Effects of German rule on Namibia up to 1918

·         Effects of German rule on Namibia up to 1918

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·         The effects were positive and negative.

·         The Germans interfered in the politics of the Nama and Herero over succession wars and traditional authority.

·         The result of German coming was the cattle plague (rinderpest epidemic), which killed most of their cattle.

·         Influx of German settlers in Namibia, as the number grew from 310 in 1891 to 3,000 in 1903.

·         To survive the Herero, under their chiefs sold off their land to German settler farmers at a reckless rate.

·         There was loss of land and cattle to the Germans.

·         There was increased tension and conflicts between the Africans due to German presence.

·         The Chiefs lost their authority and independence of their people.

·         German rule between 1884-1918 led to sporadic uprising like the Nama-Herero uprising 1904-1908, and though crushed they implied nationalism from the Africans.

·         It led to the collaboration of the Herero for some time with the Germans in Namibia

·         There was African loss of independence, cultural identity and existence to the Germans.

·         There was mistreatment of Africans with forced and migrant labor policies

·         Taxation policies were introduced, which was the beginning of under development and dependence.

·         Development of transport and communications, like telegraph and railroads.

·         Plantation fanning was encouraged by the Germans

·         Development of towns like Windhoek, Liidertz, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay and Tsumeb.

·         Missionary influence increased.

·         Africans were pushed in reserves were conditions were worst.

·         There was murder, imprisonment, public punishment and arbitrary arrests, which violated the Human rights of the African people.

·         The German insisted on a disarmament policy. which was demanded by the German settlers and traders.

·         Thousands of Africans were killed, which reduced the population by 1918.

·         People had to flee to distant countries like British Central Africa and South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe due to German mistreatment.

·         The German system of direct rule had proved a failure.

·         In 1918 after the end of World War I, Namibia was mandated to the Republic of South Africa as a Trustee territory by the League of Nations which also introduced the racist Apartheid policy.

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·         How The Germans Gained Control Of Their Namibian Territory/ Sphere Of Influence

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·         South West Africa or Namibia by the nineteenth-Century was dominated by intense conflict between the Nama and the Herero pastoralists, hunters and traders.

·         In 1840, the Bremen based Rhenish Missionary Society came in the area. Having established it's self in Damaraland, Namaqualand- the German Missionaries and trader complained to the British government for not giving them protection against attacks from the local people.

·         The British responded by telling them that they had responsibility northwest of Orange River.

·         Complaints about the instability of the area were sent by German Missionaries to the King of Prussia in 1868.

·         In 1884, the German declared a protectorate over the coastal region from Orange to Kunene Rivers. It was part of a deliberate new German policy to stake out colonies in Africa.

·         Before 1870 the German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck was not interested in colonies but after he was threatened by the merchants not to be voted in the next election, he changed his mind.

·         On the face of it they, the German claimed to be protecting the interests of German Missionaries and traders. In particular a German merchant named Liiderity Franz set up a trading post at Angra Pequena in 1883.

·         Having been allowed, Liiderity claimed to have brought huge tracts of coastal territory! territories from local Nama chiefs in exchange for guns, alcohol and paltry sums of cash.

·         In 1890 the Germans moved on to the central plateau and were able to exploit the age-old rivalry between the Nama and the Herero.

·         They offered the Herero a treaty of protection and in return proposed to help them in their long term territorial conflict with the Nama.

·         The Nama leader, Hendrick Witbooi understood the nature of the German threat only too well and wrote to the Herero chief Maherero warning him of the reality of his new alliance.

·         The German commander set up a military base at Windhoek and launched an attack on Witbooi's home town of Gibeon, but Witbooi withdrew his troops for guerilla campaign.

·         For months, the Germans were penned in at Windhoek until the arrival of heavy reinforcements from overseas in 1894.

·         Though the Nama were militarily defeated, the Germans allowed them to keep their weapons and for the Herero their position had declined after the death of Maherero and the succession dispute that followed.

·         By then, the Germans set up a military garrison at the Herero capital, Okahanja and recognized Samuel Maherero as Herero chief.

·         They started allocating vast tracts of land for white settlement in Windhoek area, which included the best grazing land in the central plateau region. This was against the Herero chief authority.

·         The Eastern Herero and the Mbanderu people resisted German tax and labor demands in 1896 and their rebellion was crushed, as leaders were executed and more land was seized for white settlement.

·         By the turn of the Century, the Germans had extended their control over most of the territory of South West Africa, apart from Ovamboland in the extreme north

·         Between 1896 -97 Rinderpest epidemics hit the pastoral Nama and Herero and the German attempts to turn the whole territory into a colony of white settlement which provoked African resistance of 1904.