Environing Empire Nature, Infrastructure and the Making of German Southwest Africa

About this book

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.

Contents

Figures
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

Customer Reviews

Biography

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.