“Despite the comparatively small scale of the conflict there and the speedy surrender of some outposts, the overseas dimension of World War One has unfairly been overlooked.”

By Katja Hoyer 

ON DEC. 6, 1897, the German Foreign Secretary Bernhard von Bülow famously proclaimed before his country’s parliament: “We do not want to put anyone into the shade, but we demand a place for ourselves in the sun.”

It marked the rise of an unashamedly aggressive campaign by Germany to acquire an overseas empire that would rival those of the established global players, particularly Britain and France.

Consequently, German imperialism, also known as Weltpolitik, kicked into gear and protectorates were established in East Asia and Africa. When the long-anticipated conflict between the European rivals finally ensued in the form of the First World War, this idea would be put to the test.

As a largely land-locked nation, Germany’s biggest problem in protecting its Asian outposts in 1914 was access. In order to defend its colonial possessions, it would have to send troops and supplies to far-flung corners of the world. True, the naval arms race with Britain had seen Germany’s sudden rise to become the second largest sea power on the planet, but in August 1914 Germany still only had 15 commissioned Dreadnought-type ships, compared to Britain’s 20. With the outbreak of hostilities, the British established a blockade of the North Sea to disrupt shipping traffic in and out of Germany. This famously put immense pressure on supplies, food stock and other essential resources, crippling the German war economy eroding national morale. It also meant that Germany’s colonial possessions were cut off and would have to fend for themselves.

The other fatal flaw of the German colonial empire was that its defence forces, such as they were, existed mainly to police each territory and to maintain control over local populations.

The Berlin Conference of 1885 saw the great powers agree to leave their colonies out of any future conflicts. As such, Germany saw little reason to build-up military defences in its overseas territories. Thus, in August 1914 the German colonies were isolated, under-resourced and vulnerable.

So how important was the German colonial empire really in the First World War, strategically and otherwise? Despite the comparatively small scale of the conflict there and the speedy surrender of some outposts, the overseas dimension of World War One has unfairly been overlooked.

Yet remarkably, the colonial battlefields saw some radical advances in warfare, like the use of planes and amphibious operations. The far-east theatre also played a crucial role as a testing ground for newly formed units such as the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. The following will provide a brief overview and analysis of the First World War as a truly global conflict, focussing on German colonies in Asia as theatres of combat.

Tsingtao

German overseas colonies became a strategic target immediately after Britain declared war on Aug. 4, 1914. London considered it vital to cut off Germany’s access to overseas ports; Germany’s Tsingtao colony in China became one of the first targets.

Under German control since 1897, the naval base at Tsingtao was run by the German Imperial Naval Office. In 1914, the 1,500 German marines already stationed there were reinforced by 3,400 additional troops and a handful of Chinese and Austro-Hungarian soldiers.

Busy with operations in Europe, Britain asked Japan to help capture the territory. Japanese Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu, under pressure from his own hawkish military, agreed and sent an ultimatum to Berlin on Aug. 15 demanding Germany hand over Tsingtao.

The German governor, Alfred Meyer-Waldeck, ignored the demand, and on Aug. 23, 1914, Japan declared war on Germany. The country imposed a naval blockade on the colony four days later. British warships HMS Triumph and Usk joined the effort. Amphibious landings followed on Sept. 2, as 57,000 Japanese troops and a contingent of more than 1,000 British, Australian and Sikh troops were put ashore to seize Tsingtao.

Despite outnumbering the defenders more than 10-to-one, British and Japanese forces found the local fortifications difficult to bypass. History’s first-ever naval air raids were carried out against Tsingtao but were largely ineffective; so was a nearly continuous artillery bombardment. A full-scale assault was ordered on Oct. 31 but also failed. German resistance was bitter, and fire was returned until there was no more ammunition. Eventually, Meyer-Waldeck surrendered the colony on Nov. 7, 1914. German casualties stood at 224 compared to 519 on the Allied side. Nearly all of the remaining Germans were captured and put into Japanese POW camps such as Matsuyama and Bandō. Some were not released until 1920.

