Pt #7 Reflection

Me (Declan)

It was an awesome project. I loved learning about something that I haven’t even heard of before. The ability to set up our own blog and not having to write a paper in a specific format was easier and fun.

I think the hardest part for me was choosing a topic. I wanted to choose one that I hadn’t heard of before and was sure nobody else in the classroom heard of before. I also found that finding sources for my subject was difficult.

If I do this assignment over again I would like to have more time so I can make sure that a source could be found to fulfill each topic in the blog can be filled with information. There was not much else in the blog project that I would redo, because I chose an awesome subject that was challenging but not to challenging. 

The only other thing I would change would be the amount and type of sources. I got most of my information from online sources and I would rather use books.

Pt #5 Enduring Effects

The Herero and Namaqua wasn’t a completely all out hatred of people so we want to kill them thing like the Holocaust. The Germans were protecting their settlers and took it way too far. There was no need for a mass killing or the camps. 

The genocide was the cause of the settlers. The settlers came and took the natives lives and loves. They destroyed what the Herero and Nama believed. Like I have said once before in this blog the Herero and Nama were being pushed and they shoved back. The Germans in reaction sent in a new leader and that leader knowing nothing of mercy went on a killing spree.

Shark Island location of one of few Concentration Camps

The genocide finally ended when the concentration camps were shutdown. Although the camps were shutdown the remaining were given to settlers for unemployed work. The genocide was over but the struggle for freedom was not (Mark Wells).

This genocide needs to be taught because it is a forgotten part of history. The genocide was hidden from the public for almost a century and it is a huge part of South African history. The two biggest and influential tribes of the area were almost completely eliminated. This genocide should especially be taught to the generations in the area because it is just as much there history as their fathers and grandfathers.

There is still evidence of tension between the two countries. In 1998 German president Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met with leaders of the Herero tribe, Chief Munjuku Ngvauva. The Chief demanded that the German president give a public apology and compensation (Mark Wells).

On August 16, 2004 the 100^th anniversary of the start of the genocide Germanys Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul gave an apology and expressed grief about the genocide.

Two skulls of the 40 that returned in 2011

In 2008 a formed Namibian ambassador to Germany demanded that Germany return skulls that Germany found during an investigation. The German investigators found 40 skulls, including one that is possibly a former Chiefs skull. Many of these skulls were the ones used to test for proof of racial superiority. 

Pt #4 World Happenings

After the genocide the world did not react because the world did know because it was covered up by Germany. The genocide was not taught in colonization history of the area.

At the time there were 5 major world powers in Europe Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain. At the beginning of the genocide Russia was in a war with Japan.

                        1904

• Feb. 10 - Japanese attack surprises Russians. Japanese attack Port Arthur (of Russia) with torpedoes.

• March 31- Russian fleet destroyed near Vladivostok. Russian naval power in the Far East has been virtually eliminated.

Henry M. Stanley

• May 9 - Henry Stanley is dead. Sir. Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, adventurer and journalist. Died in London today.

• June 15 - Ship burns: 693 die, many children. A pleasure outing turned into an inferno today when fire consumed the excursion steamer General Slocum.

• July 31 - Trans-Siberian finished. The Trans Siberian railroad that reaches from the Ural Mountains to the Russian Pacific Coast is finished after thirteen years.

• Aug. 30 – Russians failing fast. Port Arthurs fall to the Japanese appears imminent.

• Aug. 31 – 1904 St. Louis. The 3^rd modern day Olympics occur.

Subway in New York

• Oct. 27 - New York City subway formally opened as thousands of citizens ride first day.

• Dec.10 – Ivan Pavlov wins Nobel Prize for stimulus studies with dogs.

                      

1905

• Jan. 22 – Bloody Sunday: Terror in Russia Czarists troops fire on workers in front of the Winter Palace.

• May 28 – Disaster strikes Russia at Tsushima. Russia’s last hope, Admiral Rojestvensky’s fleet, has been defeated in Tsushima.

Russian Ship Potamkin

• June 27 – Mutiny on Potemkin. The red flag of revolution waves over the Potemkin.

• July 24 – Emperors agree on pact. A meeting was established to bring about an alliance between Germany and Russian.

• Sept 5 – Treaty ends Russian-Japanese War. The Japanese and Russian empires signed the Treaty of Portsmouth today.

• Nov 8 - Jews massacred; Americans raise aid. More than 1’000 Jews were killed in Odessa, Russia.

Daniel, Clifton, ed. Chronicle of the 20th Century. Mount Kisco, NY: Chronicle Publications, 1987. Print.

Pt #3 Victims

The Herero and Namaqua were the victims of this genocide. They were killed by the thousands. They were forced into a corner that they could not survive.

In some peoples mind it was the Herero’s fault they were in their situation. They attacked the settlers in the area first. Though what they did was wrong they were being pushed by the settlers. The settlers first took their land, then they took their cattle, then they took their way of life. The two tribes were pushed off the edge so they struck back.

Germany sent in reinforcements and a new general after the attacks. Trotha first took out the tribes army by surrounding them on three sides and the forth side leading into the uninviting Kalahari desert. He then ordered some of his men to poison the few watering holes out there. Any Herero who tried to return was killed (Espresso Stalinist).”German patrols later found skeletons around holes 40 feet deep that were dug up in a vain attempt to find water”(Mark Wells).

