Captivity, Forced Labour and Forced Migration in Europe during the First World War by Matthew Stibbe

Author:Matthew Stibbe [Stibbe, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, European General, Modern, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781317996538
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

The Recruitment of Colonial Troops in Africa and Asia and their Deployment in Europe during the First World War

Christian Koller

School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, Bangor University

The impact of the First World War on the colonies was profound and many-sided.1 A conflict that began in the Balkans turned into a general European war in July and August 1914, and then took on extra-European dimensions, particularly as some of the belligerent states ranked as the most important colonial powers globally.

After the outbreak of the war, there was immediate fighting in several parts of the world as Great Britain, France, Belgium and Japan as well as the British dominions Australia, New Zealand and South Africa attacked the German colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Most of these territories were conquered by the Entente powers within a short time. Already in October and November 1914, Japanese troops occupied the German islands in Micronesia and captured the city of Tsingtau, where about 5000 Germans were made prisoners of war. Between August and November 1914 troops from Australia and New Zealand conquered Samoa, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, all of them German possessions.2

The German colonies in Africa were defended by so-called ‘Schutztruppen’, made up of German officers and African soldiers. While British and French troops overwhelmed Togo in August 1914, the fighting in Cameroon lasted until January 1916.3 German South West Africa was attacked by South Africa on behalf of the Entente powers. This caused problems in South Africa itself, however, for about 11,500 Anglophobe Boer soldiers rebelled, some of them openly joining the German side. The South African war between the British empire and the Boers had only ended 12 years before, and many Boers had preserved their anti-British feelings. Once this rebellion was crushed, the Germans were left defenceless, for 50,000 South African soldiers faced only 5,000 men in the German colonial forces. When South African troops entered the capital city Windhuk in May 1915, they did not meet any resistance.4

The most important colonial theatre was German East Africa, where fighting lasted until the end of the war. German forces here were under the command of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and consisted of only about 7,500 men, most of them Africans. British troops, on the other hand, comprised about 160,000 soldiers and one million carriers. All the same, they were not able to defeat the Germans for more than four years, for Lettow-Vorbeck soon turned to a guerrilla strategy and escaped again and again. Furthermore, he also attacked Belgian and Portuguese colonial troops. Only in November 1918, after about 10,000 British soldiers and 100,000 carriers had died, did Lettow-Vorbeck surrender. The fighting in East Africa had a catastrophic economic as well as ecological impact. The economies of German East Africa and of bordering British colonies were deeply damaged by both sides’ ongoing use of forced recruitment. Famines and epidemics spread and lasted beyond the war’s end. Furthermore, migrations caused by the war led to a spread of the tsetse fly, which in turn explains the prevalence of sleeping sickness in East Africa in the following decades.

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