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Colonial Geography charts changes in conceptions of the relationship between people and landscapes in mainland Tanzania during the German colonial period. In German minds, colonial development would depend on the relationship between East Africans and the landscape. Colonial Geography argues that the most important element in German imperialism was not its violence but its attempts to apply racial thinking to the mastery and control of space.
Utilizing approaches drawn from critical geography, the book argues that the development of a representational space of empire had serious consequences for German colonialism and the population of East Africa. Colonial Geography shows how spatial thinking shaped ideas about race and empire in the period of New Imperialism.
Colonial Geography explores how spatial thinking shaped the creation and government of the German imperial colony of East Africa.
- Imprint: University of Toronto Press
- Published: June 2022
- Pages: 320
Matthew Unangst is an assistant professor of history at SUNY Oneonta.
"Colonial Geography is a stimulating and accessible examination of the intellectual currents which underlay German colonialism in East Africa. Its prose is direct, concise, and lucid and never resorts to jargon or ambiguity. The straightforward chronological order of the chapters enhances accessibility. Matthew Unangst contributes considerable insight on the changes of policy which marked the history of German East Africa."
James L. Giblin, Professor of African History, University of Iowa
"The lens of cultural geography in East Africa is a fruitful one, and Matthew Unangst does very well to sustain it throughout this book. Colonial Geography takes seriously both events on the frontier and metropolitan figures such as Friedrich Ratzel. It offers a good sense of cultural geography and its development in relation to East Africa, and also shows that Africans had their own sense of their connection to their lands and how it should be managed."
Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, Professor of History, Flinders University