Perhaps where the decline of the West is perceived most and best, especially in Europe, is in the increasingly frequent requests for forgiveness that it offers to its former colonies, for the atrocities committed there, in addition to the drastic restitution of works of art. and all kinds of treasures looted from their legitimate owners.
In the case of Germany, the atrocities committed by the Nazis have largely erased the atrocities carried out during their brilliant colonial era, which goes from 1884 to 1918, when Germany lost World War I and, consequently, its possessions of overseas
A couple of years ago, Berlin admitted that in Namibia, between 1904 and 1908, the imperial German army committed a genocide that cost the lives of 70,000 people. And now, a month ago, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on a trip to Tanzania, which was a German colony between 1885 and 1918, spoke these words: “I bow before the victims of German colonial rule, […] and I would like “Ask for forgiveness for what the Germans did to your ancestors here.” And what the Germans did has no name. Between 1905 and 1907 alone, they caused the death of almost 300,000 people in Tanzania, as a result of a rebellion by African subjects against forced labor imposed by the ruthless occupying power.
As commendable as Steinmeier’s words were, they fell short, very short, since the German colonial push not only committed atrocities in Tanzania, Namibia and other places in Africa, but its imperialism extended to Oceania and beyond.
The unification of Germany in 1871 put on the table the chips of a new player willing to deal with the British, French and Russians, real scoundrels, who at that time were dividing the world among themselves at the gaming table, as they pleased. As much as Bismark was initially reluctant to support colonial enterprises, if nothing else because Germany at that time did not yet have a fleet to protect possible overseas possessions, the economic crisis that in those years undermined the health of the new Reich, ended up destroying it. convince Bismark that colonies could offer not only a way out for the battered German industry, as well as a destination for thousands of poor people who were looking for an opportunity they could not find at home, but also a confirmation of the presence of a new power in the lively geopolitical casino.
The rules of the game were clear, since there were none. It only consisted of conquering and plundering without limits when betting, without of course disturbing the other players sitting at the table too much. In a very short time the Reich would proclaim German sovereignty in African territories such as Togo, Cameroon or Southeast Africa, a land rich in diamonds that would be plundered without mercy.
Oceania was another opportunity for German expansion, and they soon had a foothold in Samoa or New Guinea. They also had their eye on the Marshall Islands and the Carolinas, which although under Spanish sovereignty, Madrid had no objection to the Germans establishing factories, plantations and even a naval base in these archipelagos. The year was 1885. A little later, the Spanish-American War gave the German Weltpolitik a golden opportunity: after failing in an attempt to acquire none other than the Philippines or having Spain cede Fernando Poo and the Canary Islands, they finally managed to stay. with the Marine Islands and the Caroline Islands, for the modest price of 17 million marks.
After a century, the new player piling chips on the gaming table is China, and it is going all out, but with the conviction that it is not going to apologize to anyone (except, perhaps, to those repressed within its own territory). He has everything to win, but I hope he does not follow the example of imperial Germany and what came after.
