Ma}' 25, jCjiG 
L A N D cS: W A T K R 
25 
AFRICA AND THE GERMAN PLAN 
By John Buchan 
PROFESSOR ERNST HAECKEL, who describes 
himself for the purpose as a " free-thinking 
Monist," has been adding to the gaiety of 
nations by discoursing in an American magazine 
on (iermany's future plans, \^'c have not liitherto 
associated Professor Haeckcl with high politics, but in 
these hard times all the gelehrfcn liave been mobilised 
and the venerable author of " Weltrdthsel " with the 
rest. He explains that (Germany needs an empire, not 
like England for lust of gold, or like France for vain 
glory, or like Italy for megalomania, or like Russia 
because of sheer barbarous greed, but because she is 
o\ercrowded at home and wants a dumping ground for 
her surplus population. Africa is going to he a substantial 
part of this empire ; the Congo especially, which is to 
come to (jermany as a consequence of the espousal of 
Belgium. The whole of Central Africa from sea to sea will be 
(ierman, while the Cape will be restored to Holland, and 
ligypt to the Turk, and perfidious Britain will depart 
frrmi the continent altogether. 
Professor Haeckel is not to be taken seriously, except 
in so far as he gives expression to popular opinion in his 
own land. At this moment there is but one German 
colon}' in Africa. Togoland fell in the first month of the 
war ; a year ago (itn^ral Botha secured the surrender 
of South- West Africa ; two months ago the last (ierman 
resistance died in the -Cameroons. Only German East 
Africa still stands, ringed round with enemies, and General 
Smuts' mobile cohnnus are already pressing the defence 
southward upon tin- main railway. But the ultimate 
fate of Germany's o\erseas possessions depends upon 
the decision of the struggle in the main theatres, and 
that decision is not yet. It is too soon for any of the 
combatants to count spoils. But it is worth while to 
remind ourselves of the purpose for which Clermany went 
to Africa and the precise views she entertained with 
respect to that continent. In striking at (ierman Africa 
the Allies are not attacking irrelevant and half-forgotten 
dependencies, but an integral part of the German scheme 
of world-empire. 
The Origin of German Africa 
Other colonial empires have come about by accident 
and the slow process of time, " growing as the trees grow 
while man sleeps " ; but Germany's was the outcome of a 
sudden ambition developing into a methodical plan. The 
oldest of her African possessions has a history of less than 
fifty years. After the defeat of France in 1870 and the 
industrial development which followed, she aspired to all 
the appurtenances of a great nation. She saw France 
and Britain with colonies, and she desired quite naturally 
to have some of her own. Her population was growing 
and she wished an outlet for emigration under her own 
flag. She was in the throes of a new industrialism, and 
she sought her own producing grounds for raw materials. 
Besides, national glory is always measured to some extent 
in terms of territory, and she wished more of the map 
of the world to be the German colour. She was of the 
opinion of Captain John Smith that " the greatest honour 
that ever belonged to the greatest monarchs was to 
enlarge their dominions and erect commonweals." Her 
publicists. List and Friedel and Treitschke, pointed out 
that trade followed the flag, and Bismarck, playing 
on Europe as on a stringed instrument, saw in oversea 
adventures a chance for securing fresh assets to bargain 
with in the European game. German colonisation was 
a reasoned policy, not the haphazard work of individuals 
which gradually merges into a national purpose. And, 
like all reasoned pohcies, in its first stages it marched fast. 
The way had been jnepared for her in Africa by many 
path-finders. The history of Africa in the last century 
is full of German names, missionaries, explorers and 
scientists, who must rank high in the record of explora- 
tion. Such were Kolbe and Lichtenstein, Mohr and 
Mauch in South Africa ; in West and Northern Africa 
Hornemann and Barth, Ziegler and Schweinfurth, Rohlfs 
and Nachtigal ; in East and Central Africa von der Decken 
and \'on Wissmann. At first she found her path made 
easy, for Britain was friendly and unsuspicious. The few 
men at home who knew anything about the subject were 
thinking only of the slave trade and welcomed a European 
collaborator in its suppression. Mr. (Gladstone in the 
House of Commons publicly thanked God for the advent 
of (jermany to assist " in the execution of the great pur- 
poses of Providence for the advantage of mankind." 
The year 1884 saw the foundation of German Damara- 
land, of (ierman Togoland, and of German Cameroons. 
That same year the Berlin Conference regularised her 
acquisitions, and six years later the Caprivi Agreement 
settled the borders of German East Africa. By 1890 
German Africa existed practically in its present 
form, and during the Moroccan troubles of 1911 it was 
increased by a strip of French Congo. She had obtained 
territory nearly five times the size of Germany in Europe, 
much of it of great potential richness. And she had 
succeeded in building a fence across the British road from 
the Zambesi to the North. 
Germany's Colonial Methods 
Having got her colonies, Germany proceeded to handle 
them vigorously after her own fashion. She had no 
notion of live and let live with the native populations. 
The hapless black was dragooned under the system 
of government which obtained on the banks of the Spree. 
In the words of Dr. ]\Ioritz Bonn, who may rank as one of 
the ablest students of (ierman colonial aifairs, she "solved 
the nati\'e problem by smashing tribal life and creating a 
scarcity of laboiir." She spent money like water and her 
colonial deficits grew, but she got value for her outlay. 
The roads and railways in the Cameroons, in Togoland, 
and in (ierman East Africa were models of tropical 
engineering. 
Settlers did not appear in any large numbers, for the 
good reason that their life was made too d.'fTi^ult by an 
ever-present bureaucracy. The colonist of whatever 
nationality must be given a fair latitude or he will never 
get his roots down into the soil. The result was that 
German settlers used to trek across the border into British 
tcrritor\', finding their country's hand too heavy under 
an equatorial sun. The truth was that Germany did not 
rpally want settlers. In spite of Professor Haeckel she 
had no great surplus populatioii to export, for in late 
years her tide of emigration had slackened. What she 
desired was producing grounds for raw material under 
her own flag, and she was in a fair way to get them. Her 
most successful colony, German East Africa, was a 
planter's country, with huge agricultural estates, like 
the old Portuguese pvazos. Proclucing grounds, military 
outposts and obser\'ation stations — tjiis was the future 
she designed for her oversea possessions. 
Now, colonisation is something more than a chain of 
plantations and factories, and it is much more than a 
string of military garrisons. It involves settlemeni—the 
adoption by emigrants of the new land as their home, 
the administration of that new land with a view to its 
own future and not with regard only to the ambitions of 
the Motherland. Mere exploitation is not colonisation, 
as the Dutch and the Portuguese found. The inhabitants 
must get their roots clown, must acquire a local patriotism 
as well as a patriotism of origin. The duty to the land, 
itself must be recognised, and not less the duty to the 
older masters who continue to live side by side with the 
new. True colonisation is a slow business, an organic 
growth rather than a mechanical construction. Such 
are the British colonies, botL in the tropical and temper- 
ate zones ; such are those of France, whose sons have 
shown in North Africa a very special aptitude for handling 
native races and a true de\-otion to their adopted land. 
Colonisation is a game which has certain rules, and if these 
rules are broken it cannot succeed. The Cierman posses- 
sions have never been .true colonies. Successive waves 
of colonial enthusiasm have overflowed Germany ; 
missionaries like Herr Dernburg haxe been des]>atched 
on grand tours ; but the root of the matter has been 
