Germany's overseas colonial empire was relatively short lived, lasting
from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies
were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried
out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities
pursued a paternalistic defense of native culture; in Qingdao, China,
policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange.
Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? In The
Devil's Handwriting, George Steinmetz tackles this question through a
brilliant cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a
new conceptualization of the colonial state and postcolonial theory.
Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behavior in precolonial
European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and
inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as "noble savages," and depictions
of Chinese culture were mixed. The effects of status competition among
colonial officials, colonizers' identification with their subjects, and
the different strategies of cooperation and resistance offered by the
colonized are also scrutinized in this deeply nuanced and ambitious
comparative history.