German traders and merchants began to establish themselves in the African Cameroon delta and the mainland coast across from Zanzibar. At Apia and the settlements Finschhafen, Simpsonhafen and the islands Neu-Pommern and Neu-Mecklenburg, trading companies newly fortified with credit began expansion into coastal landholding.
Large African inland acquisitions followed, mostly to the detriment of native inhabitants. All in all, German colonies comprised territory that makes up 22 countries today, mostly in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda.
He reluctantly acquiesced to pleas for help to deal with revolts and armed hostilities by often powerful rulers whose lucrative slaving activities seemed at risk. German native military forces initially engaged in dozens of punitive expeditions to apprehend and punish freedom fighters, at times with British assistance.
Once war was declared in late July Britain and its allies promptly moved against the colonies, the public was informed that German colonies were a threat. The British position that Germany was a uniquely brutal and cruel colonial power originated during the war. By , only in remote jungle regions in East Africa did the German forces hold out.
The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of racial extermination and collective punishment that the German Empire undertook in German South-West Africa modern-day Namibia against the Herero and Nama people, considered one of the first genocides of the 20th century. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Herero migrated to what is today Namibia from the east and established themselves as herdsmen.
In the beginning of the 19th century, the Nama from South Africa, who already possessed some firearms, entered the land and were followed by white merchants and German missionaries.
At first, the Nama began displacing the Herero, leading to bitter warfare between the two groups that lasted the greater part of the 19th century. Later, the Nama and Herero entered a period of cultural exchange.
During the late 19th century, the first Europeans arrived to permanently settle the land. Primarily in Damaraland, German settlers acquired land from the Herero to establish farms. The exchange later became the basis of German colonial rule. Soon after, conflicts between the German colonists and the Herero herdsmen began.
These were frequently disputes about access to land and water, but also the legal discrimination against the native population by the white immigrants. The Herero and Nama resisted expropriation over the years, but were disorganized and the Germans defeated them with ease.
In , the Herero people learned that they were to be placed in reservations, leaving more room for colonists to own land and prosper. In , the Herero and Nama began a large rebellion that lasted until , ending with the near destruction of the Herero people. In a period of four years, , approximately 65, Herero and 10, Nama people perished. The first phase of the genocide was characterized by widespread death from starvation and dehydration due to the prevention of the retreating Herero from leaving the Namib Desert by German forces.
Once defeated, thousands of Herero and Nama were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of disease, abuse, and exhaustion. During the Herero genocide Eugen Fischer, a German scientist, came to the concentration camps to conduct medical experiments on race, using children of Herero people and mulatto children of Herero women and German men as test subjects.
Together with Theodor Mollison he also experimented upon Herero prisoners. Those experiments included sterilization and injection of smallpox, typhus, and tuberculosis.
Other scholars, however, are skeptical and challenge the continuity thesis. Surviving Herero: Photograph of emaciated survivors of the German genocide against Herero after an escape through the arid desert of Omaheke.
Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. The Scramble for Africa. Search for:. He manipulated European rivalries to make Germany a world power, but in doing so laid the groundwork for both World Wars. His father was a fifth-generation Junker a Prussian landowning noble , and his mother came from a family of successful academics and government ministers. Throughout his life Bismarck would emphasize his rural Junker roots, underplaying his considerable intellect and cosmopolitan outlook.
In he married and was sent to Berlin as a delegate to the new Prussian parliament, where he emerged as a reactionary voice against the liberal, anti-autocratic Revolutions of From to Bismarck served a series of ambassadorships—at the German Confederation in Frankfurt, in St. Though technically deferring to William, in reality Bismarck was in charge, manipulating the king with his intellect and the occasional tantrum while using royal decrees to circumvent the power of elected officials.
In Bismarck began the series of wars that would establish Prussian power in Europe. He attacked Denmark to gain the German-speaking territories of Schleswig-Holstein and two years later provoked Emperor Franz-Josef I into starting the Austro-Prussian War , which ended in a swift defeat for the aging Austrian empire. At the time, Bismarck wisely declined to levy a war indemnity against the Austrians. Bismarck was less circumspect in his conduct of the Franco-Prussian War The French declared war, but the Prussians and their German allies won handily.
Prussia levied an indemnity, annexed the French border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and crowned William emperor of a unified Germany the Second Reich in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles—a tremendous insult to the French. With Germany unified, William I and Bismarck turned to entrenching their domestic power.
In Bismarck relented, allying with the Catholics against the growing socialist threat. In the new king forced Bismarck out. Respected and honored by the time of his death eight years later, Bismarck quickly became a quasi-mythic figure invoked by political leaders calling for strong German leadership—or for war. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.
Frederick II ruled Prussia from until his death, leading his nation through multiple wars with Austria and its allies. His daring military tactics expanded and consolidated Prussian lands, while his domestic policies transformed his kingdom into a modern state As a university student, Karl Marx joined a movement known as the Young Hegelians, who strongly criticized the political and cultural establishments of the day.
He became a journalist, and the radical nature of his writings would eventually get him expelled by the From November 8 to November 9, , Adolf Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany.
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