No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Quest for East African Neutrality in 1915
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2014
Extract
When Britain's foreign secretary on 3 August 1914 ruefully observed that the lamps were going out all over Europe, he had not yet fully grasped the dimensions of the war about to begin. Within three days, however, Sir Edward Grey was attending a cabinet meeting in which he and his fellow members sketched a war strategy against Germany which was global in context. Whatever prewar British respect had existed for German empire-builders (Stengers, 1967: 345), the new War Sub-Committee of Britain's cabinet decided to seize as soon as possible all of Germany's overseas possessions. The initial motive was to secure the sealanes by occupying German overseas ports that could serve commerce raiding German cruisers and by destroying the German wireless stations which would serve those cruisers. Even then, however, Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt entertained the notion of British annexation of the whole German colonial empire (Louis, 1967: 36-37).
As Winston Churchill described that session,
On an August morning, behold the curious sight of a British Cabinet of respecable Liberal politicians sitting down deliberately and with malice aforethought to plan the seizure of the German colonies in every part of the world! … With maps and pencils, the whole world was surveyed, six different expeditions were approved (Churchill, 1923: I, 305-306).
Prime Minister Asquith, once a Gladstonian minister, later remembered, almost apologetically, “we looked more like a gang of Elizabethan buccaneers than a meek collection of black coated Liberal Ministers” (Asquith, 1928: II, 31). Since the principal German territories were in Africa, it was here that the major impact of Whitehall's action would be felt, and, indeed, an abundant literature on Africa in the First World War describes what happened.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © African Studies Association 1979
References
REFERENCES
Asquith, Herbert Henry. First Earl of Oxford and Asquith. (1928) Memoirs and Reflections, 1852–1927, 2 vols. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Bruce, Charles. (1915) “The Crown Colonies and the War.” Edinburgh Review
CCXXII (October): 374–90.Google Scholar
Collins, Robert O. (ed.) (1970) Problems in the History of Colonial Africa 1860–1960. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Cornevin, Robert. (1969) “The Germans in Africa Before 1918,” pp. 383–419 in Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter (eds.) Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960, Vol. I: The History and Politics of Colonialism 1870–1914. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Edmonds, James E. (1951) A Short History of World War I. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter. (1977) The Rulers of German Africa, 1884–1914. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Great Britain. Foreign Office. Historical Section. (1920) “Tanganyika (German East Africa),” Peace Handbook No. 113. London: H. M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. (1960) British Sessional Papers, 1914–1916, lxxxiii. London: H. M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Henderson, William O. (1965) “German East Africa 1884–1918,” pp. 123–162 in Harlow, Vincent and Chilver, E. M. (eds.) History of East Africa, II. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hordern, Charles. (1941) Military Operations: East Africa, a Compilation, Vol. I: Aug. 1914– Sept. 1916. London: H. M. Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Iliffe, John. (1967) “The Effects of the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905-1906 on German Occupation Policy in East Africa,” pp. 557–75 in Gifford, Prosser and Louis, William R. (eds.) Britain and Germany in Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, Fred L. (ed.). (1967) Major Peace Treaties of Modern History 1648–1967, 4 vols. New York: Chelsea House.Google Scholar
Lascelles, Frank C. (1912) “Thoughts on the Anglo-German Problem.” The Contemporary Review
CI: 1–9.Google Scholar
Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von. (1920) My Reminiscences of East Africa. London: Hurst and Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Louis, William R. (1967) Great Britain and Germany's Lost Colonies 1914–1919. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lucas, Charles(ed.). (1925) The Empire at War, Vol. IV: Africa. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ritchie, Eric M. (1940) The Unfinished War: The Drama of the Anglo-German Conflict in Africa. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
Stengers, Jean. (1967) “British and German Imperial Rivalry: A Conclusion,” pp. 337–47 in Gifford, Prosser and Louis, William R. (eds.) Britain and Germany in Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
United States, Department of State. (1928) Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914, Supplement: The World War. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar