German Colonialism Quotes

“The Spirit of Berlin was embodied in two principles. First, colonial powers, whatever else they did, had a responsibility to improve the lives of native populations.”
― Bruce Gilley, In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West

“The Spirit of Berlin was embodied in two principles. First, colonial powers, whatever else they did, had a responsibility to improve the lives of native populations. The second principle insisted that any colonial claim needed to be backed up by “the existence of an authority sufficient to cause acquired rights to be respected.”
― Bruce Gilley, In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West

“The Berlin conference has been subject to a relentless campaign of debunking by modern intellectuals. One claim they make is that the assembled delegates “carved up” Africa like a bunch of gluttons. This is wrong. For one, the carving was already happening when Bismarck acted. The conference was a response to, not a cause of, expanded colonial claims. Critics seem to think that absent the conference Africa would have been left untouched. Quite the opposite. The scramble for Africa created tensions, suspicions, and fears on all sides. Bismarck wanted to set some ground rules.”
― Bruce Gilley, In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West

“If we are going to write history on the basis of the number of victims, then we should also take into account that Germany for example- as a colonial latecomer- developed a remedy to the sleeping disease that saved one to three million lives during the twenties. Without their colonial aspirations that would never have happened.”
― Bruce Gilley

“Partnership is nonsense. Germany helping Zambia, that is not partnership. That is a superior economic system helping another country improve itself. And that is also what late colonialism was: An embrace of the opportunity to improve the lot of others. But not as equals, no”
― Bruce Gilley