A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

Introduction
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European nations spanned the
globe with overseas colonies in a belligerent quest for territory. These colonies were
developed as commercial and strategic dependencies by the European states. The control
extended through this colonialism reveals much about the European imperial state itself
in its efforts to gain and maintain colonies. Colonialism is here defined as a desire for
colonial possessions and imperialism is broadly termed a more fluid dynamic of
dominance between collective societies encompassing much more than purely colonial
relations. These two energies present a vivid image of Europe’s extension of power over
the non-European world. The following examination will focus upon the actual
expansion of colonial control in the context of the late nineteenth-century acquisition of
African colonies by Germany and their subsequent maintenance through to the early
twentieth century. By examining the specific actions in the extension of German rule
over African territory, the composite interactions of colonialism will be exposed. The
study of German colonialism is significant because the dynamism and violence of
colonialism make it more than just an anomaly of European history. Colonialism
therefore represents a major theme of wider history because of its influence upon both the
colonizer and the colonized. In addition, many of the elements that gave birth to
colonialism are very much still in existence today, a reality that connects this historical
excavation to the present. It is for these reasons that this analysis seeks to inquire into the
power differentials of imperialism in general through study of German colonialism with