Colonial Captivity during the First World War Internment and the Fall of the German Empire, 1914–1919 Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare Series

With the outbreak of war in 1914, an estimated 30,000 German civilians in African and Asian colonies were violently uprooted and imprisoned. Britain's First World War internment of German settlers seriously challenged the structures that underpinned nineteenth-century imperialism. Through its analysis of this internment, this book highlights the impact that the First World War had on the notion of a common European 'civilising mission' and the image of empire in the early twentieth century. Mahon Murphy examines the effect of the war on a collective European colonial identity, perceptions of internment in the extra-European theatres of war, and empires in transition during war. Policymakers were forced to address difficult questions about the future rule of Germany's colonies and the nature of empire in general. Far from a conflict restricted to European powers, the First World War triggered a worldwide remaking of ideas, institutions and geopolitics.

List of maps; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Empire, Internment and the First World War: 1. Internment in the First World War and the global context; 2. The geography of internment; Part II. The Experience of Internment: 3. Rum, solitary and the lash: violence against prisoners of war; 4. Der Krieg ist kein afternoon tea! Identity and internment; 5. The propaganda of internment: presenting the colonial conflict to Europe; Part III. Global Connections: 6. The British Empire and the global internment system; 7. The end of German colonial rule: repatriation; Conclusion; Bibliography.

Mahon Murphy is Research Fellow at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University, Japan.