By the turn of the century, German settlers had arrived, copper was minable, railway building from Swakopmund and Lüderitz was under way, and diamonds were soon discovered near Lüderitz. But from 1904 to 1907 a great war of resistance broke out, nearly expelling the Germans before it was quelled with extreme savagery by tactics including extermination, hangings, and forced detention in concentration camps.

The first phase of the war was fought between the Germans and the Herero (with a single Ovambo battle at Fort Namutoni near the Etosha Pan). It reached a climax when General Lother van Trotha defeated the main Herero army at the Battle of Waterburg and, taking no prisoners, drove them into the Kalahari, where most died. By 1910 the loss of life by hanging, battle, or starvation and thirst--plus the escape of a few to the Bechuanaland protectorate--had reduced the Herero people by about 90 percent (80-85 percent dead, 5-10 percent in exile). The Nama resistance war came late because a key letter from Maherero's son and successor, Samuel Maherero, to the Oorlam chief Hendrik Witbooi that proposed joint action had been intercepted. The resistance was finally crushed in 1907, and Nama survivors were herded into concentration camps. War, starvation, and conditions in the camps claimed the lives of two-thirds of the Nama.