My real hobbyhorse since nearly 30 years is the history of the „Kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika“. Became interested in the affair when discovering such an exotic place like Dar es Salaam once was the capital of one of the short living German colonies My main focus is Lettow-Vorbecks final campaign in todays Mocambique, demonstrating the synergy effects of conducting elusive Guerilla style warfare by performing conservative prussian military doctrine. As always interested in unusual and largely unknown weapons I also spent some efforts discovering the fate of the SMS Königsberg main artillery guns: Missing Gun from the SMS Königsberg - Axis History Forum Besides I learned a lot totally nerdy details about the "Zulu Mfecane", the underrated performance of the Belgian "Force Publique" or Jan Smuts became one of the founders of the modern RAF for example...
Thanks for revisiting an important aspect of European history and the grab for influence and power by the European powers. The swap of Zanzibar for Heligoland as some Germans saw it...a swap of a pair of trousers for a button. Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty - Wikipedia European nations competed against each other in a race as colonialists to gain overseas territories.For Germany this policy was abruptly severed by the Treaty of Versailles Article 119 and Germany lost its colonies.Some of the Allied countries benefited by being granted mandates over previous German territories.Further Germany was deprived of a mass of its European territory and had to recognise an independent Austria and Czechoslovakia which later would be the pathway to war in 1939. The Smuts Report by General Jan Smuts,a former Boer leader and a member of Lloyd George's War Cabinet recommended in August 1917, that a separate independent air arm should be formed. This was to be achieved by the amalgamation of the RFC and RNAS, leading to the new force being established on 1 April 1918 as the Royal Air Force. Read the Smuts Report It's interesting to ascertain how Germany acquired it's German South West Africa colony (now Namibia).The British stood inert to its development with he German Colonial Association being the driver to establish German immigrants in what started as a trading post.The colony's first governor was Dr Heinrich Ernst Goring who it is recorded had done excellent work overseas in the interests of Germany and was the father of Hermann Goring.
And this is not entirely correct. In a nutshell: It´s a legend raised by the just dismissed Bismarck in an attempt to "bullying" his successor Caprivi. The agreement was correctly titled Vertrag zwischen dem Deutschen Reich und dem Vereinigten Königreich über die Kolonien und Helgoland (Treaty between the German Empire and the United Kingdom on the colonies and Helgoland) In fact the German Empire never had real interest on Sansibar. And Helgoland was far more like an incentive. (besides the entire agreement to clear colonial interests in Africa, somewhat similar to the donation of Mount Kilimandjaro to Wilhelm II by Queen Victoria in 1886) Nonetheless it remained until today in the public opinion Germany made an unfavourable swap: audacter calumniare, semper aliquid haeret Regarding todays Namibia it was Lüderitz who tricked out the Nama (and also a bit the Britons): The inital agreement between Lüderitz and the Nama was measured in miles. But as it wasn´t explict told, Lüderitz used the four times greater German mile instead of the usual British one, effectively made the area 16 times greater. As Great Britain never showed serious interests besides the WalfisBay it also left empty-handed from a diplomatic standpoint. Article III of the "Helgoland-Sansibar agreement" finally fixed the area in favour of the German Empire
The Mau Mau uprising does appear in a various threads here, at first sight many refer to obituaries of senior officers and there is no obvious home for this update. A 'Long Read' from The Guardian sub-titled: Link: Uncovering the brutal truth about the British empire | Marc Parry Found after discovering there is a webinar next week on the missing British archives that were discovered during a civil action and Professor David Anderson, a historian is talking about them next Monday, entitled The Abstract: From: Events - Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute - Trinity College Dublin Booking details are there too and it is free.
I`ve dipped in and out of the Spanish civil war over the last couple of months. I read Orwells "Homage to Catalonia" some years ago, and came across the 1980s TV documentary on the conflict a while back. Currently reading the guidebook "Frontline Madrid", and might try to get hold of a copy of "Mine were of trouble" at some point.
