The colonial development of concentration camps (1868–1902)

The forced labour and extermination camps established in Europe during the Second World War gave the meaning to the term 'concentration camp' which it has for the general public today. But the practice of concentrating civilians in guarded camps or centres, specifically as part of a counter-guerrilla military strategy during wartime, long predated and outlasted the Second World War. In the light of fresh research, this article looks comparatively at the function of the camps in three different colonial arenas between 1868 and 1902. It emphasises the different purposes between these exercises in civilian concentration and the 'camp culture' of the Nazi era in Europe and challenges the linkage between the two asserted by Hannah Arendt half a century ago and by many others since