London proves reluctant to take on added costs in an apparently valueless area, and the way is left open to German colonial annexation as South West Africa in the 1880s.

The acquisitions, by exceedingly dubious "treaties" and more naked theft, do not go smoothly, despite the employment of so-called "divide and rule" tactics within and between peoples.

The first major resistance -- by the Herero in 1885 -- forces the Germans back to Walvis Bay until British troops are sent out.