Edward M. Spiers
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693627
- eISBN:
- 9780191741258
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693627.003.0017
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Spiers proffers a critique of transcultural theory as applied to British colonial warfare. It argues that all rules of warfare were not abandoned in such wars and that the conditions under which the ...
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Spiers proffers a critique of transcultural theory as applied to British colonial warfare. It argues that all rules of warfare were not abandoned in such wars and that the conditions under which the wars were fought had a greater bearing upon their conduct than racial feelings or the desires for revenge. Surrenders even after or during ferocious conflicts did occur (with massacres as at Isandlwana somewhat exceptional events), and the various belligerents took prisoners. Indeed surrenders served a range of political and deterrent purposes, with the payment of a price by the vanquished being understood as part of colonial interaction prior to the resumption of trade or service in British armies.Less
Spiers proffers a critique of transcultural theory as applied to British colonial warfare. It argues that all rules of warfare were not abandoned in such wars and that the conditions under which the wars were fought had a greater bearing upon their conduct than racial feelings or the desires for revenge. Surrenders even after or during ferocious conflicts did occur (with massacres as at Isandlwana somewhat exceptional events), and the various belligerents took prisoners. Indeed surrenders served a range of political and deterrent purposes, with the payment of a price by the vanquished being understood as part of colonial interaction prior to the resumption of trade or service in British armies.
Stephen Conway
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199253753
- eISBN:
- 9780191719738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253753.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter explores the impact of the two wars on ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics. The content and structure of politics were affected, with Whigs and Tories burying their differences and entering ...
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This chapter explores the impact of the two wars on ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics. The content and structure of politics were affected, with Whigs and Tories burying their differences and entering effectively into a political partnership at the height of the Seven Years War. The wider public was drawn in to act as participants in the political process in ways that challenged oligarchic control both in Britain and Ireland.Less
This chapter explores the impact of the two wars on ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics. The content and structure of politics were affected, with Whigs and Tories burying their differences and entering effectively into a political partnership at the height of the Seven Years War. The wider public was drawn in to act as participants in the political process in ways that challenged oligarchic control both in Britain and Ireland.
Michael P.M. Finch
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199674572
- eISBN:
- 9780191752445
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199674572.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Military History
On the eve of the 20th century Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey claimed to have devised a new approach to the consolidation of colonial acquisitions. Their method emphasized the primacy of ...
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On the eve of the 20th century Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey claimed to have devised a new approach to the consolidation of colonial acquisitions. Their method emphasized the primacy of political action over military action, called for the replacement of military columns with a ‘creeping occupation’, stressed the importance of economic-organizational development in ensuring the lasting stability of newly-acquired imperial possessions, and called for the unification of civil and military powers in the hands of the soldier, who would act as the first administrator of the colony. This method was the culmination of colonial experiences in Tonkin and Madagascar in the final decades of the 19th century. Following Gallieni’s career path across these colonies, this book focuses first on the painful process of pacification in Tonkin, locating the emergence of the method and Gallieni’s own achievements in their proper context. It then moves across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. Here Gallieni, combining the roles of Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General, was able to play out his nascent colonial method on a grand scale. Meanwhile, his subordinates—with Lyautey at the forefront—were able to interpret his method in the execution of their missions. Drawing heavily on French archival sources, this book sheds new light on colonial conflict and consolidation during the age of European imperial expansion. It illustrates the differences, gaps, and transgressions that exist between the theory and the practice of pacification, and raises broader questions about the French army, empire and civil-military relations.Less
On the eve of the 20th century Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey claimed to have devised a new approach to the consolidation of colonial acquisitions. Their method emphasized the primacy of political action over military action, called for the replacement of military columns with a ‘creeping occupation’, stressed the importance of economic-organizational development in ensuring the lasting stability of newly-acquired imperial possessions, and called for the unification of civil and military powers in the hands of the soldier, who would act as the first administrator of the colony. This method was the culmination of colonial experiences in Tonkin and Madagascar in the final decades of the 19th century. Following Gallieni’s career path across these colonies, this book focuses first on the painful process of pacification in Tonkin, locating the emergence of the method and Gallieni’s own achievements in their proper context. It then moves across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. Here Gallieni, combining the roles of Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General, was able to play out his nascent colonial method on a grand scale. Meanwhile, his subordinates—with Lyautey at the forefront—were able to interpret his method in the execution of their missions. Drawing heavily on French archival sources, this book sheds new light on colonial conflict and consolidation during the age of European imperial expansion. It illustrates the differences, gaps, and transgressions that exist between the theory and the practice of pacification, and raises broader questions about the French army, empire and civil-military relations.
