Bley, Helmut (1971): South-West Africa Under German Rule

Book cover Helmut Bley 1971 South-West Africa Under German Rule

Bley, Helmut: South-West Africa Under German Rule, 1894-1914, London 1971 (Translated from the original German version of 1968)

Original German work: “Kolonialherrschaft und Sozialstruktur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1894-1914”, Hamburg 1968

Description of the English paperback edition, which was published in 1998 under a different title (“Namibia under German rule”) and with a new introduction by the author, on the Amazon website:

“The history of Namibia offers many parallels to developments in other European colonies. The settlers, with a greater or lesser use of force, established themselves in the country and their confrontation with the African population often culminated in rebellion in the area of major settlement; a European settler community would then consolidate itself over the ruins left by military conquest. The pattern was repeated in Namibia during the Nama and Herero wars.

Helmut Bley shows how the roots of German totalitarianism stem from the colonial period. He provides a picture of how social insecurity, bureaucracy and rigid economic thinking produced the racialism and the extremism of the last years of German rule. The abuse of the Africans provided the roots of the abuse of the Jews.”

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