Santa Lucia Bay

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Map of the European colonial claims in Africa (March 1885): S. Lucia Bai is marked in orange as "German possession" (bottom right)

The Santa Lucia Bay (German: Santa-Lucia-Bucht ) was the subject of a contract that came about in 1884 on behalf of the trading house Adolf Lüderitz on the coast of southern Africa . According to Lüderitz, the bay should be placed under the " protection " of the German Empire . As a result of a brief British-German confrontation, the request was rejected in 1885 in favor of older rights of the United Kingdom .

Colonial Political Context

The attempted acquisition of Santa Lucia Bay fell during a phase of the race for Africa , which was characterized by the rapid German colonial foundings. Among other things, the acquisition of Adolf Lüderitz in what would later become German South West Africa on April 24, 1884, was granted Reich protection. Such declarations of protection were in direct competition with Great Britain. In Cameroon in July 1884 there were only a few days between the arrival of the German and British representatives to demonstrate property claims, with the Germans only just ahead of the British. Great Britain was therefore anxious to maintain its sphere of influence in Africa vis-à-vis German interests.

Lüderitz cherished the dream of a closed German colonial area from South West Africa to the Indian Ocean in order to enter into economic cooperation with the Boer states . These plans clashed with the increasing presence of the British in southern Africa.

Conclusion of contract

Location of Santa Lucia Bay in Zulu country around 1885 ( property of the House of FAE Lüderitz )
August Einwald (1846–1933)
Adolf Schiel (1858–1903)

At the beginning of 1884, Lüderitz met the German traveler August Einwald from Heidelberg , whom he sent to the Zulu region on the south-east African coast in May of the same year . Otto von Bismarck personally advised Lüderitz against further acquisitions in the east, but he was neither willing nor able to revoke the order. In November 1884, Einwald arrived in Zululand, where Boer border settlers had proclaimed the " Free State " of the New Republic .

Einwald wore a Prussian uniform when he met with African chiefs. He displayed a German flag on his car and claimed to be in contact with Bismarck. While he aroused the suspicion of the Boers, he found support from the German adventurer Adolf Schiel from Frankfurt am Main , who had been chosen by the Boers as advisor and minister to the young Zulu king Dinuzulu ka Cetshwayo . Against some jewelry and the promise of German protection against Boers and Englishmen were Einwald and squint of Dinuzulu on 13 November 1884 a document to them the rights to 60,000 acres land, according to other sources 100,000 acres of land on the Santa Lucia Bay on suitable . With the promise to transfer his rights unconditionally to Lüderitz, Schiel immediately traveled to Bremen . Lüderitz received a telegram from Einwald on November 25th, whereupon he asked the Foreign Office for Reich protection for the "Zulu Coast". The SMS Gneisenau with Consul General Gerhard Rohlfs on board was redirected accordingly on December 2nd to put the areas under German protection. In the context of his pragmatic overseas policy, however, Bismarck apparently saw from the start that Santa Lucia Bay was not an area to be kept, but rather an advantageous object of compensation for Cameroon compared to England . In the meantime Einwald felt himself betrayed by Schiel. His complaints led to a counter-order for Rohlfs on December 5th.

British tenure

At the end of November 1884 the treaty became known in the Cape Colony and called the British into action. On December 18, 1884, the British warship HMS Goshawk crossed the bay under the command of Lieutenant William John Moore. Moore emphasized the territorial claim of his state, the United Kingdom, by hoisting the flag on land. The bay had been ceded to Great Britain by the Zulu chief Mpande on October 5, 1843 , without this having become publicly known. The British had also not made their claims so far.

British-German negotiations

Bismarck did not want to provoke a British-Boer union against Germany. When Schiel asked Bismarck to officially issue a protection contract for Santa Lucia Bay in early 1885 , the latter refused.

While Bismarck expressed his annoyance that Britain was now thinking of a treaty that it had not made use of for 41 years, it was a more diplomatic move. Since the surrender of the bay in favor of Great Britain offered itself in exchange for concessions in Cameroon, an agreement was reached quickly. The German imperial government finally issued a waiver on May 7, 1885 in London, which was incorporated into the British-German agreement published on June 20, 1885 on the delimitation of territories in West Africa.

consequences

Borders in South Africa 1885 (after British occupation of Santa Lucia Bay)

For a few months, Lüderitz tried to file at least one private law claim on Santa Lucia Bay. But neither in Germany nor in Great Britain saw a basis for this. In September 1885 the Foreign Office informed him without further ado that it could not recognize his treaty in a British area since 1843. The representatives of the Nieuwe Republiek tried to ignore the British proclamation and on April 30, 1885 declared the bay a free port . The British flagpole had to be erected again on June 29, 1885. Nevertheless, in October 1885, the owners at the time sold the properties they had already acquired. A secure settlement had not yet taken place at this point in time.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Horst founder: History of the German colonies. 7th edition, Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2018, ISBN 978-3-8252-4972-4 , p. 88.
  2. ↑ a b c d Hans Georg Steltzer: The Germans and their colonial empire. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-7973-0416-1 , pp. 73 f.
  3. ↑ Wehler 1976: p. 293
  4. ↑ Jeff Guy, The View Across the River: Harriette Colenso and the Zulu Struggle Against . Univ. Press of Virginia, Charlottesville 2001, p. 113; Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Bismarck and Imperialism . dtv, Munich 1976, p. 294.
  5. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Bismarck and Imperialism . dtv, Munich 1976, p. 294.
  6. ↑ H. Klee (Ed.): Latest Mittheilungen . III. Year, No. 134, Berlin, December 29, 1884.
  7. ^ Evans Lewin: The Germans and Africa. Cassell and Company, London / New York / Toronto / Melbourne 1915, p. 102. ( PDF; 8 MB )
  8. ↑ Eric A. Walker: The Formation of New States, 1835-1854 . In the S. (Ed.): The Cambridge History of the British Empire , Vol. 7. South Africa, Rhodesia and The High Commission Territories . Cambridge UP, Cambridge 1963, pp. 337 f.
  9. ↑ Wehler 1976: p. 294f.
  10. ↑ Wehler 1976: p. 297f.
  11. ↑ Wehler 1976: p. 298

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Coordinates: 28 ° 23 ′ 19.7 ″  S , 32 ° 25 ′ 24.2 ″  E