Erica Charters
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226180007
- eISBN:
- 9780226180144
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226180144.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book examines British responses to disease during the Seven Years War with a particular focus on the role of the state and its relationship to the welfare of the armed forces. Alongside fiscal ...
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This book examines British responses to disease during the Seven Years War with a particular focus on the role of the state and its relationship to the welfare of the armed forces. Alongside fiscal and logistical capability, British success required consistent and well-publicized attention to the welfare of troops to maintain manpower strength, support recruitment, and retain public support and public financing for the war. The strength and success of the British state during the war is shown to be dependent on its ability to secure public support through attention to troop welfare. This was accomplished by encouraging and supporting medical research, applying medical knowledge, and adapting to local conditions around the globe. The incidence of disease thus played a crucial role in the formation of strategy and policy; in turn, the war stimulated new ways of thinking about disease and medicine, particularly in colonial environments. By tracing how imperial warfare shaped the development of British medical expertise, this book highlights the central role that the British state played in shaping eighteenth-century medicine and scientific innovation. Not only did the discipline of tropical medicine have its roots in the war, but the experience of war provided naval and military medical practitioners with the opportunity for observation and experimentation. Moreover, wartime medical experience conferred authority and status on naval and military medical practitioners. Medicine became a form of expertise in the service of the British Empire, applied during campaigning and influencing both imperial policy and the nature of imperial authority.Less
This book examines British responses to disease during the Seven Years War with a particular focus on the role of the state and its relationship to the welfare of the armed forces. Alongside fiscal and logistical capability, British success required consistent and well-publicized attention to the welfare of troops to maintain manpower strength, support recruitment, and retain public support and public financing for the war. The strength and success of the British state during the war is shown to be dependent on its ability to secure public support through attention to troop welfare. This was accomplished by encouraging and supporting medical research, applying medical knowledge, and adapting to local conditions around the globe. The incidence of disease thus played a crucial role in the formation of strategy and policy; in turn, the war stimulated new ways of thinking about disease and medicine, particularly in colonial environments. By tracing how imperial warfare shaped the development of British medical expertise, this book highlights the central role that the British state played in shaping eighteenth-century medicine and scientific innovation. Not only did the discipline of tropical medicine have its roots in the war, but the experience of war provided naval and military medical practitioners with the opportunity for observation and experimentation. Moreover, wartime medical experience conferred authority and status on naval and military medical practitioners. Medicine became a form of expertise in the service of the British Empire, applied during campaigning and influencing both imperial policy and the nature of imperial authority.
Manu Sehgal
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190124502
- eISBN:
- 9780190992170
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124502.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Political History
This chapter seeks to locate the political economy of conquest within a wider context of British politics in the age of transoceanic global conflict. The Second Anglo-Maratha War was both the most ...
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This chapter seeks to locate the political economy of conquest within a wider context of British politics in the age of transoceanic global conflict. The Second Anglo-Maratha War was both the most extensive project of military conquest as well as the least debated colonial misadventure. This war—the most ambitious project of military conquest of the long eighteenth century—was also a secret war. The orderly flow of information about a growing list of subjects—the financial health of the Company, political negotiations with Indian polities, military projects—had become a vital part of early colonial rule. Imperial governance relied on the availability of this information to such an extent that when its transmission was disrupted by/under Richard Wellesley, tectonic shifts in the EIC’s bid for hegemony could not be critically scrutinized. The structures that constituted a distinctive early colonial order—ideological privileging of the military over the civilian, elaborating a legal framework for conquest, nourishing a machine of war, restructuring the hierarchies of power, reconceptualization of land as territory yielding revenue—were animated in the war against the Marathas. The financial exhaustion wreaked by the war typified the political economy of conquest that created an early colonial order in South Asia.Less
This chapter seeks to locate the political economy of conquest within a wider context of British politics in the age of transoceanic global conflict. The Second Anglo-Maratha War was both the most extensive project of military conquest as well as the least debated colonial misadventure. This war—the most ambitious project of military conquest of the long eighteenth century—was also a secret war. The orderly flow of information about a growing list of subjects—the financial health of the Company, political negotiations with Indian polities, military projects—had become a vital part of early colonial rule. Imperial governance relied on the availability of this information to such an extent that when its transmission was disrupted by/under Richard Wellesley, tectonic shifts in the EIC’s bid for hegemony could not be critically scrutinized. The structures that constituted a distinctive early colonial order—ideological privileging of the military over the civilian, elaborating a legal framework for conquest, nourishing a machine of war, restructuring the hierarchies of power, reconceptualization of land as territory yielding revenue—were animated in the war against the Marathas. The financial exhaustion wreaked by the war typified the political economy of conquest that created an early colonial order in South Asia.
