. 7">Louis (1967), p. 7</ref> To "allay President [Woodrow] Wilson's suspicions of British imperialism", the system of "[[League of Nations mandate|mandates]]" was drawn up and agreed to by the British War Cabinet (with the French and Italians in tow),<ref>General J. C. Smuts is often identified as the inventor of the idea of "mandates" [Louis (1967), p. 7]</ref> a device by which conquered enemy territory would be held not as a possession but as "sacred trusts".<ref name="Louis (1967), p. 7"/> But "far from envisaging the eventual independence of the [former] German colonies, Allied statesmen at the Paris Conference regarded 1919 as the renewal, not the end, of an imperial era."<ref name="Louis (1967), p. 7"/> In deliberations the British "War Cabinet had confidence that natives everywhere would opt for British rule"; however, the cabinet acknowledged "the necessity to prove that its policy toward the German colonies was not motivated by aggrandizement" since the Empire was seen by America as a "land devouring octopus"<ref>Louis (1967), p. 6</ref> with a "voracious territorial appetite".<ref>Louis (1967), p. 157</ref>

[[Woodrow Wilson|President Wilson]] saw the [[League of Nations]] as "'residuary trustee' for the [German] colonies" captured and occupied by "rapacious conquerors".<ref>Louis (1963), p. 233</ref> The victors retained the German overseas possessions and did so with the belief that Australian, Belgian, British, French, Japanese, New Zealand, Portuguese and South African rule was superior to Germany's.<ref>Louis (1967), p. 159</ref> Several decades later during the collapse of the then existing colonial empires, Africans and Asians cited the same arguments that had been used by the Allies against German colonial rule – they now simply demanded "to stand by themselves".<ref>Louis (1967), p. 160</ref>

==Colonialism after 1918==
[[File:Germany150pf1921scott148gebtdeutschland.jpg|thumb|[[Postage stamp|Stamp]] from 1921, "Give Germany its colonies back!"]]
In Germany after the First World War, the general public opinion was that the seizure of the colonies had been unlawful and that Germany had a right to its colonies. Nearly all the parties elected to the [[Weimar National Assembly]] on 19 January 1919, voted in favor of a resolution which demanded the return of the colonies on 1 March 1919, i.e. while the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|Paris Peace Conference]] was still in progress. Only seven delegates from the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany|USPD]] voted against it.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp. ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p.&nbsp;156.</ref> The charge that Germany had failed to "civilize" the peoples under its control was seen as particularly outrageous – this had played a central role in German colonialism's self-legitimation. This protest achieved nothing – in the final version of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], Germany was required to give up all its colonies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Authaler |first1=Caroline |title=Das völkerrechtliche Ende des deutschen Kolonialreichs. Globale Neuordnung und transnationale Debatten in den 1920er Jahren und ihre Nachwirkungen |journal=Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte |date=2019 |volume=69 |issue=40–42 |pages=5&nbsp;f |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bpb.de+%E2%80%BA+files+%E2%80%BA+dokument_pdf+%E2%80%BA+APuZ_2019-40-42_online_0 |access-date=4 April 2022 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404092916/https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bpb.de+%E2%80%BA+files+%E2%80%BA+dokument_pdf+%E2%80%BA+APuZ_2019-40-42_online_0 |url-status=live }}</ref> With the exception of German Southwest Africa, where some descendants of German settlers still live today (the [[German Namibians]]), all Germans were required to leave the colonies.

=== Weimar Republic ===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00369, Berlin, Deutscher Kolonial-Gedenktag.jpg|thumb|left|Colonial Memorial Day on 24 April 1924 at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin]], celebrating the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the Southwest African protectorate]]
[[File:Neustadt Samoa 1922.jpg|thumb|''[[Notgeld]]'' of 1922, "Give us our colonies back! – Samoa."]]
Even in the early phase of the [[Weimar Republic]], there were voices calling for the return of the colonies – among them [[Konrad Adenauer]], who was then mayor of [[Cologne]]. Adenauer was Deputy President of the [[German Colonial Society]] from 1931 to 1933. From 1924 there was a Colonial Office in the [[Federal Foreign Office]], directed by [[Edmund Brückner]], the former Governor of Togo. Brückner's policy was that the return of Togo, Cameroon, and German East Africa were the most likely.<ref>Joachim Nöhre. ''Das Selbstverständnis der Weimarer Kolonialbewegung im Spiegel ihrer Zeitschriftenliteratur.'' LIT, Münster 1998, {{ISBN|3-8258-3764-5}}, p.&nbsp;12, pp.&nbsp;51&nbsp;f.</ref> In 1925, the Colonial Imperial Society ('Korag') was established as an [[umbrella organization]], from which the [[Reichskolonialbund]] emerged in 1933. Also in 1925, [[Johannes Bell]], who had been Colonial Minister in the [[Scheidemann cabinet]], founded the "Interparty Colonial Union", which included members of the whole political spectrum, from the [[Nazi party]] to the [[SPD]].<ref>Karsten Linne. ''Deutschland jenseits des Äquators? Die NS-Kolonialplanungen für Afrika.'' Ch. Links, Berlin 2008, pp.&nbsp;23&nbsp;f.</ref> In 1925, some settlers also returned to their plantations in Cameroon, which they had bought the previous year with financial support from the Foreign Office.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Authaler |first1=Caroline |title=Das völkerrechtliche Ende des deutschen Kolonialreichs. Globale Neuordnung und transnationale Debatten in den 1920er Jahren und ihre Nachwirkungen |journal=Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte |date=2019 |volume=69 |issue=40–42 |pages=9 |url=https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bpb.de+%E2%80%BA+files+%E2%80%BA+dokument_pdf+%E2%80%BA+APuZ_2019-40-42_online_0 |access-date=4 April 2022 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404092916/https://www.google.com/search?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bpb.de+%E2%80%BA+files+%E2%80%BA+dokument_pdf+%E2%80%BA+APuZ_2019-40-42_online_0 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Karsten Linne: ''Deutschland jenseits des Äquators? – Die NS-Kolonialplanungen für Afrika'' Ch. Links, Berlin 2008, p.&nbsp;38.</ref> In anticipation of the recovery of the colonies, the Colonial Women's School of [[Rendsburg]] was founded in 1926. In 1931, an Institute for Foreign and Colonial Forestry was founded at the [[Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry]].