Some of the survivors of the small war were put in concentration camps. Mostly older men, women, and children survived. The prisoners were given numbers and each death was recorded. The people were fenced in by either thorn bushes or barbed wire. The camps were small and compact. These conditions caused diseases and there was no means of hospitality. “Malnutrition, disease and forced labour killed an estimated 50-80% of the entire Herero population by 1908, when the camps were closed” (Mark Wells).

In the end most of the population of the Herero tribe was killed off. “Most historians accept a death rate of between 75 and 80 percent for the Herero (out of an original population of 60’000-80’000 people), and of about 45-50 percent for the Nama (whose prewar numbers were around 20’000)” (Gellately 144).

Pt #2 Leader and Organizers

After Germany made South-West Africa there colony they appointed a ruler to enforce the laws of the land. Major Theodore Leutwein was appointed to this position and he held it for many years.

Kamaherero Maherero was the man who united the Herero tribe. He was the first chief of the tribe. His son Samuel Maherero was to be the second chief of the tribe.Samuel led the Herero in their first attack against the German population. Samuel specifically told his men that they were not to kill “Englishmen, Boers, as well as women” (Mark Wells).

Samuel Maherero

Lothar von Trotha

The German Emperor replaced Major Leutwein with a new commander. “This time a man notorious for brutality who had already fiercely suppressed African Resistance” (Espresso Stalinist). General Lothar von Trotha brought a whole army with him to fight the rebellious tribes, approximately 10,000 soldiers. In a letter Trotha openly stated his intensions for the tribes.

“I believe the nation as such should be annihilated, or, if this was not possible by tactical measures, have to be expelled from the country…This will be possible if the water-holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied. The constant movement of our troops will enable us to find the small groups of the nation who have moved backwards and destroy them gradually” (Mark Wells).

Eugen Fischer

In the midst of the genocide some subjects were taken to be tested on. One of the scientists involved is Eugen Fischer. Fischer came to the concentration camps (that were setup after the war) to do medical experiments on race (Mark Wells). Fischer tested on Men, Women, Children. He tested them against multiple well known diseases from Europe. Fischer was also joined by a man named Theodor Mollison who also did experiments on Herero people. The methods of testing on the Herero people are considered by many to be the precursor to the Nazi Holocaust, and the many concentration camps setup during the holocaust.

Pt #1 Background

Also recognized as the first genocide of the 20^th century the Herero and Namaqua

genocide occurred between 1904-1907 (Mark Wells). These were the years preceding the

First World War.

 

This genocide took place in German-South West Africa (SWA) or modern day Namibia. The Namibia area is fill with treasures that many wanted to start there fortune. These treasures include the Sand of the skeleton coast which is the dust of gemstones. Uranium, tin, and tungsten can be mined in the central Namib. Copper was to be mined in the north, and diamonds in the south (Espresso Stailinist). These treasures attracted a lot of new settlers.

Early on there were few Europeans to visit the area. After a bit of time Europeans started making trade outlets. Starting with trade outlets for ivory and cattle. The Europeans also traded firearms for Namib treasures. Soon they started trading big guns and military systems, which in turn caused the many tribes of South-West Africa to settle their disputes with violence. “The Nama and the 

Herero were livestock farmers, and they were the two main tribes in the 1840’s when the Germans(first missionaries, then settlers, then soldiers) began arriving in South West Africa” (Espresso Stalinist).

Later after about the 1880’s Germany made South-West Africa their colony. “Followed by a military governor who knew little about running a colony and nothing at all about Africa. Major Theodore Leutwein began by playing off the Nama and Herero tribes against each other” (Espresso Stalinist).

The cattle-farmers in the tribe also had problems with the cattle-virus epidemic in the 1890’s. The colonists offered the Herero aid on credit. In turn the farmers amassed a ton of credit that which they could not pay off. The colonists who did not receive their payments took what was left of the cattle (Espresso Stalinist).

In 1904  the Herero rebelled against the Germans which in turn caused themselves more harm.   

Works Cited

Works Cited

Chrysochoos, John. "Insinuations and Half-Truths." In Reason We Trust. Pittsburgh, PA:

RoseDog, 2009. 224. Print.

Daniel, Clifton, ed. Chronicle of the 20th Century. Mount Kisco, NY: Chronicle Publications, 1987. Print.

Gellately, Robert, and Ben Kiernan. "The Revolt in South West Africa, 1904-1907." The Specte

of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective. Reprint ed. New York: Cambridge

UP, 2003. 144. Print.

"German Herero Conflict of 1904-1907." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2013. EBSCO. Web. 26 Feb.

2013.

"Herero and Namaqua Genocide." The Espresso Stalinist. Espresso Stalinist, n.d. Web. 23 Feb.

2013. http://espressostalinist.wordpress.com/genocide/herero-and-namaqua-genocide/.

Randall, Keith. "Namibia: From Ox-Wagon to Modernity." Contemporary Review 22 Mar. 2010:

n. pag. EBSCO Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2631fee9-66fc-4ab6-ab91-9d0f9521c46c%40sessionmgr111&vid=2&hid=126.

Wells, Mark. "Herero and Namaqua Genocide; The First Genocide of the 20th Century – Smiley

& West." Smiley and West. Smiley and West, 5 Nov. 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.              
<http://smileyandwest.ning.com/profiles/blogs/herero-and-namaqua-genocide>.