Environing Empire

Nature, Infrastructure and the Making of German Southwest Africa

Martin Kalb (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

322 Seiten

2024
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80539-304-7 (ISBN)

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Even leaving aside the vast death and suffering that it wrought on indigenous populations, German ambitions to transform Southwest Africa in the early part of the twentieth century were futile for most. For years colonists wrestled ocean waters, desert landscapes, and widespread aridity as they tried to reach inland in their effort of turning outwardly barren lands into a profitable settler colony. In his innovative environmental history, Martin Kalb outlines the development of the colony up to World War I, deconstructing the common settler narrative, all to reveal the importance of natural forces and the Kaisereich’s everyday violence.

Martin Kalb is an Associate Professor of History at Bridgewater College in Virginia. His research on the histories of everyday life (Alltagsgeschichte), youth, and environmental history has appeared in academic journals and edited volumes; his monograph Coming of Age: Constructing and Controlling Youth in Munich, 1942–1973 was published in 2016.

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Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1. Currents, Chances, Commodities

   On the Margins

   Boiling Giants

   Clubbing the Wing-footed

   Shoveling White Gold

Chapter 2. Accessing an Arid Land

   Our Place in the Desert

    Reaching Southwest Africa

    Germany’s Own Entrance

Chapter 3. Harbors, Animals, Trains

   Technological Marbles

   Animal Engineering

   Reaching Inland

Chapter 4. Solving Aridity

   Existing Structures

   Water Structures

   Engineering Water

Chapter 5. Access and Destruction

   Supplying War

    Maintaining Access

    Fighting People and Nature

Chapter 6. Expanding War and Death

   Drilling Wood

   Accessing the South

   Reaching Beyond

Chapter 7. Creating a Model Colony

   Visions of a Model Colony

   Solving the Water Question

   Creating a Settler Paradise

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	07.02.2024
Reihe/Serie	Environment in History: International Perspectives
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
ISBN-10	1-80539-304-9 / 1805393049
ISBN-13	978-1-80539-304-7 / 9781805393047
Zustand	Neuware