A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

Chapter 2
The preceding chapter sets an ambitious goal for this inquiry, at once to
investigate the expansive path of German colonialism and to keep the visions of
deterritorialization and reterritorialization in mind. This complexity means that this study
must first analyse significant historical elements and then link these phenomena to the
deterritorialization of Deleuze and Guattari. A brief examination of the four main themes
of German colonial expansion will introduce the more complex elements subsumed under
these larger topics. This chapter engages with the social and the cultural manifestations
of the colonial experience, while the subsequent chapter examines the commercial and
the political. By organizing the themes in such a manner, the vividly rhizomatic,
nomadologic and schizoanalytic connections between these broader categories and their
sub-fields can be illustrated. The point of departure is the social dimension of expansion.
The cultural field follows since it is the site of the interactions and expressions of the
social formation. The highly syncretic relations that ground the next chapter will be
located in the ways in which society and culture interacted to shape German colonial
expansion.
The Social Aspects of Colonial Expansionism
Contrary to both Helmuth Stoecker’s argument that Germany’s colonies had
virtually no social significance and Taylor's belief that German public opinion exercised
little influence over policy-making in government, this analysis asserts that the social
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