The treaty of Versailles attributed [[Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles|war guilt]] to Germany, but most Germans did not accept this and many saw the confiscation of the colonies by the Allies as a theft, especially after the [[South Africa]]n premier [[Louis Botha]] stated that all allegations which the Allies had published during the war about the German colonial empire were, without exception, baseless fabrications. German colonial revisionists spoke of a "Colonial Guilt Myth."<ref>{{NDB|23|280|281|Schnee, Albert Hermann Heinrich|Ralph Erbar|116819138}}</ref><ref>The standard work on this 'Colonial Guilt Myth' was [[Heinrich Albert Schnee]]: ''Die koloniale Schuldlüge''. Sachers und Kuschel, Berlin 1924.</ref><ref>[[Alfred Zintgraff]], "Die koloniale Schuldlüge," in Hans H. Kempe, ''Die Bilanz: 10 Jahre Vertrag von Versailles'', Berlin 1929, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1FK7hh935LcC&pg=PA103 pp. 103&nbsp;ff.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220318011211/https://books.google.com/books?id=1FK7hh935LcC&pg=PA103|date=18 March 2022}}</ref>

=== Nazi period 1933–1945 ===
Chancellor Adolf Hitler's speeches sometimes did mention return of the lost colonies, as a bargaining point, but at all times his real target was Eastern Europe.<ref>Norman Rich, ''Hitler's war aims: The establishment of the new order'' (WW Norton, 1974) pp 404–405.</ref><ref>Gerhard L. Weinberg, ''The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany: Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933–1936'' (1970) pp 276–281.</ref> In 1934, the Nazi Party established its own [[NSDAP Office of Colonial Policy|Office of Colonial Policy]], which was led by [[Heinrich Schnee]], and then [[Franz Ritter von Epp]] and was a very active grass roots organization. The [[Reichskolonialbund]], established in 1936, under [[Franz Ritter von Epp]] absorbed all colonial organizations and was meant to raise procolonial sentiments, and build public interest in former German colonies. However, no new overseas colonial enterprises took place and with the onset of World War II in 1939 the organization entered a decline. It was disbanded by decree in 1943 for "activity irrelevant to the war". Although it tolerated the colonialists, the Nazi government focused on territorial gains inside Europe. At no time did it negotiate or demand from London or Paris the return of any lost colony.  According to Willeke Sandler: "Between 1933 and 1943, [[Rudolf Hess]], [[Martin Borman]], and [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]], among others, hindered colonialists' publicity activities, seeing them as representative of a discarded past and as irrelevant when compared with Eastern European 'Lebensraum.'"<ref>Willeke Sandler, ''Empire in the Heimat: Colonialism and Public Culture in the Third Reich'' (Oxford UP, 2018) p. 10.</ref>

==Administration and colonial policies==
===Colonial administration===
[[File:German Empire and colonies.svg|thumb|left|Political diagram of the German Empire and its colonies]]
[[File:Lomé Togo Weg nach dem Gouverneurspalast 1904.png|thumb|The way to the governor's palace in Togo, 1904]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2006-0137, Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Witbooi bei dt. Verwaltungsbeamten.jpg|thumb|[[Hendrik Witbooi (Namaqua chief)|Hendrik Witbooi]] with the German governor [[Theodor Leutwein]] of South West Africa (toasting to each other), 1896]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA6364, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Polizeiaskaris.jpg|thumb|Askari troops in German East Africa, {{circa|1906}}]]
Between 1890 and 1907, the uppermost leadership of the empire's protectorates (''Schutzgebiete'') was the Colonial Division (''Kolonialabteilung'') of the [[Federal Foreign Office|Foreign Office]] (''Auswärtiges Amt''), which was headed by the Imperial Chancellor. In 1907, the Colonial Division was separated from the Foreign Office and became its own ministry (''Amt''), called the Imperial Colonial Office (''Reichskolonialamt''), with [[Bernhard Dernburg]] as its state secretary.

By an Imperial decree of 10 October 1890, the [[Colonial Council]] (''Kolonialrat'') was placed alongside the Colonial Division. It contained representatives of the Colonial Societies and experts appointed by the Chancellor.

The German [[treaty port]] of [[Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory|Kiautschou]] was administered by the [[German Imperial Naval Office|Imperial Naval Office]] (''Reichsmarineamt''), not the Foreign Office or the Colonial Office.

The highest legal authority for the colonies was the [[Reichsgericht]] (Imperial Court of Justice) in [[Leipzig]].

The legal situation in the colonies was first regulated by the 1886 law concerning the legal relationships of the German protectorates, which became the {{interlanguage link|Protectorate Law|de|Schutzgebietsgesetz}} (''Schutzgebietsgesetz'') in 1900 after further changes.<ref>[http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Schutzgebietsgesetz Straehler: ''Schutzgebietsgesetz''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303122310/http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Schutzgebietsgesetz |date=3 March 2019 }}. In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): ''Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon'', Vol.&nbsp;3, Leipzig 1920, pp.&nbsp;317–319.</ref> It introduced German law in the German colonies for Europeans, through consular jurisdiction. The Consular Jurisdiction Law (''Konsulargerichtsbarkeitsgesetz '') of 1879 had granted German consuls overseas jurisdiction over German citizens in specific circumstances. The Protectorate Law specified that the regulations on consular jurisdiction would also apply in the colonies. In so far as they were relevant to consular jurisdiction, therefore, various important legal provisions of civil law, criminal law, legal procedure, and due process also came into force in the colonies.<ref>Dominik Nagl: ''Grenzfälle. Staatsangehörigkeit, Rassismus und nationale Identität unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft, 1884–1914''. Frankfurt/Main 2007, pp.&nbsp;41–46.</ref> Alongside this, over time, further special provisions of colonial law were established. For indigenous people in the colonies, the Kaiser initially held all legislative power. Over the following years, the Imperial Chancellor and other officials empowered by him were also given the authority to regulate the administration, jurisdiction, policing, etc. of the colonies.  Thus, in the German colonies there was, at a fundamental level, a dual legal structure, with different laws for the Europeans and the indigenous people.<ref>Ulrike Schaper: ''Koloniale Verhandlungen. Gerichtsbarkeit, Verwaltung und Herrschaft in Kamerun 1884–1916''. Campus, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2012, pp.&nbsp;44&nbsp;f.</ref> No colonial criminal law code was codified during German colonial rule.<ref>Ulrike Schaper: ''Koloniale Verhandlungen. Gerichtsbarkeit, Verwaltung und Herrschaft in Kamerun 1884–1916''. Campus, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2012, 49&nbsp;f.</ref>

==== Administration of individual colonies ====

At the top of the administration of each colony was the [[Governor]], who was aided by a chancellor (as deputy and assistance in legal matters), secretaries, and other officials.

The districts (''Bezirke''), the largest administrative subdivisions of a colony, were administered by a District Officer (''Bezirksamtmann''). In turn, a district was divided into district branches (''Bezirksnebenstellen''). Another form of administration in the colonies was the [[Resident minister#German colonial residents|Resident]] (''Residentur''). These were comparable to the districts in size, but the native rulers were allowed far more power in residencies than in districts, helping to keep the costs of German administration as low as possible.

