Colonial Transactions in the German Empire: Infrastructures and the Colonial Everyday

Abstract This introductory essay for the Special Issue makes the case for and reflects on methodological avenues for studying railway infrastructure as a crucial site of colonial society. As we argue, this approach allows the modus operandi of everyday life in German colonial settings to be captured. While recent work in imperial history points to the importance of day-to-day interactions as a defining factor of colonial society, little is known about how they were structured, performed, arbitrated and penalized. We propose the concept of ‘colonial transactions’ for examining mundane and quotidian encounters between colonizers and colonized at railway sites. Since colonial infrastructures were central to the colonial enterprise and mediated social relations across the racial divide, they are well suited to foreground transactions as they emerged and developed. Colonial railways have so far been studied as imperial enterprises of power and domination (‘railway imperialism’), technological ‘adventures’ or loss-making businesses. We propose, however, that they be studied as a locus of daily encounter where colonial society was negotiated and reworked.