A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

the ultimate aim of interpreting the relationships underpinning German colonial
expansion in Africa.
The historiography of imperialism is riddled with controversies and complexities.
This inquiry unabashedly places itself against the older histories of imperialism that
focused upon imperialism only in relation to broad issues within European economic and
political history. 1 More recent studies move beyond these topics in favour of research
into specific social and cultural elements of colonialism. 2 This work hopes to combine
elements of the old interpretations with new approaches so as to gain new insight when it
seeks to consider the true breadth of imperialism in realms as diverse as culture,
economics, society, and politics. 3 This analysis consequently accepts Johan Galtung’s
sage assertion that imperialism must be examined on a general level in order to most
effectively render its structural character. 4 To best understand the structure of
imperialism, the more specific facts of German colonial expansion will be elaborated.
This in turn will allow the extrapolation of the general dimensions of imperialism.
The primary motivating factor for colonialism is a pivotal historical question in
the historiography of imperialism. Marxists in the early twentieth century saw
colonialism as a consequence of the economic and social structures of capitalism that
require ever-greater markets, labour and resources. 5 The Marxist economic argument has
prompted a number of critical responses. Octave Mannoni stressed the psychological
dimension of colonialism instead of relying upon causal references to economics or
politics. 6 Arguing in 1961 specifically against Marxist mechanism, David Landes
dismissed economic rationales and sees colonialism as not based in a mono-causal
explanation. 7 Others find European diplomatic imperatives responsible for the growth of
2