Establishment of German colonialism and the German East Africa colony

Establishment of German colonialism and the German East Africa colony

As discussed in Chapter Six, Germany was given Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi. The establishment of German East Africa was the result of the Anglo-German and Heligoland Agreements signed in 1886 and in 1890, respectively.

The German colonial conquest and the establishment of the German East Africa colony followed three main steps.

1. The first step was coordinated by the German Colonial Association. This association operated from 1884 to 1887. The first step involved establishing German presence in East Africa through the work of missionaries, explorers and traders and telling other Europeans like the British that the territories of present-day Mainland Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda belonged to Germany.
2. The second step, which started in 1887, was coordinated by the German imperial company known as the German East Africa Company (GEACO). This company was led by Carl Peters and it was given the power to administer German East African territories on behalf of the German metropolitan government. This company established the colony and controlled the economic and commercial activities of the territory. The company was not very successful because it did not have enough money to run the colony, extensive resistance from Africans, the absence of the necessary infrastructure of governance as well as geographical and environmental challenges.
3. The failure of the first two steps led to the third step which was effective colonisation of German East African territories. This step was coordinated by the German imperial government in Berlin. The German government appointed the first governor to supervise the establishment of German East Africa. His name was Julius von Soden. He was given financial and military resources to wage aggressive military interventions against the people who resisted German colonialism.

By 1903, many parts of Mainland Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi had been placed firmly under German colonial rule. The governor was a political and military leader of the colony. He had an Advisory Council, which consisted of only Germans. No African was a member of the Council.