German New Guinea

Germany began a program of colonial acquisition in New Guinea, as well as several smaller surrounding islands, in 1884. Names such as Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and Bismarck Archipelago give an indication of the symbolic importance of these remote colonies. Despite this, war in 1914 took the territories’ vice-governor Eduard Haber, who had stepped in for his ill boss, governor Albert Hahl, entirely by surprise. In fact, he only learned of the outbreak of hostilities on Aug. 14, 1914, by which point the first exploratory attacks of the newly formed Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force were already underway.

By September, a total of around 6,000 Australian forces landed on Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, supported by a small fleet, which included Australia’s only two submarines. The German colonial police, which Haber was adamant ought to be used in the defence of the colony, consisted of only 16 Germans and 600 locals. Most of the latter had no experience at all in the use of firearms. Fifty-odd German reservists were rapidly pressed into service as well.

The only significant battle of the war in New Guinea – the defence of the wireless station of Bita Paka against Allied units intent on its capture – began on Sept. 11, 1914.

Haber did his best to hold the station, ordering his troops to lay mines, dig trenches and plan ambushes. However, by the evening, Bita Paka had fallen. Seven Australians were killed and five more wounded in the battle; they were the first Australian casualties of the war. One German and 30 local fighters died. One German civilian colonist was killed and 10 settlers were injured.

Haber led his surviving forces inland towards the town of Toma, but quickly realized that no reinforcements would be forthcoming. He signed the surrender on Sept. 17. The remaining 40 German soldiers and 110 local policemen laid down their arms four days later.

The smaller German islands of Micronesia were also seen as valuable targets by the Allies due to the natural resources located there as well as the territories’ strategic location.

Through August and September, 1914, British and Australian cruisers destroyed the wireless installations on the islands of Yap, Nauru and Angaur, but the Allies had no plans for an occupation. Japan, on the other hand, saw an opening. Hoping to extend its influence southward without angering its new British allies, the Japanese seized a string of German-controlled islands. Troops were landed on a string of Micronesian islands starting with Angaur on Oct. 9 and finishing with Rota on Oct. 21. As a phosphate-rock island, Nauru was the exception as it was of interest to Britain.

British-Australian forces sailed over from their siege of Bita Paka and occupied the tiny island on Nov. 6. The Union Jack was ceremonially hoisted the next day. The remaining German civilians on the Micronesian islands returned home via Japan and the United States. Any remaining German ships were cut off from supplies and eventually stopped operating altogether.

Samoa

Germany’s third colonial administration in Asia was established on Samoa in 1900. After decades of wrangling between American, British and German interests, Britain eventually withdrew from the islands to focus on expansion in Africa. Samoa was left to the United States and Germany to split the territory between them into West Samoa (German) and East Samoa (U.S.)

Unlike his counterpart in New Guinea, the governor of German Samoa, Erich Schultz-Ewerth, learned of the outbreak of war in August 1914 immediately. By sheer coincidence, colonial authorities had just finished installing a wireless station in Tafaigata on the eve of hostilities.

Upon Britain’s declaration of war on Aug. 4, Schultz-Ewerth immediately summoned a local council. Collectively they decided not to resist in case of conflict and had their documents, money and personal effects shipped out to the neighbouring American part of Samoa on the Staatssekretär Solf, a German freight and passenger ship. Although the U.S. was officially neutral, American authorities in Pago Pago confiscated the cargo when it arrived on Aug. 6, 1914.

Three weeks later, the New Zealand Expeditionary Force arrived supported by the battlecruiser HMAS Australia, the French armoured cruiser Montcalm, as well as several other Australian and New Zealand ships. On the morning of Aug. 29, 1,500 New Zealanders landed on Upolu and seized the colony without incident. The governor was taken prisoner and shipped to Auckland. German officials carried on working as usual at first, which the New Zealand occupation authorities allowed under full pay and even with the German flag still hoisted. However, as the German officials did not want to be seen to be aiding the occupation of their colony, this arrangement came to an end, and they too were interned as POWs.

Under Article 22 of the Treaty of Versailles, all German colonies became League of Nations mandates. The First World War had dismantled the German colonial empire.

Katja Hoyer is the author of Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire from The History Press. A British-German historian, she studied at the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany, and graduated with an MA in history with distinction. She was born in Germany and lives in Sussex, U.K.