Of course, governments rarely feel any restraint in responding violently to tax resistance. The Oswego Daily Times of reported this news of a particularly nasty example from Berlin:
Charged With Cruelty.
Gov. Liebert of German East Africa Said to Have Shot 2,000 Natives for Not Paying Taxes.
Berlin, — The Kolonial Zetic Zeitschrift accuses Governor [Eduard von] Liebert of German East Africa of fearful cruelties toward the natives under his jurisdiction. The inhabitants of one village to the number of 40 were shot dead for refusing to pay a few rupees. Altogether, the paper says 2,000 natives have been killed for refusing to pay taxes.
This was another colonial attempt to impose a “hut tax” that the locals didn’t much like. Liebert was recalled from his post in .
