Settler and Administration Antagonism in Colonial German East Africa, 1885-1925

This dissertation argues that a study of the distinct experiences of the colonialism of settlers, administration in German East Africa, and the metropolitan government in Germany provides a more nuanced understanding of German colonialism as a whole. The relations between these groups were characterised by tripartite divisions that persisted throughout the period of official German colonial rule in eastern Africa (1885-1918) and even after. While settlers sought the creation of a racially pure “white man’s country”, the colonial administration pursued strategies to foster the economic development of the colony and all its inhabitants. The metropolitan government, meanwhile, treated the “colonial issue” with low priority and always pragmatically. After the war and the subsequent loss of colonies, these same currents continued. (Former) settlers wanted to return to eastern Africa, (former) administrators sought a principled colonial revisionism, and the German government used any still existing colonial ambitions as a bargaining tool to achieve other, more pressing goals. These trends also continued through the period of greatest colonial upheaval (1904-1908). This dissertation uncovers hitherto unidentified continuities that suggest that German colonialism was much more diverse than usually presumed, and that the German colonial project never united competing interests to follow a single colonial goal.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Illert, Otis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Clark, Christopher

• Germany
• Africa
• Tanganyika
• German East Africa
• Colonialism
• Settlers
• Administration
• Empire

Licence

• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.92724

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/345301