When the war broke out the German flag flew over a fairly compact group of settlements in the Pacific and a number of great colonies in Africa. But the German colonies were not like those of other nations. The vast majority of colonies came to their parent countries by a sort of natural accretion. Men were driven by the imperious thirst for adventure to travel far from their native lands into the unknown. When they reached habitable lands they made the fact known, and soon a stream of settlers and traders followed in their wake. In such wise the parent countries came to find their interests spread abroad and their settlements were proportionate to their liking for seafaring. The German colonies were acquired very differently, and their history is directly traceable to the difference.
The Fight for Germany's African and Asian Colonies During World War I "This account will be welcome to a large circle of readers. . . . The arduous nature of these campaigns deserves to be far more widely known, and this is just the book for the purpose--short, clear, and easy to read."--Journal of the African Society The largest battles of World War I were fought in Europe, and it is there where most critical studies focus. The fate of the far-flung colonies of Germany, however, are what gave the war its global scope, with campaigns reaching from China to New Guinea and East to West Africa. While there are detailed accounts of most of these campaigns, The War in Africa and the Far East, 1914-17 is unique in providing a concise history of the entire series of military events in Africa and Asia, giving the reader a better idea of the relationship and chronology of these wide-ranging events. While Germany was stripped of all its overseas colonies, the change in power had unintended consequences, most importantly the rise of Japan in the Pacific, where former German colonies now stood at the territorial boundary between Japan and the United States. Waged by Allied troops from Britain, Kenya, Zambia, Portugal, Japan, India, Netherlands, and other countries and led by such personalities as General Jan Christian Smuts, the theater of operations crossed modern-day Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, New Guinea, Qingdau, the Bismarck Archipelago, and other Pacific Island chains. Originally published in 1918 using official dispatches and other sources, and presented here for the first time in paperback, completely retypeset and with the original maps and additional photographs, The War in Africa and the Far East is a compact overview of an important aspect of the First World War.
Excerpt from The War in Africa, 1914-1917, and in the Far East, 1914 Attempted to present a picture of all the campaigns. The present book has been written to meet this need, and, in spite of its shortness, I hope that it gives a clear outline of the military operations which. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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