[[Schutztruppe]]n were stationed in the colonies of Cameroon, Southwest Africa, and East Africa for internal military security. The police forces in the colonies were police troops (''Polizeitruppen''), organized on military lines. In the Kiautschou Leased Bay Territory, which was under the control of the [[German Imperial Naval Office]], marines of the 3rd Sea Battalion were stationed as police.<ref>{{Cite web|editor=Fachhochschule Potsdam |title=Das III. Seebataillon in Tsingtau |url=https://archivfuehrer-kolonialzeit.de/das-iii-seebataillon-in-tsingtau |work=Archivführer deutsche Kolonialgeschichte  |date=2018-10-09|access-date=2022-01-11}}</ref>

In the colonies, there were Protectorate Courts (''Schutzgebietsgerichte''), modeled on consular courts. Jurisdiction over indigenous peoples, especially in criminal cases, was invested in the colonial officials in the colonies. In noncriminal matters, indigenous authorities were granted jurisdiction over their communities and could render judgment in accordance with local law.<ref>Ulrike Schaper: ''Koloniale Verhandlungen. Gerichtsbarkeit, Verwaltung und Herrschaft in Kamerun 1884–1916''. Campus, Frankfurt am Main/New York 2012, 49 f.</ref>

For Germans and other Europeans, the district court (''Bezirksgericht'') had jurisdiction in first instance and there was a right of appeal to an upper court (''Obergericht''). In Togo, the size of the European population made an upper court impractical, so the upper court of Kamerun also acted as the appellate court for Togo<!--This doesn't really make sense to me-->.<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Julian|last1=Steinkröger |title=Strafrecht und Strafrechtspflege in den deutschen Kolonien von 1884 bis 1914 Ein Rechtsvergleich innerhalb der Besitzungen des Kaiserreichs in Übersee |publisher=Verlag Dr. Kovač |place=Hamburg |year=2019 |isbn=978-3-339-11274-3}}</ref>

===German colonial population===
The German colonial population numbered 5,125 in 1903, and about 23,500 in 1913.<ref name="Henderson34">{{Cite book |title=Studies in German colonial history |first=William Otto |last=Henderson |edition=2 |publisher=Routledge |year=1962 |isbn=0-7146-1674-5 |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xz59JuS9jv4C&pg=PA34 |access-date=30 August 2009 |archive-date=4 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220404092908/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xz59JuS9jv4C&pg=PA34 |url-status=live }}</ref> The German pre–World War I colonial population consisted of 19,696 Germans in Africa and the Pacific colonies in 1913, including more than 3,000 police and soldiers, and 3,806 in [[Jiaozhou Bay concession|Kiaochow]] (1910), of which 2,275 were navy and military staff.<ref name=Henderson34/> In Africa (1913), 12,292 Germans lived in Southwest Africa, 4,107 in [[German East Africa]] and 1,643 in Cameroon.<ref name=Henderson34/> In the Pacific colonies in 1913 there were 1,645 Germans.<ref name=Henderson34/> After 1905 a ban on marriage was enacted forbidding mixed couples between German and native population in South West Africa, and after 1912 in Samoa.<ref>Conrad, Sebastian (2012) ''German Colonialism: A Short History.'' Cambridge University Press, p. 158</ref>

After World War I, the military and "undesired persons" were expelled from the German protectorates. In 1934 the former colonies were inhabited by 16,774 Germans, of whom about 12,000 lived in the former Southwest African colony.<ref name=Henderson34/> Once the new owners of the colonies again permitted immigration from Germany, the numbers rose in the following years above the pre–World War I total.<ref name=Henderson34/>

=== Relationship between German and indigenous populations ===
[[File:German colonial lord.jpg|thumb|German colonial leader in Togo, c. 1885]]
[[File:HH1883 pg123 Hafen von Jaluti, Marshall Inseln.jpg|thumb|German trading station at [[Jaluit Atoll]] with a Marshallese ''[[Walap|korkor]]'' outrigger canoe in the foreground]]
==== Legal inequality ====
The relationship between the Germans and the indigenous populations in the German colonies was characterized by legal and social inequalities. There were two separate legal systems and people were assigned to one or the other on the basis of [[race theory|racial]] criteria. The "whites" (i.e. the German and European inhabitants of the colonies) formed a small, highly privileged minority – rarely reaching even 1% of a colony's total population.<ref>''[[Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon]]'' (1920), Band I, S.&nbsp;312 (Bevölkerungsstand 1913; [http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Deutsche_Schutzgebiete online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024005205/http://www.ub.bildarchiv-dkg.uni-frankfurt.de/Bildprojekt/Lexikon/php/suche_db.php?suchname=Deutsche_Schutzgebiete |date=24 October 2021 }}).</ref> They enjoyed all the rights, privileges, and duties of normal [[German law]]. Non-German Europeans were legally their equals.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, S.&nbsp;44 und 61.</ref>

The 13 million or so "natives" of the German colonial empire did not become [[German citizenship|German citizens]] in 1913, when German citizenship was first introduced. They were not considered Imperial citizens, but only subjects or wards of Germany. German laws applied to them only if explicitly stated by the individual statute. In particular, they were shut out of the court system. They had no right of appeal against decisions of the colonial authorities or first-instance judgments. For the 10,000 or so people of [[Arab]] and Indian descent who lived in German East Africa, the governors had the ability to issue special regulations.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, S.&nbsp;44&nbsp;f. und 61.</ref> According the Protectorate Law, however, it was possible for "natives" to be granted Imperial citizenship and to pass that citizenship on to their children. The cause of this was the fact that the children of mixed marriages automatically received German citizenship. This was perceived as a threat to the "German [[body politic]]" and its "[[racial purity]]."<ref>[[Dieter Gosewinkel]]: ''Einbürgern und ausschließen. Die Nationalisierung der Staatsangehörigkeit vom Deutschen Bund bis zur Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, p.&nbsp;303.</ref> As sexual relationships between the population groups had grown increasingly common, the colonies gradually banned "civil marriage between whites and natives" from 1905. Extra-marital sexual relationships were socially unacceptable, as leading to "[[Kaffir (racial term)|Kaffirization]]" (''Verkaffirung''). In 1912, the Reichstag held a debate about the possibility of [[miscegenation]], resulting in most parties agreeing that miscegenation should be legalized. However, no law on this was ever enacted.<ref>Birthe Kundrus: ''Moderne Imperialisten. Das Kaiserreich im Spiegel seiner Kolonien''. Böhlau, Köln 2003, {{ISBN|3-412-18702-X}}, pp.&nbsp;219&nbsp;ff.</ref> The ban remained in effect until the end of the German Empire.

