The German colonial empire was an overseas area formed in the late 19th century as part of the Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire. There had also been some short lived attempts at colonisation before this.

History

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There was an attempt to colonise the area which is part of Venezuela in the sixteenth century by the Augsburg banking families of Anton and Bartholomeus Welser. Between 1528 and 1556 Germans had some rights to Venezuelan territory, see German colonization of the Americas. There had been some other attempts at colonisation, such as Arguin Island off Mauritania's Atlantic coast (5 October 1685 acquired by Brandenburg, from 1701, Prussian, 7 March 1721 lost to France).

Short-lived colonies had been established by individual German states in the 17th century. Branderburgisch-Africanische Compagnie of Brandenburg, which became the Kingdom of Prussia, established colonies at Arguin in Mauritania and along the Prussian Gold Coast (later integrated as part of the Dutch Gold Coast) in present-day Ghana and on the island St. Thomas. The Baltic German-led Duchy of Courland also colonized Tobago and St. Andrews Island. However, none of the German states was strong enough to contend with the Atlantic maritime powers. Similarly, from the Habsburg Monarchy's Austrian territories within the Holy Roman Empire, only the Ostender-Kompanie - based in the Southern Netherlands, now in Belgium - briefly held territory in India, on the Coromandel Coast and Andaman and Nicobar Islands from 1719 to 1732, when it was dissolved on French insistance.

Owing to its delayed unification by land-oriented Prussia in 1871, Germany came late to the imperialist scramble for remote colonial territory (their so-called "place in the sun"). The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including the age of Otto von Bismarck concentrated on resolving the "German question" in Europe and securing German interests on that same continent. On the other hand, Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League; a tradition existed of German emigration (eastward in the direction of Russia and Romania and westward to North America); and North German merchants and missionaries showed lively interest in overseas lands.

Many Germans in the late 19th century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved nationhood, and the demand for prestigious colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a High Seas Fleet, which would become reality and be perceived as a threat by the United Kingdom.

Because Germany was so late to join the race for colonial territories, most of the world had already been carved up by the other European powers; in some regions the trend was already towards decolonisation, especially in the continental Americas, encouraged by the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte.

When the Herero people of German South-West Africa (now Namibia) rose in rebellion in 1904, they were defeated by German troops; tens of thousands of natives died during the resulting genocide.

The victorious Allied Powers dissolved and re-assigned this empire in the course of the First World War (1914-1918) and its subsequent peace treaties, such as the Treaty of Versailles.

In the treaties Japan gained the Carolines and Marianas, France gained Togo and Cameroons, Belgium gained parts of German East Africa, and the United Kingdom gained German New Guinea, Namibia, parts of German East Africa, and Samoa. Most of these territories acquired by the British were attached to its various Commonwealth realms overseas and were transferred to them upon their independence.

German colonies

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Formal German sovereignty existed in (German names in italics):

• Pacific Ocean
  • Western Samoa: 1899 – 1914
  • German New Guinea (Deutsch-Neuguinea), including Kaiser Wilhelm's Land and nearby islands: 1884 – 1914; administratively associated with it were:
    • The Caroline Islands (Karolinen): 1899 – 1914
    • The Marianas Islands (Marianen): 1899 – 1914
• German East Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika):
  • the later Tanganyika (Tanganjika), now part of Tanzania
  • Ruanda-Urundi (present Rwanda and Burundi): 1885 – 1917
  • Wituland 1885 – 1890, since in Kenya
• German West Africa (Deutsch-Westafrika) - The original name for the combination of
  • Cameroons (Kamerun): 1884 – and
  • Togo (Togoland): 1884 – 1914
• South West Africa (Deutsch-Südwestafrika), now modern-day Namibia: 1883 – 1915

Imperial Germany also maintained interests in areas of China:

• The protectorate of Kiao-chau (Kiautschou), including the concession of Tsingtao (Tsingtau): 1897 – 1914
• The sphere of influence of Shandong
• The sphere of influence of the Huang He (Hwang-Ho) valley

See also

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• List of former German colonies

External links

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• Deutsche-Schutzgebiete (German Protectorates) website

Sources and references

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• Westermann, Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte (in German)
• WorldStatesmen.org

Colonialism | Empires | German Empire | History of Germany | New Imperialism

Tyske kolonier | Deutsche Kolonien | Empire colonial allemand | Duitse koloniën | Kolonie niemieckie | Германская колониальная империя