German colonial empire

This article is about colonies of the German Empire. For the territories of Nazi Germany, see Reichskommissariat. For the Templer colonies in Israel, see German Colony.

German colonial empire
Deutsches Kolonialreich (German)
1884–1920
of German
Coat of arms
German colonies and protectorates in 1914
StatusColonial empire
CapitalBerlin
Common languages
  • German
  • Local:

    Swahili, Rwanda-Rundi (Burundi, Rwanda, Buha kingdom in Tanzania), Papuan, Samoan (in New Guinea and Samoa)

History 
1884
1888
1890
1899
1904
1905
1919
• Disestablished
1920
Area
19122,953,161[1] km2 (1,140,222 sq mi)
Population
• 1912
11,979,000[1]
An East African Askari soldier holding Germany's colonial flag

The German colonial empire (German: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire. Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French.[2] The German colonial empire encompassed parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, as well as northeastern New Guinea, Samoa and numerous Micronesian islands.

Germany lost control of most of its colonial empire at the beginning of the First World War in 1914, but some German forces held out in German East Africa until the end of the war. After the German defeat in World War I, Germany's colonial empire was officially confiscated as part of the Treaty of Versailles between the Allies and German Weimar Republic. Each colony became a League of Nations mandate under the administration, although not sovereignty, of one of the Allied powers.[3] Talk of regaining the last Kaiser's lost colonies persisted in Germany until 1943, but never became an official goal of the German government.

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Statistische Angaben zu den deutschen Kolonien was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Diese deutschen Wörter kennt man noch in der Südsee, von Matthias Heine Archived 19 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine "Einst hatten die Deutschen das drittgrößte Kolonialreich[...]"
  3. ^ Biskup, Thomas; Kohlrausch, Martin. "Germany 2: Colonial Empire". Credo Online. Credo Reference. Archived from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.