1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910454111503321

Autore

Steinmetz George <1957->

Titolo

The devil's handwriting [[electronic resource] ] : precoloniality and the German colonial state in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa / / George Steinmetz

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2007

ISBN

1-281-96655-X

0-226-77244-6

9786611966553

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (677 p.)

Collana

Chicago studies in practices of meaning

Disciplina

325/.343

Soggetti

Imperialism

Electronic books.

Germany Colonies History

Germany Foreign relations 1888-1918

Germany Colonies Race relations

Qingdao (China) History

Germany Foreign relations China

China Foreign relations Germany

Samoa History

Namibia History 1884-1915

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [527]-603) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1. Introduction: Ethnography and the Colonial State -- Chapter 2. "A World Composed almost Entirely of Contradictions": Southwest Africans in German Eyes, before Colonialism -- Chapter 3. From Native Policy to Genocide to Eugenics: German Southwest Africa -- Chapter 4. "A Foreign Race That All Travelers Have Agreed to be the Most Engaging": The Creation of the Samoan Noble Savage, by Way of Tahiti -- Chapter 5. "The Spirit of the German Nation at Work in the Antipodes": German Colonialism in Samoa, 1900-1914 -- Chapter 6. The Foreign Devil's Handwriting:



German Views of China before "Kiautschou" -- Chapter 7. A Pact with the (Foreign) Devil: Qingdao as a Colony -- Chapter 8. Conclusion: Colonial Afterlives -- Appendix 1: A Note on Sources and Procedures -- Appendix 2: Head Administrators of German Southwest Africa, Samoa, and Kiaochow -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Germany's overseas colonial empire was relatively short lived, lasting from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange.Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The Devil's Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a brilliant cross