Koloniale Begegnungen: Deutschland und Grossbritannien als Imperialmachte in Afrika 1880-1914

Abstract

Ulrike Lindner’s ambitious and detailed study of German–British encounters in Africa represents an overdue foray into the under-researched field of ‘trans-colonial’ exchanges between imperial powers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Based on an impressive range of largely untapped archival sources, this work shifts the historiographical focus from national or comparative perspectives to a close view of individual and institutional contacts across colonial borders in East and South Africa. While the actors in Lindner’s study are still predominantly white, male and European, the action is firmly grounded in two sets of neighbouring territories: German Southwest Africa and the Cape Colony (from 1910 the Union of South Africa), and German and British East Africa. This ‘less Euro-centric view’ of the period before the First World War offers a unique perspective on German–British relations before the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 (p. 467). As Lindner shows through a series of illustrative episodes, the colonial relationship between the two powers diverged sharply from developments elsewhere. In contrast to the general build-up of international tensions between Germany and Great Britain after 1900, the exchanges of visitors, goods and ideas between their respective colonies in Africa bucked the trend and actually grew steadily right up to the start of violence in Europe. Lindner highlights the widespread view among colonial officials that the imperial project in Africa was, in the end, a joint project that united white Europeans and set them apart from the indigenous populations. This important colonial corrective to the conventional view of British–German relations on the eve of war is the most significant accomplishment of Lindner’s study.