==== Evangelism, education, and healthcare ====
[[File:Missionar Pfisterer Norddeutsche Mission 1899.jpg|thumb|School of the [[North German Missionary Society]] in Togo, 1899]]
The German colonizers conceived of the indigenous populations as "children": people at a lower level of development, who had to be protected, educated, and raised up.<ref>Frank Oliver Sobich: ''„Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr". Rassismus und Antisozialismus im deutschen Kaiserreich''. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2006, p.&nbsp;125&nbsp;f.</ref> German missionary societies were already concerning themselves with the education and conversion of overseas populations in the 1820s. [[Protestant]] organizations included the [[Berlin Missionary Society]], [[Rhenish Missionary Society]], {{interlanguage link|Leipzig Missionary Society|de|Leipziger Missionswerk}}, and the [[North German Missionary Society]].<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, pp.&nbsp;91&nbsp;f.</ref> After the [[Kulturkampf]] had subsided, [[Catholic]] missionary societies were allowed to operate in the colonies too.<ref>Horst Gründer: "'Gott will es'. Eine Kreuzzugsbewegung am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts." ''Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht'' 28 (1977), pp.&nbsp;218&nbsp;f.</ref>

These missionary societies established stations in the colonies, where they instructed the indigenous people in basic education, modern agricultural techniques, and Christianity. They had substantial success, since the breakdown of precolonial society, which the German land seizures and colonial wars had engendered, often brought a spiritual crisis with it and the indigenous people sought comfort and support from the god of the new rulers, who appeared to have proven his superiority. Since the goal of the missionaries was the conversion of the indigenous peoples and they emphasized the virtue of neighborly love, they often had cause to protest against their abuse and exploitation by the colonial administration and [[plantation]] owners. In order to support themselves and to model good behavior, the missionaries themselves often had plantations, which were dependent on the indigenous people's skill and willingness to work. These goals often came into conflict. The missionaries were generally rather tolerant regarding traditional customs and practices. For example, they often allowed [[polygamy]], which was widespread in Africa and the Pacific. The exception to this was the [[Islam]]ic culture of the East African coast, which the missionaries strongly opposed.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp: ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, S.&nbsp;91–97.</ref>

===Medicine and science===
In her African and South Seas colonies, Germany established diverse biological and agricultural stations. Staff specialists and the occasional visiting university group conducted soil analyses, developed [[plant hybrid]]s, experimented with [[fertilizer]]s, studied vegetable pests and ran courses in agronomy for settlers and natives and performed a host of other tasks.<ref name="Miller, p. 21"/> Successful German plantation operators realized the benefits of systematic scientific inquiry and instituted and maintained their own stations with their own personnel, who further engaged in exploration and documentation of the native fauna and flora.<ref>Spoehr, Florence. (1963) ''White Falcon. The House of Godeffroy and its Commercial and Scientific Role in the Pacific''. Palo Alto, California: Pacific Books, p. 51-101</ref>

Research by bacteriologists [[Robert Koch]] and [[Paul Ehrlich]] and other scientists was funded by the imperial treasury and was freely shared with other nations. More than three million Africans were vaccinated against [[smallpox]].<ref name="Garfield, p. 83"/> Medical doctors the world over benefited from pioneering work into tropical diseases and German pharmaceutical discoveries "became a standard therapy for [[sleeping sickness]] and relapsing fever. The German presence (in Africa) was vital for significant achievements in medicine and agriculture.<ref name="Miller, p. 22"/>

By the late 1880s German physicians identified [[Sexually transmitted infection|venereal disease]] as a public health threat to Germany and its colonies. To fight it in Germany doctors used biopolitics to educate and regulate the bodies of likely victims. Propaganda campaigns did not work well in the colonies, so they imposed a much greater degree of supervision and coercion over targeted groups such as prostitutes.<ref>Daniel J. Walther, "Sex, Public Health and Colonial Control: The Campaign Against Venereal Diseases in Germany's Overseas Possessions, 1884–1914." ''Social history of medicine'' 26.2 (2013): 182–203.</ref>

During the Herero genocide [[Eugen Fischer]], a German scientist, came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race, using children of Herero people and [[multiracial]] children of Herero women and German men as test subjects.<ref>Mamdani, Mahmood. (2001) ''When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 12</ref> Together with Theodor Mollison he also experimented upon Herero prisoners.<ref>Cooper, Allan D. (2008) ''The Geography of Genocide.'' University Press of America, p. 153</ref> Those experiments included sterilization, injection of [[smallpox]], [[typhus]] as well as [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="HBV">''Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of European Blacks, Africans and African Americans During the Nazi Era'' (Crosscurrents in African American History) by [[Clarence Lusane]], page 50-51 Routledge 2002.</ref>
The numerous cases of mixed offspring upset the German colonial administration, which was concerned with maintaining "racial purity".<ref name="HBV"/> Eugen Fischer studied 310 multiracial children, calling them "Rehoboth bastards" of "lesser racial quality".<ref name="HBV"/> Fischer also subjected them to numerous racial tests such as head and body measurements, and eye and hair examinations. In conclusion of his studies he advocated genocide of alleged "inferior races", stating that "whoever thinks thoroughly the notion of race, can not arrive at a different conclusion".<ref name="HBV"/>
Fischer's actions (at the time considered) scientific and his torment of the children were part of a wider history of abusing Africans for experiments, and echoed earlier actions by German anthropologists who stole skeletons and bodies from African graveyards and took them to Europe for research or sale.<ref name="HBV"/> An estimated 3000 skulls were sent to Germany for study. In October 2011, after 3 years of talks, the first skulls were due to be returned to Namibia for burial.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Germans return skulls to Namibia. On Friday, Germany will return the first 20 of an estimated 300 skulls of indigenous Namibians butchered a century ago during an anti-colonial uprising in what was then called South West Africa. |work=TimesLIVE|location=South Africa |access-date=2013-06-02 |date=27 September 2011 |url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/09/27/germans-return-skulls-to-namibia |archive-date=27 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927204617/http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2011/09/27/germans-return-skulls-to-namibia |url-status=live }}</ref>
Other experiments were made by Doctor Bofinger, who injected Herero who were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium. Afterward, he researched the effects of these substances by performing autopsies on dead bodies.<ref>Erichsen, Casper and [[David Olusoga]] (2010) ''The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism.'' Faber and Faber, p. 225</ref>

===Social Darwinism===
{{Further|Causes of World War I#Social Darwinism}}
Social Darwinism is the theory "that human groups and races are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had perceived in plants and animals in nature."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Social Darwinism |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=23 April 2019 |archive-date=28 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528200545/https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism |url-status=live }}</ref> According to numerous historians, an important ideological component of German nationalism as developed by the intellectual elite was [[Social Darwinism]].<ref>Richard Weikart, "The Origins of Social Darwinism in Germany, 1859–1895." ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' 54.3 (1993): 469–488 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2710024 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210045106/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2710024 |date=10 December 2019 }}.</ref> It gave an impetus to German assertiveness as a world economic and military power, aimed at competing with [[French Third Republic|France]] and the [[British Empire]] for world power. German colonial rule in Africa 1884–1914 was an expression of nationalism and moral superiority that was justified by constructing an image of the natives as "Other". German colonization was characterized by the use of repressive violence in the name of 'culture' and 'civilization'. Techniques included genocide in parts of Africa.<ref>Richard Weikart, "Progress through racial extermination: Social Darwinism, eugenics, and pacifism in Germany, 1860–1918." ''German Studies Review'' 26.2 (2003): 273–294 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1433326 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200702172059/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1433326 |date=2 July 2020 }}.</ref> Furthermore, the wide acceptance among intellectuals of social Darwinism justified Germany's right to acquire colonial territories as a matter of the 'survival of the fittest', according to historian Michael Schubert.<ref>Michael Schubert, "The 'German nation' and the 'black Other': social Darwinism and the cultural mission in German colonial discourse," ''Patterns of Prejudice'' (2011) 45#5 pp 399–416.</ref><ref>Felicity Rash, ''The Discourse Strategies of Imperialist Writing: The German Colonial Idea and Africa, 1848–1945'' (Routledge, 2016).</ref>

