German Government Documentation on French Guangzhouwan, 1898-1914

Abstract

German government documentation on GZW covers the period from 1898 (when GZW was leased by France) to 1914 (when the outbreak of the First World War led to the gradual termination of Imperial Germany’s official presence in East Asia). The records primarily intended to provide the German central government in Berlin, the German legation in Beijing, and German consulates in the region around GZW with accurate and reliable information on internal and external factors of the French leased territory in China. Since Franco-German relations were severely strained because of the Franco-German War of 1870-71, documentation on GZW was naturally impacted by potentially negative German perceptions of French politics in East Asia. Furthermore, before the background of vivid economic competition in South China, German correspondences and reports reveal the desire to prevent France creating her exclusive sphere-of-interest in the Gulf of Tonkin region which would possibly harm strong German shipping and trading interests in the region. With that intention in mind, German consuls based in Guangzhou (Canton), Haikou (Hoihow), Beihai (Pakhoi), Saigon and Hong Kong, and occasionally also German military personnel, went on to produce detailed reports on GZW encompassing the territory’s geographical and geopolitical settings, political, economic, and military features, and important internal developments. Information on GZW was mainly derived from personal visits to GZW, from personal contacts to French diplomats in China and French administrators in French Indochina, and from frequent and careful evaluations of the Tonkin and Chinese presses. The German reports provide rather unique analyses of GZW’s development in the context of conflicting French and German interests in South China. Therefore, German documentation on GZW can be regarded as valuable first-hand additions to better comprehend various aspects of the history of French GZW from 1898 to 1914.