A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...
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Similarly, minute details of colonial expenditures were constantly provided by the<br />
government to the Reichstag and the <strong>German</strong> people in order to prove the economic<br />
benefit of the colonies. However, the <strong>German</strong> public never truly endorsed the colonial<br />
policy of expansion. As with the DKG and the Pan-<strong>German</strong>s, popular support for the<br />
government’s colonial policy was mostly within a small, yet vocal, section of the<br />
populace. Many histories focus on the instrumentality of institutions, but<br />
deterritorialization reflects an uncoordinated and structural element to the bureaucracy<br />
that can explain <strong>German</strong> society’s ambiguous acceptance of the government’s colonial<br />
policy. Since colonial policy did not express the desires of the <strong>German</strong> population, only<br />
of the colonial enthusiasts, any conception of the bureaucracy that envisioned a close link<br />
between the population and the government’s policy would be problematic.<br />
However, even the colonial propagandists did not always support the<br />
government’s policy. The 1890 exchange of East African territory for the tiny island of<br />
Heligoland provoked outrage amongst the colonialists and nationalists and was a<br />
contributing factor to the ouster of Chancellor Caprivi in 1894. 53 After the colonial wars<br />
of the twentieth century, even the colonial groups called for reforms to colonial policy. 54<br />
The DKG particularly wanted indirect rule, which was expected to allow the colonies to<br />
become more profitable. 55 The colonial organizations’ support of colonial policy was<br />
always lost when the government was forced to intervene on behalf of indigenous<br />
peoples against <strong>German</strong> traders, missionaries, administrators and soldiers. For example,<br />
the Sultan of Zanzibar demanded the K-A restrain the excesses of Carl Peters and the<br />
DOAG in the Zanzibari hinterland. 56 The government, already in a delicate position with<br />
regard to the Sultan, was forced to control the eager colonialists. Other actions by<br />
86