A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
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deterritorialization allows the historian to conceive how peoples enmeshed within<br />
commercial networks can exert their own social and economic agency. Native tribes did<br />
try to return to traditional trading networks and exclude the <strong>German</strong>s but as colonial<br />
commerce expanded, less trade could exist without <strong>German</strong> acquiescence. Faced with<br />
such a massive socio-economic transformation, African peoples were hard-pressed to<br />
resist the inexorable push towards a liberal free-market economy on a <strong>German</strong> basis.<br />
Though there were instances of reterritorializations of <strong>German</strong> economic<br />
deterritorializations, the fight was slowly lost.<br />
By tying <strong>German</strong>y and Africa together, commerce in the colonies displays the<br />
inequalities of colonialism, the importance of economics in establishing and maintaining<br />
colonial power, as well as the inter-connections between colonizer and colonized. The<br />
expansion of free-trade capitalism in the <strong>German</strong> colonies also unites colonial capitalism<br />
with Deleuze and Guattari’s study. The primary instance of deterritorialization in this<br />
circumstance was the separation of commercial entities from the dictates of the <strong>German</strong><br />
state that guaranteed their interests. With the creation of the large colonial<br />
conglomerates, capital became deterritorialized and established power for the cartels<br />
rivalling the <strong>German</strong> state in the colonies. Here, Deleuze and Guattari’s prioritization of<br />
the power of capital above the state is demonstrated. The extension of trade by the<br />
government and the companies represents a vital deterritorialization of <strong>German</strong> desires in<br />
Africa, and a particularly effective tool of colonial expansion as African peoples found<br />
resistance to <strong>German</strong> capitalist economics almost impossible. In this context,<br />
deterritorialization is not just the action of capital but also the reaction of capital. Thus,<br />
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