[[Image:Duala ethnic groups.png|thumb|upright=1.35|right|Map showing the location of the various Duala ethnic groups of Cameroon]]
On the other hand, Germany's cultural-missionary project boasted that its colonial programs were humanitarian and educational endeavors. Colonial German physicians and administrators tried to make a case for increasing the native population, in order to also increase their numbers of laborers. Eugene Fischer, an anthropologist at the University of Freiburg, agreed with that notion saying that they should only be supported as necessary and as they prove to be useful. Once their use is gone, Europeans should "allow free competition, which in my (Fischer's) opinion means their demise."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Weikart |first1=Richard |title=Progress through Racial Extermination: Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Pacifism in Germany, 1860–1918 |journal=German Studies Review |date=7 May 2003 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=273–294 |doi=10.2307/1433326 |jstor=1433326}}</ref>

The [[Duala people]], a Bantu group in Cameroon, readily welcomed German policies. The number of German-speaking Africans increased in four West African German colonies prior to 1914. The Duala leadership in 1884 placed the tribe under German rule. Most converted to Protestantism and were educated along German lines. Colonial officials and businessmen preferred them as inexpensive clerks to German government offices and firms in Africa.<ref>Jonathan Derrick, "The 'Germanophone' Elite of Douala under the French Mandate." ''Journal of African History'' (1980): 255–267 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/182138 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802232822/https://www.jstor.org/stable/182138 |date=2 August 2020 }}.</ref>

==Post-colonial legacy==
===Continuity thesis===

In recent years scholars have debated the "continuity thesis" that links German colonialist brutalities to the treatment of Jews, Roma, Poles and Russians during World War II. Some historians argue that Germany's role in southwestern Africa gave rise to an emphasis on racial superiority at home, which in turn was used by the Nazis. They argue that the limited successes of German colonialism overseas led to a decision to shift the main focus of German expansionism into [[Central and Eastern Europe]], with the [[Mitteleuropa#Mitteleuropa Plan|Mitteleuropa plan]]. German colonialism, therefore, turned to the European continent.<ref>''Germany subsequently tried to turn Europe into its colonial possession by practicing a migrations form of colonialism that was reworked into the ideology of [[Lebensraum]](...) Aime Cesaire pointed out that [[fascism]] was a form of colonialism brought home to Europe'' Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction Robert Young Published 2001
Blackwell Publishing page 2</ref>

While a minority view during the ''Kaiserzeit'', the idea developed in full swing under [[Erich Ludendorff]] and his political activity in the [[Baltic states]], Ukraine, and Poland. Subsequently, after the defeat of [[Russian Empire|Russia]] during World War I, Germany acquired vast territories with the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] and created several administrative regions like [[Ober Ost]]. Here also the German settlement would be implemented, and the whole governmental organization was developed to serve German needs while controlling the local ethnically diverse population. While the African colonies were too isolated and not suitable for mass settlement of Germans, areas in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] offered better potential for German settlement.<ref>Helmut Bley,'' Continuities and German Colonialism: Colonial Experience and Metropolitan Developments'' Historisches Seminar, Universität Hannover 2004.</ref> Other scholars, are skeptical and challenge the continuity thesis.<ref>Volker Langbehn and Mohammad SalamaRace, eds. ''the Holocaust, and Postwar Germany'' (Columbia U.P., 2011)</ref> Additionally, however, only one former colonial officer gained an important position in the Nazi administrative hierarchy.<ref name="Germany: 2. Colonial empire">{{cite web |last1=Biskup |first1=Thomas |title=Germany: 2. Colonial empire |url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyempire/germany_2_colonial_empire/0 |website=Credo Reference |publisher=John Wiley and Sons Ltd |access-date=21 April 2019 |archive-date=14 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214095422/https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/wileyempire/germany_2_colonial_empire/0 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Federal Republic===
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F011457-0004, Bonn, BMA, Minister aus Togo.jpg|thumb|left|West German vice minister of workfare, Wilhelm Claussen (left), with Paul Armegee, transport minister of Togo, in Bonn, 1961]]
Regaining the former German colonies played no significant role in the politics of [[Post-war Germany]]. However, individual west German politicians proposed undertaking late or postcolonial enterprises, especially the management of trusts in Tanganyika or Togo.<ref>Winfried Speitkamp, ''Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte''. Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p.&nbsp;173.</ref> Even within the African freedom movement, these suggestions co-existed with calls for [[Decolonisation of Africa|decolonization]]. At the end of 1952, members of the [[Ewe people|Ewe]] people submitted in a memorandum to the [[United Nations Trusteeship Council]] proposing that the territories of German Togoland taken by the British and the French be reunited and led towards independence together.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-43062616.html "Das deutsche Schicksal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228210140/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-43062616.html |date=28 December 2017 }}, in: ''Der Spiegel'', 27 June 1956.</ref> While this initiative was not accepted, in 1960, [[Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg|Adolf Friedrich zu Mecklenburg]], the last Imperial German governor of Togo, was invited to Togo's independence celebrations by [[Sylvanus Olympio]], President of Togo.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45562777.html "Gestorben: Adolf Friedrich Herzog zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508002648/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45562777.html |date=8 May 2017 }}," in ''Der Spiegel'', 11 August 1969.</ref>

Efforts to revive the Colonial War League after the Second World War led to the establishment in [[Hamburg]] in 1955 of a "Union of Former Colonial Troops," ancestor of the current {{interlanguage link|Traditional league of former colonial and overseas troops|de|Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz- und Überseetruppen}}.

