Environing Empire Nature, Infrastructure and the Making of German Southwest Africa |
|
| Author:
| Kalb, Martin |
| Series title: | Environment in History: International Perspectives Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-1-80539-304-7 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2024 |
| Publisher: | Berghahn Books, Incorporated
|
| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $19.95 |
Book Description:
|
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...
More Description
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.