A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
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the colonies in a new manner, since <strong>German</strong> domestic commercial standards barely<br />
existed in the unregulated colonial trade. Therefore, new economic relations were<br />
created by the deterritorialization of <strong>German</strong> trade to the colonies through the local power<br />
of these companies. This influence questions Landes’, Hallgarten’s and Taylor’s<br />
assertions that strategic concerns trumped economic motives, for economic interests<br />
appear predominant over strategic issues in this context.<br />
Nonetheless, it would be incorrect to assume consistent exploitation of the<br />
government by the colonial companies. The enterprises were occasionally brought to<br />
heel by the government in extreme cases of abuse or negligence. An illustrative example<br />
is the government’s restructuring of the East African economy after the Maji Maji revolt<br />
in 1905. Sunseri observes how the revolt caused the government to reject plantation-style<br />
agriculture in favour of small-scale cultivation in order to avoid a repeat of the violence. 26<br />
Cotton was the most important colonial raw material transported to <strong>German</strong>y and fears of<br />
a “cotton famine” provoked the government to assure its continued supply, even through<br />
forced labour and a restructuring of colonial commerce. 27 Thus colonial business and the<br />
entire East African cotton economy were shaped by fears of colonial instability and the<br />
domestic requirements of <strong>German</strong>y. This instance of the colonies’ influence upon the<br />
companies and the metropolis is a powerful argument for the colonial agency thesis and<br />
the “compensatory reterritorializations” of the state discussed by Deleuze and Guattari.<br />
However, the more holistic picture shows colonial enterprises subverting government’s<br />
interference in commerce.<br />
More frightening to the colonial firms than government intervention was the<br />
potential of foreign commercial competition. Fears of competition were a frequent theme<br />
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