The final remains of the Protectorate Law survived until the legal expiration of the Colonial Society in 1975 and fiscal adjustments in 1992. Colonial history continues to be commemorated by colonial monuments, street names, and buildings related to German colonial history. In many places this has led to discussions about [[cultural memory]] and to calls for modification or renaming.<ref>Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst. "Koloniale Spuren im städtischen Raum." ''Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte.'' 69. Jg., 40–42/2019, pp.&nbsp;40–45 ([https://www.bpb.de/apuz/297604/koloniale-spuren-im-staedtischen-raum online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211117155113/https://www.bpb.de/apuz/297604/koloniale-spuren-im-staedtischen-raum |date=17 November 2021 }}).</ref>

Representatives of the [[Herero people|Herero]] and [[Nama people|Nama]], whose ancestors were killed in their thousands in German-administered Southwest Africa between 1904 and 1908, having taken legal action against Germany in the American courts. In January 2017, a [[class action]] against the German government was submitted to a court in [[New York City|New York]]. The statement of claim speaks of over 100,000 fatalities. In March 2017, it became known that the Namibian government was considering an action against Germany in the [[International Court of Justice]] in [[The Hague]]. It was said that [[damages]] were sought in the region of 30 billion dollars.<ref>Stefan Reis Schweize: [https://www.nzz.ch/international/verhandlungen-zwischen-berlin-und-windhoek-die-kolonialzeit-holt-deutschland-ein-ld.1306517 "Verhandlungen zwischen Deutschland und Namibia: Die Kolonialzeit holt Berlin ein"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508170258/https://www.nzz.ch/international/verhandlungen-zwischen-berlin-und-windhoek-die-kolonialzeit-holt-deutschland-ein-ld.1306517 |date=8 May 2021 }}, ''[[Neue Zürcher Zeitung]]'' 18 July 2017.</ref>

The publication of edited volumes on the themes of colonialism (2012) and German Colonial History (2019) by the [[Federal Agency for Civic Education]] aimed to bring about "revived awareness of colonialism in political, legal, and psycological spheres" to a wider group of readers and scholars, as the editor Asiye Öztürk put it.<ref>Asiye Öztürk: "Editorial." ''Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte.'' 44–45/2012 ([https://www.bpb.de/apuz/146970/editorial online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230180306/https://www.bpb.de/apuz/146970/editorial |date=30 December 2021 }})</ref><ref>Anne-Sophie Friedel: "Editorial" ''Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte.'' 40–42/2019 ([https://www.bpb.de/apuz/297590/editorial online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211230180304/https://www.bpb.de/apuz/297590/editorial |date=30 December 2021 }})</ref> In 2015, [[Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf|Heinrich Heine University]] in [[Düsseldorf]] and the [[University of Dschang]] in Cameroon established a joint-research project on "Colonial links", which culminated in an exhibition in Düsseldorf in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |author=Martin Doll (Curator) |url=http://deutschland-postkolonial.de/ |title=Koloniale Verbindungen |date=2017 |access-date=2021-12-30 |archive-date=27 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327103003/http://deutschland-postkolonial.de/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Heinrich-Heine-Universität |url=https://www.geschichte.hhu.de/abteilungen/ausgelaufene-abteilungen/europaeische-expansion/ausstellung-koloniale-verbindungen |title=Koloniale Verbindungen (Ausstellung) |date=2017 |access-date=2021-12-30 |archive-date=27 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327103003/https://www.geschichte.hhu.de/abteilungen/ausgelaufene-abteilungen/europaeische-expansion/ausstellung-koloniale-verbindungen |url-status=live }}</ref> After that, the exhibition traveled to [[Dschang]] and to various German cities, where it was augmented with aspects of local relevance. Finally, a volume on the exhibition was published in 2019.<ref>{{Cite book |editor=Albert Guaffo |editor2=Stefanie Michels |title=Koloniale Verbindungen. Das Rheinland in Deutschland und das Grasland Kameruns |date=2019 |publisher=Transcript-Verlag |location=Bielefeld |isbn=978-3-8376-4529-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=Johannes Häfner |url=https://www.geschichte.hhu.de/abteilungen/ausgelaufene-abteilungen/europaeische-expansion/ausstellung-koloniale-verbindungen |title=Rezension zu Guaffo/Michels |work=H-Soz-Kult |publisher=HU Berlin |date=2019-09-20 |access-date=2021-12-30 |archive-date=27 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220327103003/https://www.geschichte.hhu.de/abteilungen/ausgelaufene-abteilungen/europaeische-expansion/ausstellung-koloniale-verbindungen |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Impact===
[[File:NamibiaDeutscheSprache.jpg|thumb|Examples of German language on signs in [[Namibia]]]]
Unlike other colonial empires such as the [[British Empire|British]], [[French colonial empire|French]], [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] or [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], the Germans left very few traces of their own language, institutions or customs in its former colonies. Currently, no country outside Europe uses [[German language|German]] as an official language, although in [[Namibia]], it is a [[German language in Namibia|recognized national language]] and there are numerous German placenames and architectural structures in the country. A small [[German Namibians|German ethnic minority]] also resides in the country.

After the end of [[World War II]], many of the activists for Tanganyika's independence were the sons of [[Schutztruppe]] [[Askari]]s, who had fought for [[Wilhelm II of Germany|the last Kaiser]] during the [[East African Campaign (World War I)|East African Campaign]]. According to his biographers [[Leonard Mosley]] and Robert Gaudi, these activists often travelled to [[West Germany]], during the last decades before the [[Decolonisation of Africa]], to seek the advice of their fathers' former commanding officer, [[Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck]].<ref>Robert Gaudi (2017), ''African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914–1918'', Caliber. Pages 416–417.</ref>

According to ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' journalists [[Heinz Höhne]] and [[Hermann Zolling]], the premature end of the German colonial empire in 1918 placed [[West Germany]]'s [[Cold War]] foreign intelligence service, the [[Bundesnachrichtendienst]] (BND) and its founding chief [[Reinhard Gehlen]] at a considerable advantage in dealing with the newly independent governments of post-colonial Africa, Asia, and the [[Middle East]]. This is why many [[Third World]] militaries and foreign intelligence services were largely trained by BND [[military advisor]]s. This made it possible for the BND to easily receive highly detailed and accurate intelligence reports from these regions in which the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and especially the former colonialists' intelligence services could not acquire without recruiting local spy rings. BND covert activities in the Third World also laid the groundwork for friendly relations that Gen. Gehlen attempted to use to steer local governments into taking an anti-Soviet and Pro-[[NATO]] stance during the ongoing [[Cold War]] and further assisted the [[Wirtschaftswunder|West German economic miracle]] by both encouraging and favoring West German trade and corporate investment.<ref> Heinz Höhne & Hermann Zolling (1972), ''The General was a Spy: The Truth about General Gehlen, 20th-century Superspy who served Hitler, the CIA, and West Germany'', [[Coward, McCann & Geoghegan]], New York. Pages 220–221.</ref> 

As of today, no country outside Europe uses the [[German language]] as an official language, although in [[Namibia]], German is a [[German language in Namibia|recognized national language]] and there are numerous German placenames and architectural structures in the country. A 30,000 [[German Namibians|German ethnic minority]] resides in the country. In a long-term legacy of the East German [[Stasi]]'s covert backing of the [[SWAPO]] guerrillas during the 1967–1989 [[South African Border War]], a significant [[GDR Children of Namibia|German-speaking minority]] exists among the Black population, who were brought up as children in [[Cold War]] era [[East Germany]] before the [[Peaceful Revolution]] in 1989.

At the same time, however, when West Germany's [[Goethe Institute]] was founded to encourage German-language learning and [[cultural diplomacy]] worldwide, the first foreign branches were founded in 1961, in the last Kaiser's former African colonies of [[Cameroon]] and [[Togo]]. [[Tanzania]] opened a Goethe Institute branch immediately after achieving independence from the [[British Empire]] later in that same year. 