Erica Charters
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226180007
- eISBN:
- 9780226180144
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226180144.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter introduces the themes and argument of this study. It highlights the ways in which disease shaped military policy and the amount of energy, time, and money devoted to troop welfare by ...
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This chapter introduces the themes and argument of this study. It highlights the ways in which disease shaped military policy and the amount of energy, time, and money devoted to troop welfare by officers and imperial administrators. Such war-time responses to disease reveal the role of the state in providing medical care and in promoting and directing medical research; they also illustrate that the state’s deployment of medical expertise and display of medical care were a means of establishing public support and legitimacy. This chapter explains the methodological approach to the study of disease and war, situates this study in the historiography of the Seven Years War, and examines the concept of expertise and its role in state formation. It points to the parallels between the global scope of the Seven Years War and the structure of the book, with each chapter focusing on a different theatre of operations and on a different challenge to troop health.Less
This chapter introduces the themes and argument of this study. It highlights the ways in which disease shaped military policy and the amount of energy, time, and money devoted to troop welfare by officers and imperial administrators. Such war-time responses to disease reveal the role of the state in providing medical care and in promoting and directing medical research; they also illustrate that the state’s deployment of medical expertise and display of medical care were a means of establishing public support and legitimacy. This chapter explains the methodological approach to the study of disease and war, situates this study in the historiography of the Seven Years War, and examines the concept of expertise and its role in state formation. It points to the parallels between the global scope of the Seven Years War and the structure of the book, with each chapter focusing on a different theatre of operations and on a different challenge to troop health.
Manu Sehgal
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190124502
- eISBN:
- 9780190992170
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124502.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Political History
This chapter seeks to analyze the changing meaning of ‘peace’ under an early colonial regime which was perpetually at war. ‘Peace’ in early colonial South Asia no longer meant the absence of ...
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This chapter seeks to analyze the changing meaning of ‘peace’ under an early colonial regime which was perpetually at war. ‘Peace’ in early colonial South Asia no longer meant the absence of conflict, but rather a period when problems of war assumed an urgent significance. From paying soldier’s arrears incurred during military conflicts to disciplining them in times when the Company state was not formally at war—‘peace’ was no longer the opposite of war. Rather it was the fleeting opportunity to re-tool the apparatus of colonial war-making. Conquest did not occur in a legal vacuum. This chapter analyses debates about military law and its significance for the early colonial regime’s claims to sovereign authority. Jurisdictional jockeying between competing sources of law went well beyond the need to maintain military discipline. Examining these debates opens up an unexplored world in which we can understand important questions relating to the territoriality of early colonial rule, the legal personality of the Company state and efforts to compare Britain’s garrisoning of Ireland with the organization of coercive force in South Asia.Less
This chapter seeks to analyze the changing meaning of ‘peace’ under an early colonial regime which was perpetually at war. ‘Peace’ in early colonial South Asia no longer meant the absence of conflict, but rather a period when problems of war assumed an urgent significance. From paying soldier’s arrears incurred during military conflicts to disciplining them in times when the Company state was not formally at war—‘peace’ was no longer the opposite of war. Rather it was the fleeting opportunity to re-tool the apparatus of colonial war-making. Conquest did not occur in a legal vacuum. This chapter analyses debates about military law and its significance for the early colonial regime’s claims to sovereign authority. Jurisdictional jockeying between competing sources of law went well beyond the need to maintain military discipline. Examining these debates opens up an unexplored world in which we can understand important questions relating to the territoriality of early colonial rule, the legal personality of the Company state and efforts to compare Britain’s garrisoning of Ireland with the organization of coercive force in South Asia.
Erica Charters
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226180007
- eISBN:
- 9780226180144
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226180144.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter examines the role of disease and responses thereto during the 1759 campaigns against French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe and the 1762 campaign against Spanish-held Cuba. Contextualized ...
