The South West Africa Company Limited (German: ''Südwestafrikanische Gesellschaft'') was a majority British owned and controlled company established under English law on August 18, 1892, in

German South West Africa German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...

, the present day

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. The company was headquartered in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and had a representative office in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

History

South West Africa was the most important settlement colony in the then German Empire. Despite this, during the early 1890s, the German Colonial Society for Southwest Africa struggled to secure support from German investors, who showed little interest in the development of the region. As a result, a Hamburg-based syndicate formed the South West Africa Company as a joint venture between British and German shareholders. Its statutes required the Board to have at least three German members. In practice the majority of members were German. Based on a decision made on 2 March 1900, the company had to submit to the supervision of the German ''

Reichskanzler The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...

''. On 3 August 1892, the company acquired the '' Damaraland concession'', which included 13,000 square kilometres of land and a monopoly over mining in the region. In return, the company undertook the building of a railway from

Swakopmund Swakopmund (german: Mouth of the Swakop) is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers ...

to the mines at Otavi. The company's agents undertook several expeditions to investigate its newly acquired territories, determine their economic value, and consider the route of the projected railway line. After the

Rinderpest Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, buffaloes, large antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthog ...

epidemic of 1897, the Company surrendered its monopoly over railway construction in the region. It had acquired a substantial stake in other businesses operating there: the Hanseatic Agriculture, Mining and Trading Company; the Kaokoland and Mining Company; the Damara and Namaqua Trading Company; and the

Otavi Mining and Railway Company The Otavi Mining and Railway Company (''Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft'' or OMEG) was a railway and mining company in German South West Africa (today's Namibia). It was founded on 6 April 1900 in Berlin with the Disconto-Gesellschaft and ...

. After World War I, Germany lost its colonies, including South West Africa but the South West Africa Company continued to trade.The Spectator, 10 December 1937
referencing the "recent annual general meeting of the South West Africa Co., Ltd"

References

External links

South West Africa Company Limited
at ''Deutsches Koloniallexikon'' erman Colonial Encyclopedia German South West Africa Companies established in 1892 1892 establishments in German South West Africa {{Namibia-stub