The colonial economy in German East Africa

The Germans established agricultural plantations on which they produced agricultural raw materials. Sisal was the most important cash crop in the coastal areas in German East Africa in areas such as Morogoro, Bagamoyo, Lindi, Mikindani, Kilosa, Dar es Salaam and Tanga. Other important crops were cotton in Mwanza, Lindi, Tabora, Morogoro and Rufiji, and coffee in Kilimanjaro, Rungwe, Songea, Arusha and Kagera. Other crops included tea in Arusha, Rungwe and Mufindi.

Small-scale mining was conducted during the colonial period. Important minerals were gold in some parts of the Lake Zone and mica in Morogoro.

The colonialists also invested in trade. This trade involved exporting agricultural products and minerals to Europe for industrial production. It also involved importing industrial commodities, which could not be produced in the colonies such as wine, alcohol and medicine.

Hunting was another important colonial economic activity. German East Africa had very rich wildlife in the present-day game reserves and national parks of Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Mikumi and Selous. Europeans hunted animals such as elephants for ivory, rhinoceros for horns and tortoise for their shells. They also hunted animals for skins and meat. Hunting was one of the profitable colonial activities that destroyed natural resources in the colonies.

These were the economic sectors in which the Germans invested in the development of various infrastructure in German East Africa. The Germans built the central railway from Dar es Salaam to Kigoma, which later branched to Mwanza. This railway was built between 1905 and 1914. They also built another railway from Tanga to Moshi from 1893 to 1911, which was later extended from Moshi to Arusha by the British. Apart from the railways, they built ports as well. They established ports along the Indian Ocean such as Tanga, Mtwara and Dar es Salaam. They also built ports in lakes such as Lake Tanganyika, Lake Nyasa and Lake Victoria. In other places, they built roads.

Transport and communication facilitates were needed for transporting raw materials from the interior to the coast. Second, they were required for transporting migrant labourers to the colonial agricultural plantations and other colonial investments. Third, they were required for peace and security, since the colonialists could easily transport colonial armies to stop resistance. Fourth, they were needed for opening up the economic riches of the colony, and finally, they were necessary for the promotion of import and export trade.

The Germans also built some small-scale industries in German East Africa. They built two types of industries. First, they built import-substitution industries. These were industries built to produce products needed by Europeans. They built small industries such as bread-making, meat-packing and soap-making industries. Second, they built processing industries. These were industries built to process raw materials in order to reduce their bulkiness. For example, they built cotton-processing industries and sisal-processing industries in order to reduce the bulkiness and cost of transporting them from the farms to the coast for shipment to Europe.