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This chapter examines the role of disease and responses thereto during the 1759 campaigns against French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe and the 1762 campaign against Spanish-held Cuba. Contextualized by contemporary and modern medical understanding of tropical disease, this chapter shows that officials were aware of the dangers of disease in the West Indian climate and followed the advice of medical authorities concerning hot climates. Yet little could be done to prevent high rates of morbidity and mortality, particularly as a result of yellow fever. This serves as a reminder that rates of disease are not always an accurate way to assess medical care and adaptation to foreign environments, whether physical or cultural. The chapter concludes with an examination of the reports of disease in colonial American newspapers, tracing the role that disease played in the emerging colonial public sphere and its nascent imperial frustrations. In the broader context of imperial-colonial relations, disease in West Indian campaigns demonstrates the difficulties of colonial warfare and its potential for straining relations between Britain and its colonies.Less
This chapter examines the role of disease and responses thereto during the 1759 campaigns against French-held Martinique and Guadeloupe and the 1762 campaign against Spanish-held Cuba. Contextualized by contemporary and modern medical understanding of tropical disease, this chapter shows that officials were aware of the dangers of disease in the West Indian climate and followed the advice of medical authorities concerning hot climates. Yet little could be done to prevent high rates of morbidity and mortality, particularly as a result of yellow fever. This serves as a reminder that rates of disease are not always an accurate way to assess medical care and adaptation to foreign environments, whether physical or cultural. The chapter concludes with an examination of the reports of disease in colonial American newspapers, tracing the role that disease played in the emerging colonial public sphere and its nascent imperial frustrations. In the broader context of imperial-colonial relations, disease in West Indian campaigns demonstrates the difficulties of colonial warfare and its potential for straining relations between Britain and its colonies.
Amit Prakash
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- March 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192898876
- eISBN:
- 9780191925412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192898876.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
When North African migrants became a durable presence in Paris after World War I, the Parisian municipal authorities noted the discrepancy between the surveillance regime that existed in the colonies ...
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When North African migrants became a durable presence in Paris after World War I, the Parisian municipal authorities noted the discrepancy between the surveillance regime that existed in the colonies and the relative freedom accorded to them in the imperial capital. Taking into account the continuity of a centuries-long police concern with foreigners in Paris, the chapter argues that the colonial migrant represented a new kind of stranger for city officials. The ideological origins of the stereotype of the “North African” who was often interchangeable with the “Arab” and the “Muslim” are traced to the early nineteenth-century French violent colonial encounter in Algeria. Ideas and practices emanating from colonial administrative services in Algeria, Indochina, and Madagascar, as well as colonial ethnographic and medical knowledge, all contributed to the police conception of North Africans that is reflected in the reports and memoranda of the Parisian police from the 1920s to the 1950s. The outcome of this conception was that police surveillance emerged as the preferred state practice in the management of difference in Paris.Less
When North African migrants became a durable presence in Paris after World War I, the Parisian municipal authorities noted the discrepancy between the surveillance regime that existed in the colonies and the relative freedom accorded to them in the imperial capital. Taking into account the continuity of a centuries-long police concern with foreigners in Paris, the chapter argues that the colonial migrant represented a new kind of stranger for city officials. The ideological origins of the stereotype of the “North African” who was often interchangeable with the “Arab” and the “Muslim” are traced to the early nineteenth-century French violent colonial encounter in Algeria. Ideas and practices emanating from colonial administrative services in Algeria, Indochina, and Madagascar, as well as colonial ethnographic and medical knowledge, all contributed to the police conception of North Africans that is reflected in the reports and memoranda of the Parisian police from the 1920s to the 1950s. The outcome of this conception was that police surveillance emerged as the preferred state practice in the management of difference in Paris.
Manu Sehgal
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- December 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780190124502
- eISBN:
- 9780190992170
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190124502.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Political History
This chapter examines the origins of a distinctive system of organizing military conquest in the final quarter of the eighteenth century. It seeks to de-centre the study of politics and military ...
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This chapter examines the origins of a distinctive system of organizing military conquest in the final quarter of the eighteenth century. It seeks to de-centre the study of politics and military contestation by looking at the war against the Marathas (1778–82) from the vantage point of the region most directly affected by it—the western peninsular territory of the Bombay presidency. The advantage in shifting the focus away from the politically dominant Bengal presidency allows identification of a critical component in the political economy of conquest—the transfer of political authority from a civilian council to the commander of a military force. This shift in political power was essential to the success of the EIC regime of conquest even as it became a perennial source of conflict within the governing structures of the Company state. The debate and dissension that accompanied the deployment of military force both enabled the success of the machine of war and characterized the creation of a distinctive early colonial ideology of rule that subverted civilian control of the military.Less
This chapter examines the origins of a distinctive system of organizing military conquest in the final quarter of the eighteenth century. It seeks to de-centre the study of politics and military contestation by looking at the war against the Marathas (1778–82) from the vantage point of the region most directly affected by it—the western peninsular territory of the Bombay presidency. The advantage in shifting the focus away from the politically dominant Bengal presidency allows identification of a critical component in the political economy of conquest—the transfer of political authority from a civilian council to the commander of a military force. This shift in political power was essential to the success of the EIC regime of conquest even as it became a perennial source of conflict within the governing structures of the Company state. The debate and dissension that accompanied the deployment of military force both enabled the success of the machine of war and characterized the creation of a distinctive early colonial ideology of rule that subverted civilian control of the military.