In post-World War I [[Rwanda]], German colonial rule was nostalgically glorified and positively contrasted with the region's subsequent rule by the [[Belgian colonial empire]]. Close relations with West Germany were restored immediately following Rwandan independence and German military advisors helped train the Rwandan armed forces. The Goethe-Institute opened in the capitol city of [[Kigali]] in 2009 and has since expanded into a separate building.<ref> {{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Germany and Rwanda: Bilateral relations |url=https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/rwanda/233806 |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=German Federal Foreign Office |language=en}}</ref>

The German language remains a popular subject of study for students in all three nations. Furthermore, a lasting legacy of Imperial German rule remains in the significant number of German language borrowings in the Tanzanian dialect of [[Kiswahili]]. Examples include as ''shule'' (school), ''hela'' (money) and ''nusu kaputi'' (literally: half broken = full anesthesia).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Degener |first=Janna |date=2009 |title="Nusu kaputi" – die deutsche Sprache in Tansania. |url=https://www.fachportal-paedagogik.de/literatur/vollanzeige.html?FId=881763 |journal=Informationen Deutsch Als Fremdsprache |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=429–434 |doi=10.1515/infodaf-2009-0503 |s2cid=185380200 |issn=0724-9616|doi-access=free }}</ref> 
{{clear}}

==List of German colonies (as of 1912)==
{{See also|List of former German colonies#German Empire}}
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Territory !! Capital !! Established!!Disestablished !! Area<ref name="Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien">{{cite web |url=http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/kaiserreich/aussenpolitik/kolonien2/index.html |title=''Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien'' |quote=Sofern nicht anders vermerkt, beziehen sich alle Angaben auf das Jahr 1912. |publisher=[[Deutsches Historisches Museum]] |website=dhm.de |access-date=29 September 2016 |language=de |archive-date=10 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810133907/http://www.dhm.de/lemo//html/kaiserreich/aussenpolitik/kolonien2/index.html |url-status=live }}

* [[German South-West Africa]]: 835 100 km²
* [[Kamerun]]: 495 000 km²
* [[Togoland]]: 87 200
* [[German East Africa]]: 995 000
* [[German New Guinea]]: 240 000
* [[Marshall Islands#German protectorate|Marshall Islands]]: 400
* [[Kiautschou Bay concession|Kiautschou]]: 515
* [[Caroline Islands]], [[Palau#Colonial era|Palau]], and [[Mariana Islands#Loss from Spain and split in governance|Mariana Islands]]: 2 376
* [[German Samoa]]: 2 570
</ref> !! Total population<ref name="Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien" /> !! German population<ref name="Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien" />!!Current countries
|-
|[[Kamerun]]<br />''Kamerun'' ||[[Jaunde]]||1884||1920 || 495,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup><!-- Kamerun+Togoland --> ||2,540,000 || 1,359||{{CMR}}<br />{{NGA}}<br />{{TCD}}<br />{{GAB}}<br />{{CAF}}<br />{{COG}}
|-
|[[Togoland]]<br />''Togo'' ||[[Bagid]]a (1884–87)<br />[[Sebe]]ab (1887–97)<br />[[Lomé]] (1897–1916)||1884||1920|| 87,200&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>||1,003,000||316||{{GHA}}<br />{{TGO}}
|-
|[[German South West Africa]]<br />''Deutsch-Südwestafrika''|| [[Windhuk]] (from 1891) || 1884||1920 ||835,100&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> ||86,000||12,135||{{NAM}}
|-
|[[German East Africa]]<br />''Deutsch-Ostafrika''||[[Bagamoyo]] (1885–1890)<br />{{nowrap|[[Dar es Salaam]] (1890–1916)}}<br />[[Tabora]] (1916, temporary)<ref>Michael Pesek: ''Das Ende eines Kolonialreiches.'' Campus, Frankfurt a.&nbsp;M./New York 2010, {{ISBN|978-3-593-39184-7}}, pp. 86–90.</ref>||1891||1920||995,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> ||7,511,000|| 3,579||{{BDI}}<br />{{KEN}}<br />{{MOZ}}<br />{{RWA}}<br />{{TZA}}
|-
|[[German New Guinea]]<br />''Deutsch-Neu-Guinea''<br />Including Imperial German Pacific Protectorates:
*[[North Solomon Islands]]
*[[History of the Marshall Islands#German protectorate|Marshall Islands]]
*[[Caroline Islands]]
*[[Northern Mariana Islands]]
||[[Finschhafen]] (1884–1891)<br />[[Madang]] (1891–1899)<br />[[Kokopo|Herbertshöhe]] (1899–1910)<br />[[Rabaul|Simpsonhafen]] (1910–1914)||1884||1920||{{Formatnum:{{#expr:240000+400+2376}}}}&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup><!-- German New Guinea + Marshall Islands + Caroline Islands, Palau, and Mariana Islands -->||601,000|| 665||{{PNG}}<br />{{SLB}}<br />{{PLW}}<br />{{FSM}}<br />{{NRU}}<br />{{MNP}}<br />{{MHL}}
|-
|[[German Samoa]]<br />''Deutsch-Samoa''||[[Apia]]||1899||1920||2,570&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>||38,000|| 294||{{WSM}}
|-
|[[Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory]]<br />''Pachtgebiet Kiautschou''||[[Qingdao|Tsingtau]] ||1897||1920 ||515&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> ||200,000||400||{{CHN}}
|-
|'''Total''' (as of 1912)|| || || ||'''{{Formatnum:{{#expr:835100+495000+87200+995000+240000+400+515+2376+2570}}}}&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>'''||'''{{Formatnum:{{#expr:2540000+1003000+86000+601000+38000+7511000+200000}}}}'''||'''{{Formatnum:{{#expr:1359+316+12135+665+294+3579+400}}}}'''||22
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|History}}
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
===Colonialism===
*[[Brandenburger Gold Coast]]
*[[Cologne in the German colonial empire]]
*[[Duala people]]
*[[German colonial projects before 1871]]
*[[German colonization of the Americas]]
*[[German East Africa Company]]
*[[German New Guinea Company]]
*[[History of German foreign policy]]
*[[Imperial Colonial Office]]
*[[List of former German colonies]]
*[[Reichskolonialbund]]
*[[Wilhelminism]]

===Post-Colonialism===
*[[Cameroon–Germany relations]]
*[[GDR Children of Namibia]]
*[[German Academic Exchange Service]]
*[[German language in Namibia]]
*[[Germany–Namibia relations]]
*[[Germany–Rwanda relations]]
*[[Germany–Tanzania relations]]
*[[Germany–Togo relations]]
*[[Goethe Institute]]
*[[Kandt House Museum]]
*[[Unserdeutsch]]
{{div col end}}

