Racism and the legacy of imperialism

• German understandings of race and the rights of minority ethnic groups were influenced by German imperialism.
• From the 1880s through to 1919 Germany established colonies in Africa and Asia.
• 1900 colonial policy, was based on the assumption that white Europeans were 'racially superior' to other 'races'.
• German racism was not unique
• Writers, philosophers and scientists across Europe and the USA attempted to explain what they believed was the superiority of European culture by claiming that the 'white race' was superior to African and Asian 'races'.
• New philosophies and pseudo-sciences of race had political consequences.
• In Germany's African colonies white settlers believed that their 'racial superiority' entitled them to take away the land and property of the indigenous people.
• They also asserted their right to control Africans through extreme violence, on the basis that Africans were not fully humans and therefore should be treated like animals.
• In some German colonies new legal systems were introduced that protected the rights of white settlers while stripping black Africans of their rights.
• In some colonies racial segregation was introduced and miscegenation was outlawed.
• In German East Africa the German army engaged in a policy of race war, a genocidal policy that led to the deaths of 80% of the indigenous Hetero.
• Events in Germany's colonies impacted on political debates at home.
• Some nationalists demanded that racial policies introduced in Africa should be used in Germany to solve the 'Jewish Problem'. They argued that Jews should have their property confiscated, their rights removed and that racial segregation and bans on miscegenation should be introduced in Germany. Some radicals even demanded the annihilation of the Jews as a race.
• While Germany lost its empire as a result of WW1, racist ways of thinking persisted, influencing art, literature, science and politics.