Edward M. Spiers
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719061219
- eISBN:
- 9781781700556
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719061219.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874–1902—the zenith of the Victorian imperial expansion—and does so from the perspective of the ...
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This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874–1902—the zenith of the Victorian imperial expansion—and does so from the perspective of the regimental soldier. The book utilises a number of letters and diaries, written by regimental officers and other ranks, to allow soldiers to speak for themselves about their experience of colonial warfare. The sources demonstrate the adaptability of the British army in fighting in different climates, over demanding terrain and against a diverse array of enemies. They also uncover soldiers' responses to army reforms of the era as well as the response to the introduction of new technologies of war.Less
This book re-examines the campaign experience of British soldiers in Africa during the period 1874–1902—the zenith of the Victorian imperial expansion—and does so from the perspective of the regimental soldier. The book utilises a number of letters and diaries, written by regimental officers and other ranks, to allow soldiers to speak for themselves about their experience of colonial warfare. The sources demonstrate the adaptability of the British army in fighting in different climates, over demanding terrain and against a diverse array of enemies. They also uncover soldiers' responses to army reforms of the era as well as the response to the introduction of new technologies of war.
Matthew P. Fitzpatrick
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- March 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192897039
- eISBN:
- 9780191919688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192897039.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, World Modern History
While several historians have claimed that the genocidal war in German South West Africa was a direct expression of the will of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the evidence suggests that the primary ...
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While several historians have claimed that the genocidal war in German South West Africa was a direct expression of the will of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the evidence suggests that the primary responsibility for the genocide lies with the commander in the field, Lothar von Trotha, and, to a lesser extent, metropolitan military planners. It is certainly the case that the German emperor chose Trotha from a shortlist of candidates. However, the tactics and prosecution of the war were not overseen by the monarch. When confronted by the German chancellor with the war crimes occurring in German South West Africa, Wilhelm II agreed to have the commander in the field’s ‘order of annihilation’ rescinded and for him to be later recalled to Germany. That Wilhelm II did not personally direct the genocidal conduct of the war in no way alters the fact that the German state was directly responsible for the genocide, given that it was conducted by the royally appointed and legally competent German commander of military operations.Less
While several historians have claimed that the genocidal war in German South West Africa was a direct expression of the will of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the evidence suggests that the primary responsibility for the genocide lies with the commander in the field, Lothar von Trotha, and, to a lesser extent, metropolitan military planners. It is certainly the case that the German emperor chose Trotha from a shortlist of candidates. However, the tactics and prosecution of the war were not overseen by the monarch. When confronted by the German chancellor with the war crimes occurring in German South West Africa, Wilhelm II agreed to have the commander in the field’s ‘order of annihilation’ rescinded and for him to be later recalled to Germany. That Wilhelm II did not personally direct the genocidal conduct of the war in no way alters the fact that the German state was directly responsible for the genocide, given that it was conducted by the royally appointed and legally competent German commander of military operations.
Matthew P. Fitzpatrick
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- March 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780192897039
- eISBN:
- 9780191919688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780192897039.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, World Modern History
When Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, died, the German state, including the German Kaiser, exerted diplomatic pressure on the new Sultan Khalifa to grant the German East African Company a ...
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When Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, died, the German state, including the German Kaiser, exerted diplomatic pressure on the new Sultan Khalifa to grant the German East African Company a long-term lease over an extensive territory that was in reality ruled by the sultan’s vassals. Outraged at not having been consulted, these local rulers launched a fierce uprising that brought into focus the clear inability of the German company to control the territory they had leased. The result of the rebellion was not to reconsider the territorial claims of the German company, but rather to suspect that Sultan Khalifa had betrayed the Germans and was abetting the rebelling local rulers. In Germany, the military campaign was disingenuously presented to the German Reichstag not as a question of contested sovereignty or economic overreach but rather as a principled campaign against slavery.Less
When Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, died, the German state, including the German Kaiser, exerted diplomatic pressure on the new Sultan Khalifa to grant the German East African Company a long-term lease over an extensive territory that was in reality ruled by the sultan’s vassals. Outraged at not having been consulted, these local rulers launched a fierce uprising that brought into focus the clear inability of the German company to control the territory they had leased. The result of the rebellion was not to reconsider the territorial claims of the German company, but rather to suspect that Sultan Khalifa had betrayed the Germans and was abetting the rebelling local rulers. In Germany, the military campaign was disingenuously presented to the German Reichstag not as a question of contested sovereignty or economic overreach but rather as a principled campaign against slavery.