==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources and references==
{{refbegin}}
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* {{cite book |last1=Esherick |first1=Joseph W. |title=The Origins of the Boxer Uprising |date=18 August 1988 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-90896-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jVESdBSMasMC&pg=PA363 |language=en}}
*Westermann, ''Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte'' {{in lang|de}}
*[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/COLONIES.html#German WorldStatesmen.org]
{{refend}}

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*Sarkin, Jeremy, and Carly Fowler. "Reparations for Historical Human Rights Violations: The International and Historical Dimensions of the Alien Torts Claims Act Genocide Case of the Herero of Namibia." ''Human Rights Review'' 9.3 (2008): 331–360. [https://www.academia.edu/download/45841303/s12142-007-0053-z20160521-30376-13dm03a.pdf online]{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
*Smith, Woodruff. "The Colonial Novel as Political Propaganda: Hans Grimm's 'Volk Ohne Raum'." ''German Studies Review'' 6.2 (1983): 215–235. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1428528 online]
*{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=W.D. |year=1974 |title=The Ideology of German Colonialism, 1840–1906 |journal=[[Journal of Modern History]] |volume=46 |issue=1974 |pages=641–663 |doi=10.1086/241266|s2cid=153844608 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Steinmetz |first=George |title=The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa |year=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0226772431}}
*{{Cite book|editor-last=Stoecker |editor-first=Helmut |title=German Imperialism in Africa: From the Beginnings Until the Second World War |others=Translated by Bernd Zöllner |year=1987 |publisher=Humanities Press International |location=Atlantic Highlands, NJ |isbn=978-0-391-03383-2}}
*Strandmann, Hartmut Pogge von. "Domestic Origins of Germany's Colonial Expansion under Bismarck" ''Past & Present'' (1969) 42:140–159 [https://web.archive.org/web/20210507082225/https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/42/1/140/1472000/DOMESTIC-ORIGINS-OF-GERMANY-S-COLONIAL-EXPANSION?redirectedFrom=fulltext online]
*von Strandmann, H. Pogge. "The German Role in Africa and German Imperialism: A Review Article." ''African Affairs'' 69#277 (1970): 381–389. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/720216 online]
*{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=A.J.P. |title=Bismarck, The Man and the Statesman |year=1967 |publisher=[[Random House, Inc.]] |location=New York}}
*Townsend, Mary Evelyn. ''The rise and fall of Germany's colonial empire, 1884–1918'' (1930) [https://archive.org/details/risefallofgerman0000unse online]
*Townsend, Mary Evelyn. ''Origins of modern German colonialism, 1871–1885'' (1921) [https://archive.org/details/cu31924021061597 online].
*Uzoigwe, Godfrey N. "Reflections on the Berlin West Africa Conference, 1884–1885." ''Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria'' 12.3/4 (1984): 9–22. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44715366 online]
*Walther, Daniel J. "Sex, Race and Empire: White Male Sexuality and the" Other" in Germany's Colonies, 1894–1914." ''German Studies Review'' (2010): 45–71. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40574927 online]
*Wehler, Hans-Ulrich "Bismarck's Imperialism 1862–1890," ''Past & Present'', (1970) 48: 119–55 [https://web.archive.org/web/20210507081746/https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/48/1/119/1456754?redirectedFrom=fulltext online]
*{{Cite book |last=Wesseling |first=H.L. |title=[[Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880-1914]] |others=Translated by Arnold J. Pomerans |author-link=Henk Wesseling |year=1996 |publisher=Preager |location=Westport, CT |isbn=978-0-275-95137-5}} {{ISBN|978-0-275-95138-2}} 
*Wildenthal, Lora. ''German women for empire, 1884-1945'' (Duke University Press, 2001).
{{refend}}

===In German===
{{refbegin|40em}}
*Detzner, Hermann, (Oberleut.) ''Kamerun Boundary: Die nigerische Grenze von Kamerun zwischen Yola und dem Cross-fluss.'' '''M. Teuts. Schutzgeb.''' 26 (13): 317–338.
*{{Cite book |last=Haupt |first=Werner |title=Deutschlands Schutzgebiete in Übersee 1884–1918 |others=[Germany's Overseas Protectorates 1884–1918] |year=1984 |publisher=Podzun-Pallas Verlag |location=Friedberg |isbn=3-7909-0204-7}}
*Nagl, Dominik (2007). ''Grenzfälle – Staatsangehörigkeit, Rassismus und nationale Identität unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft.'' Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang Verlag. {{ISBN|978-3-631-56458-5}}.
*{{Cite book |last=Schultz-Naumann |first=Joachim |title=Unter Kaisers Flagge, Deutschlands Schutzgebiete im Pazifik und in China einst und heute |others=[Under the Kaiser's flag, Germany's Protectorates in the Pacific and in China then and today] |year=1985 |publisher=Universitas Verlag |location=Munich}}
*{{Cite book |last=Schaper |first=Ulrike |title=Koloniale Verhandlungen. Gerichtsbarkeit, Verwaltung und Herrschaft in Kamerun 1884–1916 |year=2012 |publisher=Campus Verlag |location=Frankfurt am Main |isbn=978-3-593-39639-2}}
*Karl Waldeck: "Gut und Blut für unsern Kaiser", Windhoek 2010, {{ISBN|978-99945-71-55-0}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 1, 2. Auflage Windhoek 2012, {{ISBN|978-99916-872-1-6}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 2, "Naulila", Windhoek 2012, {{ISBN|978-99916-872-3-0}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 3, "Kämpfe im Süden", Windhoek 2014, {{ISBN|978-99916-872-8-5}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 4, "Der Süden ist verloren", Windhoek 2015, {{ISBN|978-99916-909-2-6}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 5, "Aufgabe der Küste", Windhoek 2016, {{ISBN|978-99916-909-4-0}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 6, "Aufgabe der Zentralregionen", Windhoek 2017, {{ISBN|978-99916-909-5-7}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 7, "Der Ring schließt sich", Windhoek 2018, {{ISBN|978-99916-909-7-1}}
*Historicus Africanus: "Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15", Band 8, "Das Ende bei Khorab", Windhoek 2018, {{ISBN|978-99916-909-9-5}}
{{refend}}

===In French===
*Gemeaux (de), Christine,(dir., présentation et conclusion): "Empires et colonies. L'Allemagne du Saint-Empire au deuil post-colonial", Clermont-Ferrand, PUBP, coll. ''Politiques et Identités'', 2010, {{ISBN|978-2-84516-436-9}}.

==External links==
*[http://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/deutsche-kolonien.htm Deutsche-Schutzgebiete.de] ("German Protectorates") {{in lang|de}}

{{Former German colonies}}
{{Colonialism}}
{{States of the German Empire}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:German Colonial Empire}}
[[Category:German colonial empire]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1884]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1918]]
[[Category:History of European colonialism]]
[[Category:New Imperialism]]
[[Category:Overseas empires]]
[[Category:1884 establishments in the German colonial empire]]
[[Category:1920 disestablishments in the German colonial empire]]
[[Category:Former empires]]
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