AFRICA PROTECTO RATE, the territory known before the Euro pean War as German South-West Africa. Its official designation became "The Protectorate of South-West Africa in Military Occupation of the Union Forces," so named after its conquest by South African forces under General Botha on 15 July 1915. The territory was placed under the administration of the Union of South Africa by the Peace Treaty of May 1919. It includes the region lying between Angola (Por tuguese West Africa) and Cape Colony and ex tending eastward to Bechuanaland. It is com posed of. Ovambo, Damaraland and Great Namaqualand; area, 322,450 square miles; pop. before the war, whites, 14,830, of whom 12,292 were Germans. The natives number about 250,000. The military force, including police, was 3,000 men. The region forms a rough triangular mass, with truncated apex resting on the Orange River and broadening northward; total length, 930 miles, and a mean breadth of 400 miles. Long regarded as an arid sandy waste, it was suddenly proclaimed a German possession in 1884 under the title of Luderitz land. The claim was recognized — after some diplomatic negotiations — and the boundaries were fixed by two conventions with Great Britain in 1884 and 1890. and one with Portu gal in 1886. The enclave of Walfish Bay (q.v.) had been annexed by England in 1878 and joined to Cape Colony in 1884. The only other harbors are Ogden, 180 miles off Cape Frio, Sandwich Haven, or Porto do Ilheo, and Angra Pequefia Bay; in addition, the Germans constructed a new harbor at Swakopmund. The Namil Desert separates the sea from the inland districts, where farming is carried on. Water
is scarce in the country, what rainfall there is being greatest in the north and east, diminish ing toward the south and west, though boring is usually attended with good results. At Tsumeb and other places in the hinterland of Swakop mund copper mining is successfully carried on, while up and down the desert near Angra Pequena diamond mines are worked. The first diamond was discovered in 1908; since then $37,000,000 worth of diamonds have been ex tracted. Neither gold nor coal has yet been found. Windhoek is the capital, via which a railroad connects Swakopmund and Angra Pequefia, while another line runs from Wind hoek to Tsumeb. The total length of railways in operation in 1913 was 1,305 miles. The Deutsche Kolonial Gesellschaft fiir Siidwest Afrika held a concession of the coast lands. (See WAR, EUROPEAN, COLONIAL CAMPAIGNS; BEYERS, CHRISTIAN FREDERICK). Consult Calvert, A. F. 'The German African Empire> (London and 'South-West Africa During the Ger man Occupation' (London 1915); Frobenius, L., 'The Voice of Africa' (London 1913) ; Has sert, K., 'Deutschlands Kolonien' (Leipzig 1910) ; Johnston, Sir H., 'The Colonization of Africa' (Cambridge 1899) ; Keltie, J. S., 'The Partition of Africa' (London 1895) ; Ko schitzky, M. V., 'Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte' (Berlin 1888) • Lewin, E. 'The Germans and Africa' (London 1915) ; Schulze, L., (Berlin 1910) ; Zimmermann, A., der Deutschen Kolonialpolitik' (Berlin 1914).