A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
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<strong>German</strong>y to new articulations in <strong>German</strong>y and in the colony. But the ultimate failure of<br />
the DKG’s expansionist, commercial and settlement advocacy indicates how <strong>German</strong> and<br />
African circumstances acted as reterritorializations of expansionist dreams.<br />
The society was additionally a potent force of deterritorialization in Africa. The<br />
DKG was sometimes pushed to rash action in the colonies when it thought its interests<br />
were threatened. The chaotic acquisition and confiscation of territory in East Africa by<br />
the DKG’s subsidiary, the Deutsche-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft (hereafter DOAG), was<br />
to some extent responsible for the 1888 revolt of Sultan Said Khalifa. 53 As a result of the<br />
rebellion, chaos ruled: <strong>German</strong> trade was wrecked, property was destroyed and many<br />
<strong>German</strong> traders, missionaries and settlers fled the colony. The DOAG was so focused<br />
upon territorial acquisition that it very nearly precluded the possibility of any <strong>German</strong><br />
territorial control by provoking the unrest. In this case, the commercial and national<br />
goals of the society formed the deterritorialization of <strong>German</strong> colonial desires while the<br />
refutation of these aims through the unrest disclosed the African reterritorialization.<br />
Second in social importance to the DKG was the Pan-<strong>German</strong> League. The<br />
league was formed in 1893 as a lobby group for <strong>German</strong> nationalism and aggressive<br />
territorial expansion. The Pan-<strong>German</strong>s were highly active in the colonial propaganda<br />
arena as it was seen as a prestigious demonstration of <strong>German</strong> power. Roger Chickering<br />
paints the league as extremists driven by “conspiratorial and exaggerated apprehensions”<br />
of foreign dominance and <strong>German</strong> racial extinction. 54 This led them to vociferously<br />
demand <strong>German</strong> “living space” through enlarged colonial possessions and strengthened<br />
colonial military power. 55 For this reason, the league cultivated close connections to<br />
government offices like the K-A and RKA.<br />
52