Coal Colonialism: Envirotechnical Infrastructures and Transactions between Germans and Chinese in Shandong, 1897–1914

Abstract On 14 November 1897, the Imperial German Navy occupied Jiaozhou Bay. The agreement subsequently negotiated with the Chinese authorities included the lease of 552 square kilometres of land near the coast and significant concessions for coal mines and railway lines extending deep into the hinterland of Shandong province. Imaginations of ‘coal colonialism’ in this region had a prehistory in Germany that was significantly informed by the works of German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen that had appeared since the 1870s. When German colonial rule began in China thirty years later, it encountered existing visions of railway networks and resource extraction held by the Chinese authorities and other foreign powers. While these visions aided Germany’s efforts, they also complicated transactions in Shandong. Section One of this article reconstructs historical visions of German coal colonialism in China and the formation of sociotechnical imaginaries (Sheila Jasanoff), characterized by the close entanglement of railways and coal mining. Section Two delves into the history of railway construction and maintenance in Shandong, employing the concept of ‘colonial transactions’ (Florence Bernault) to explore daily life during colonial rule. It examines intersecting mobilities, encounters that both divided and connected, and various negotiations in colonial space. Section Three addresses coal mining in Shandong and coal consumption, illustrating how German hegemony waned as a result of local opposition, failed internal transactions and heightened foreign competition. The article concludes with a reflection on the heuristic potential of ‘colonial transactions’, advocating a complementary conceptual framework for the study of colonial infrastructures that incorporates socio-technical imaginaries and an envirotechnical perspective.