Editing Namibia (section)

===German rule===
{{see also|German South West Africa|Herero and Nama genocide}}
Namibia became a German colony in 1884 under [[Otto von Bismarck]] to forestall perceived British encroachment and was known as [[German South West Africa]] (''Deutsch-Südwestafrika'').<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=German South West Africa|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036573/German-South-West-Africa|access-date=15 April 2008|archive-date=11 April 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411130059/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9036573/German-South-West-Africa|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Palgrave Commission]] by the British governor in Cape Town determined that only the natural deep-water harbour of Walvis Bay was worth occupying and thus annexed it to the Cape province of British South Africa.

In 1897, a [[1890s African rinderpest epizootic|rinderpest epidemic]] caused massive cattle die-offs of an estimated 95% of cattle in southern and central Namibia. In response the German colonisers set up a veterinary [[Cordon sanitaire (medicine)|cordon]] fence known as the [[Red Line (Namibia)|Red Line]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last1=Lechler|first1=Marie|last2=McNamee|first2=Lachlan|date=December 2018|title=Indirect Colonial Rule Undermines Support for Democracy: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Namibia|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|journal=Comparative Political Studies|volume=51|issue=14|pages=1864–1871 (p. 7–14)|doi=10.1177/0010414018758760|s2cid=158335936|issn=0010-4140|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515045624/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|archive-date=15 May 2023|access-date=2 June 2023|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> In 1907 this fence then broadly defined the boundaries for the first Police Zone.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lechler|first1=Marie|last2=McNamee|first2=Lachlan|date=December 2018|title=Indirect Colonial Rule Undermines Support for Democracy: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in Namibia|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|journal=Comparative Political Studies|volume=51|issue=14|pages=1865 (p. 8)|doi=10.1177/0010414018758760|s2cid=158335936|issn=0010-4140|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515045624/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0010414018758760|archive-date=15 May 2023|access-date=2 June 2023|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>

From 1904 to 1907, the [[Herero people|Herero]] and the [[Nama people|Nama]] [[Herero Wars|took up arms]] against ruthless German settlers. In a calculated punitive action by the German settlers, [[Government of Namibia|government]] officials ordered the extinction of the natives in the OvaHerero and Nama genocide. In what has been called the "first genocide of the 20th century",<ref>{{cite web|author=David Olusoga|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/18/pope-francis-armenian-genocide-first-20th-century-namibia|title=Dear Pope Francis, Namibia was the 20th century's first genocide|work=The Guardian|date=18 April 2015|access-date=26 November 2015|author-link=David Olusoga|archive-date=3 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603191720/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/18/pope-francis-armenian-genocide-first-20th-century-namibia|url-status=live}}</ref> the Germans systematically killed 10,000 Nama (half the population) and approximately 65,000 Herero (about 80% of the population).<ref>Drechsler, Horst (1980). The actual number of deaths in the limited number of battles with the German Schutztruppe (expeditionary force) were limited; most of the casualties occurred after the fighting had ended. The German military governor [[Lothar von Trotha]] issued a punitive order. Many Herero died of disease and abuse in detention camps after being expelled. A substantial minority of Herero crossed the Kalahari desert into the British colony of Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana), where a small community continues to live in western Botswana near to the border with Namibia. ''Let us die fighting'', originally published (1966) under the title ''Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft''. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.</ref><ref name="Adhikari" /> The survivors, when finally released from detention, were subjected to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labour, racial segregation, and discrimination in a system that in many ways foreshadowed the [[apartheid]] established by South Africa in 1948. Most Africans were confined to so-called native territories, which under South African rule after 1949 were turned into "homelands" ([[Bantustans]]).

Some historians have speculated that the downfall of the Herero in Namibia was a model for the [[Nazism|Nazi]]s in [[the Holocaust]].<ref name="Madley" /> The memory of what happened under German rule has contributed to shape the ethnic identity in independent Namibia and has kept its significance in today's relations with Germany.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Reinhart|last1=Kößler|first2=Henning|last2=Melber|chapter=Völkermord und Gedenken: Der Genozid an den Herero und Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904–1908|language=de|trans-title=Genocide and memory: the genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, 1904–08|title=Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust|year=2004|pages=37–75|publisher=Campus Verlag|isbn=9783593372822|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_b5iRhydlHUC&pg=PA37|access-date=7 June 2023|archive-date=23 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230723080753/https://books.google.com/books?id=_b5iRhydlHUC&pg=PA37|url-status=live}}</ref>

The German minister for development aid apologised for the Namibian genocide in 2004. However, the German government distanced itself from this apology.<ref>{{cite web|author=Andrew Meldrum|title=German minister says sorry for genocide in Namibia|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/16/germany.andrewmeldrum|work=The Guardian|date=15 August 2004|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=4 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504204816/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/16/germany.andrewmeldrum|url-status=live}}</ref> Only in 2021 did the [[Government of Germany|German government]] acknowledge the genocide and agree to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years in community aid.<ref>{{cite web|author=Philip Oltermann|title=Germany agrees to pay Namibia €1.1bn over historical Herero-Nama genocide|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide|work=The Guardian|date=28 May 2021|access-date=27 August 2023|archive-date=18 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518174436/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/germany-agrees-to-pay-namibia-11bn-over-historical-herero-nama-genocide|url-status=live}}</ref>