The hanging of natives was a common occurrence. A German officer had the right to order a native to be hanged. No trial or court was necessary. Many were hanged merely on suspicion.
The Hereros were far more humane in the field than the Germans. They were once a fine race. Now there is only a miserable remnant left.
This is amply proved by official German statistics. Out of between 80,000 and 90,000 souls, only about 15,000 starving and fugitive Hereros were alive at the end of 1905, when von Trotha relinquished his task. In 1911, after all rebellions had been suppressed and tranquillity restored, the government had a census taken. The figures, reproduced below, speak for themselves:
| Hereros | 80,000 | 15,130 | 64,870 |
| Hottentots | 20,000 | 9,781 | 10,219 |
| Berg-Damaras | 30,000 | 12,831 | 17,169 |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | |
| 130,000 | 37,742 | 92,258 |
In other words, eighty per cent of the Herero people disappeared, and more than half of the Hottentot and Berg-Damara races shared the same fate. Dr. Paul Rohrbach’s dictum, “It is applicable to a nation in the same way as to the individual that the right of existence is primarily justified in the degree that such existence is useful for progress and general development,” comes forcibly to mind. These natives of Southwest Africa had been weighed in the German balance and had been found wanting.
Germany lost more than a million square miles of territory in Africa as a direct consequence of General Botha’s bold action. These are divided in four great regions, Southwest Africa, Kamerun, Togo and East Africa. Togoland as this region is popularly known extends from the north shore of the Gulf of Guinea into the interior and is bounded by French and British colonies. By a joint attack of French and British forces, beginning the second week in August, 1914, the German power in this rich domain was completely broken, and the conquest of Togoland was complete on August 26, 1914. The military operation was of a desultory nature, and the losses negligible in view of the area of 33,000 square miles of highly productive land passed from German control.
The fighting in the great region of Kamerun was somewhat more stubborn than that in Togoland. The villages of Bonaberi and Duala were particularly well defended. The British and French fought through swamps and jungle under the handicap of terrific heat, and always with victory at the end of the engagement. The conquest of the Kamerun was complete by the end of June, 1915. In addition to the operations by the British and French a combined Belgian and French force captured Molundu and Ngaundera in the German Congo.
The raids by General Botha on German Southwest Africa commenced on September 27, 1914. A series of brilliant strategic actions resulted in the conquest of a region once and a half the size of the German Empire at the time the Great War began. A British description of the operation states:
The occupation of Windhoek was effected by General Botha’s North Damaraland forces working along the railway from Swakopmund. At the former place General Vanderventer joined up with General Botha’s forces. The force from Swakopmund met with considerable opposition, first at Tretskopje, a small township in the great Namib Desert fifty miles to the northeast of Swakopmund, and secondly at Otjimbingwe, on the Swakop River, sixty miles northwest of Windhoek. Apart from these two determined stands, however, little other opposition was encountered, and Karibib was occupied on May 5th and Okahandja and Windhoek on May 12th. With the fall of the latter place, 3,000 Europeans and 12,000 natives became prisoners.
The wireless station—one of Germany’s most valuable high-power stations, which was able to communicate with one relay only, with Berlin—was captured almost intact, and much rolling stock also fell into the hands of the Union forces.