The Ideology of German Colonialism, 1840-1906

Although considerable attention has been devoted to the history of the German colonial empire, the role of colonialist ideology has largely been neglected.1 A study of the ideas which were used to conceptualize colonial affairs can provide an important key to understanding the context in which colonial policy was made and can illuminate some otherwise obscure relationships between colonialism and wider trends in German history. In particular, the dichotomy which is revealed between two predominant German conceptions of colonialism suggests a similar dichotomy between the major trends of German imperialist ideology. This split in turn can be related to the dispute between "annexationist" and "moderate" imperialists in World War I, which indicates that the dispute had deep roots in general conceptions of German society. Between 1840 and 1906, two concepts of colonialism constituted the dominant colonial ideologies in Germany. For convenience, the two concepts can be called the "emigrationist" and the "economic" ideologies. The emigrationist theory prescribed overseas settlement colonies as the solution to a number of social problems, of which the most important was the Auswanderung, the massive nineteenthcentury emigration from Germany. Large numbers of Germans, displaced by economic and social changes in Germany, could settle as farmers in these colonies as an alternative to emigration to America or elsewhere. The settlement colonies would "protect" the emigrants' culture, retain their contributions to the German economy, and recreate overseas the type of traditional peasant society which many regarded as the basis of national power and which was threatened by the process of industrialization. The exportation of excess population would also lessen the possibility of political revolution in Germany. Emigrationist colonies were to be established in temperate regions. Their success was to be judged not so much on economic grounds as from their anticipated social effects on Germany. Their purpose implied a policy of displacing