Setting the record straight on German Colonialism

Much has been written about the supposed injustices and atrocities that occurred in the German Colonial Empire. Bruce Gilley addresses these historical grievances and paints a more benign picture of this intriguing period.

He builds his case around two central premises: German colonialism was both beneficial and subjectively legitimate. German rule, he argues, brought great improvements to the social and economic lives of the colonized, boosting incomes and trade, combatting feudalism and slavery, imposing liberal forms of governance as well as providing basic healthcare. Perhaps more importantly however, and this point is hammered home by Gilley, German rule was widely accepted and even enforced by local peoples. Without their cooperation, colonisation would have been a fruitless endeavour. Addressing each German colony one by one, from Togoland to the South Pacific, the author finds substantial evidence in support of those two premises.

To be clear, Gilley does not deny that German colonisation sometimes entailed violence. Discussing the two prime examples however, the Herero Wars and the Maji Maji Rebellion, he shows that the German response to local uprisings was both justified and mostly proportional to the threat. He emphatically rejects romanticized accounts of native resistance and politically motivated charges of "genocide". It should be stressed that such revolts were uncommon and even suppressed by other natives who rallied to the German cause.

In the second part of his book, Gilley turns to the postcolonial era. He demonstrates how the portrayal of Germany as an incapable and brutal colonial power and the eventual seizure of its overseas territories after WWI lead to disgruntlement and bitterness in the newly founded Weimar Republic, thus contributing to the decline of German liberalism. The ensuing rise of Naziism cannot be understood as a continuation of the German colonial legacy, but rather as its rejection. In fact, the Nazis were decidedly anticolonial. Gilley also convincingly refutes the absurd notion of there being a causal nexus between colonial warfare and the Holocaust (known as the "Windhuk to Auschwitz" thesis).

Finally, Gilley casts light on the anticolonial propaganda churned out by East German leninist scholars in the late 1960s. Sadly, the contents of their biased work have become mainstream and today are uncritically cited by woke activists and academics. Ironically and in contrast to distant German rule, socialist interventions in postcolonial Africa/Arabia proved disastrous. Unfortunately, Gilley only briefly turns to this topic - it deserves more attention, maybe in a seperate book.

To summarize the results of Gilley's research: Modern day Germany need not be ashamed of its colonial past. Although it wasn't all love, peace and harmony, German colonialism was objectively preferable to the alternatives that were available at the time, namely underdevelopment, regular famines, incessant tribal warfare and eventual conquest by other European or Islamic powers. Modernity was comming one way or another to those regions; it was inevitable.

As should be clear from the book title, this is not an impartial assessment of the German colonial experience. It is the other, unknown side of the coin. It is thus no wonder that the author is very selective with his sources. Another downside is Gilley's denigrating, sometimes almost whiny tone. Then again, this is understandable given the relentless and ill-motivated attacks that Gilley constantly faces. It is to be hoped that his book ignites healthy scholarly debate on the subject, reaching a large German audience. We desperately need it.

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