I'm currently planing my bachelor thesis and based on my pasts courses and studies I came upon the plan to analyze the usage of Camels in the german colonies (or more specifically in german South West Africa).
Ideally, I want to take a look at how they were used and how their use was influenced by the experience in other colonies and how the experience of their usage was disseminated to other (german) colonies and Germany itself and if/how it influenced them.
I did have a course in which we touched upon the book "Tools of Empire" by Daniel Headrick, in which he discusses how severeal technologies were essential tools in the european colonization that allowed and furthered said colonization process. Considering this, I'd want to try and see if animals (in my case Camels) could be considered "tools" as well and see what role they played in the colonization process.
I'm not sure however, if there is enough existing literature to do this in a BA thesis of 30-50 pages. I'm reasonably confident, studying in Germany, that I can find some sources regarding Camel use and in fact I already found some during a cursory online search in the Bundesarchiv. However in regards to animals and their role in colonialism, I had less luck, at least in regard to german literature. I admit, I haven't started doing a thorough search for english literature but I'm not sure about it - there are papers on the usage of horses in North America, but for Africa, I haven't come up with much yet.
So I wanted to ask, if anyone could either give me some pointers as to books or just whether or not the whole approach is feasible in regard to the existing research and the frame of the paper.
I could of course always change some of the specifics and take a look at animals other than camels (horses or cows come to mind) or at other places (probably british colonies, as I am limited to german or british papers due to my language abilities) or I could change the timeframe (I did specify the late 19th century due to the focus on german colonies).
I already asked a professor of mine at my university who specializes in animal history and colonial history if she'd be willing to supervise me, but I'd really prefer to get some outside advice as well.
So any thoughts, questions, advice or hints are very much appreciated.
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Short answer:
Yes, historians, geographers, anthropologists and social ecologists -- the disciplinary distinctions here are fuzzy and don't really matter-- have written about such subjects, and you'll find recent academic works. You certainly can write about the introduction of animals as an imperial project, though whether camels in German colonies will be fruitful-- that I don't know
Discussion:
Cattle
To take one dramatic example: cattle in the United States. Two recent books serve as good example of how contemporary scholars look at this:
In cattle ranching, you find all sorts of axes of analysis of imperialism. One particularly important aspect of cattle ranching and cattle drives is the disruption of indigenous populations and changes to land use patterns . . . no other settler economic activity grabbed so much land so quickly in ways that brought conflict. Cattle grazing "on the range" can bring with them at least occasional occupation over tens of thousands of acres very quickly-- something that didn't happen nearly so quickly with activities like trapping, mining, timber or farming.
Cattle ranching also involved imperial systems of finance-- you find large investments in US cattle ventures by European financial interests in the 19th century, one of the few ways to attract capital to places without marketable natural resources. So we find European nobility like the Marquis de Morès heading to the Dakotas to make his fortune; he failed, but even in failure the abrupt arrival of people and projects financed by global investment capital dramatically changed environments.
Camels
Camels are an interesting subject -- they're of great importance to Central Asian and Arab empires, but there was only limited success in introducing them elsewhere, with their greatest success beyond North Africa and Asia being in Australia, where they were imported along with "Afghan" cattle drivers who bring a small Muslim population to Australia in the 19th century. Although colorful, they're not particularly important -- they figure dramatically in stories of Australian exploration like the Burke and Wills Expedition, but they didn't actually accomplish all that much. Today there may be one million feral camels in Australia, a dramatic change to the desert ecologies-- and one that marks a certain kind of historical affiliation with the British Empire. . . and they play a role in the Giles Expeditions in Western Australia.
With more interest as anecdote than historical importance, you find attempts to create camel caravans in the American southwest, which meet with little success . . . you could perhaps do a useful study of the failed attempts to introduce camels throughout the world, a useful control against the many introductions which were more succesful.
But their greatest importance is in South and Central Asia and North Africa . . . desert areas where camels were sometimes recorded as introduced in antiquity, to more success -- we have many accounts of the value of camels. In Ammianus Marcellinus, for example, we're told that the Romans demanded 4,000 camels from the city of Leptis Magna (in present day Libya). The Berbers in particular make extensive use of the camel . . . much of the contact between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa requires the camel; and we've records of their importance in imperial processions, as for example Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca.
Both the Bible and the Qur'an have language which underlines the importance of camels, for example Isaiah 60:5-6
The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
The multitude of camels shall cover your land,
The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
All those from Sheba shall come;
They shall bring gold and incense,
And they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord.
That's a nice illustration that for men of the ancient near East, the camel was the vessel that brought wealth from distance places, and the transport links by which ideas passed as well.
. . . but it's in Islam that the camel gains its greatest fame. The Qur'an has the celebrated "she-Camel of God" and the Prophet's journey riding this particular camel, named "Qaswa", on the Hijra is dramatic and well known to Muslims; essential to a critical moment in the rise of Islam.
So there's a lot you can do with camels . . . whether there's a lot you can do with camels in German colonies in Southern Africa, I don't know. The introduction of camels to new environments in the modern era was typically been much less successful compared to, say, pigs, cattle or horses. It's not that people didn't try, it's more that camels are very picky about environment-- doing poorly in mud, for example. You might look at imperial projects intended to import camels, for example the Australians Samuel Stuckey and Thomas Elder who established a South Australian breeding farm. Perhaps there was something similar in German colonies?
A few sources which may help: