A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

also pressed by the private sector to acquire colonies to guarantee raw materials and
additional markets. Furthermore, Bismarck saw the colonies as a tool for European
diplomatic wrangling and an outlet for German emigration.
While the government began to see the benefits of colonies, the public became
more aware of colonies through the work of the colonial propagandists. For example, the
German Colonial Society or Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (hereafter DKG), while small
in membership, was loud in demanding the necessity of colonies. 47 The public began to
believe that a colonial policy could generate great profits, especially if conducted on the
British model. The promises advanced by European colonial adventurers of an “El
Dorado” in the far reaches of Africa soon reached the German populace. Consequently,
the population, especially the middle class, began to identify the potential benefits of
German colonies. This combination of diplomatic, commercial and nationalistic
motivations proved enough to push Bismarck toward a policy of colonial expansion.
It is necessary to sketch the development of German colonial sentiment in order to
provide some background to the entire history of the colonial expansion. Germany itself
had not previously been a significant force in world trade though some of the Hanseatic
cities had traded overseas. The first colonial enterprise was a trading post and transport
hub established on the Gulf of Guinea by the Brandenburg trade federation in 1682.
After the loss in 1717 of this territory, the only other initiative in the pre-history of
colonial expansion was the installation of missionary outposts on the coasts of Africa
such as the Bethany mission station in southwest Africa half a century before the
government’s acquisition. The rapid doubling of German territory after 1884 therefore
raises questions about the motivations behind this expansion.
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