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BestsellerE-book
Author Kuss, Susanne, author.

Title German colonial wars and the context of military violence / Susanne Kuss ; translated by Andrew Smith.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2017]
©2017

Item Status

Description 1 online resource
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Note "An earlier version of this work was first published as Deutsches Militär auf kolonialen Kriegsschauplätzen: Eskalation von Gewalt zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (c) Christoph Links Verlag GmbH, Berlin 2010"--Title page verso.
Summary Germany fought three major colonial wars from 1900 to 1908: the Boxer War in China, the Herero and Nama War in Southwest Africa, and the Maji Maji War in East Africa. Recently, historians have emphasized the role of German military culture in shaping the horrific violence of these conflicts, tracing a line from German atrocities in the colonial sphere to those committed by the Nazis during World War II. Susanne Kuss dismantles such claims in a close examination of Germany's early twentieth-century colonial experience. Despite acts of unquestionable brutality committed by the Kaiser's soldiers, she finds no direct path from Windhoek, site of the infamous massacre of the Herero people, to Auschwitz. The author rejects the notion that a distinctive military culture or ethos determined how German forces acted overseas. Unlike rival powers France and Great Britain, Germany did not possess a professional colonial army. The forces it deployed in Africa and China were a motley mix of volunteers, sailors, mercenaries, and native recruits--all accorded different training and motivated by different factors. Germany's colonial troops embodied no esprit de corps that the Nazis could subsequently adopt. Belying its reputation for Teutonic efficiency, the German military's conduct of operations in Africa and China was improvisational and often haphazard. Local conditions--geography, climate, the size and capabilities of opposing native populations--determined the nature and extent of the violence German soldiers employed. A deliberate policy of genocide did not guide their actions.-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents Part I. Three wars: The Boxer War -- The Herero and Nama war -- The Maji Maji war -- Part II. The colonial theater of war: The motivation of white and native colonial soldiers -- Training and weaponry -- Ideology and passage to war -- Environment and enemy -- Diseases and injuries -- Reaction from the foreign powers -- Parliament and the military press -- Part III. Evaluation and memory: The military -- Veterans' associations -- Legacy.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Germany -- History, Military -- 20th century.
Germany.
History, Military.
Chronological Term 20th century
Subject Militarism -- Germany -- History -- 20th century.
Militarism.
History.
Maji Maji Uprising, 1905-1907.
Maji Maji Uprising (1905-1907)
Namibia -- History -- Herero Revolt, 1904-1907.
Namibia -- History -- Nama Revolt, 1904-1908.
China -- History -- Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1901.
Imperialism.
Imperialism.
Boxer Rebellion (China : 1899-1901)
Herero Revolt (Namibia : 1904-1907)
Nama Revolt (Namibia : 1904-1908)
Chronological Term 1899-1999
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Military history.
Added Title Deutsches Militär auf kolonialen Kriegsschauplätzen. English https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2016138582
Other Form: Print version: Kuss, Susanne. Deutsches Militär auf kolonialen Kriegsschauplätzen. English. German colonial wars and the context of military violence. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2017] 9780674970632 0674970632 (DLC) 2016040430 (OCoLC)959649913
ISBN 9780674977358 (electronic book)
0674977351 (electronic book)
9780674970632
0674970632