A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

amongst the colonial business lobby; Woermann’s, Lüderitz and Peters continually
stressed the potent forces waiting to take advantage of German colonial weakness.
Examples of this were present when the Deutsche Witu-Gesellschaft began an
international trade dispute by interfering with the British East Africa Company. 28 The
trade disagreement ended up involving both the German and British governments.
Wilhelm II also caused a diplomatic incident with Britain when he supported President
Paul Kruger of the Transvaal Republic because of Kruger’s favourable relations with
German commerce. Quarrels such as these encouraged German ideas that colonial
business was under foreign threat. Further international strife was stirred by colonial
administrators who forced foreign traders to pass through German territory in order to
secure tax and transit revenue from them. 29 These are potent examples of the ability of
capital to deterritorialize its power and move beyond the control of the nation-state to
further its own interests. Yet in rare circumstances the nation-state was able to
reterritorialize and stabilize the deterritorializations of colonial commerce.
Economics also had a great impact upon the African and German peoples
embroiled within the networks of colonialism. Commerce proved one of the chief
motivations for colonial expansion for the German populace. German interests in
colonial goods prompted interest in, and the subsequent growth of, the colonial trade.
Similarly, through propaganda anticipating colonial profits, the colonial organizations
could motivate a small yet influential section of the population to support further German
intervention in Africa. In this manner, deterritorialization allows the historian to see how
capitalism colonizes social desire. Contemporary social, cultural, economic and political
pressures stimulated German desires for colonial products, wealth, sovereignty and
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