Germany colonized Africa during two distinct periods. In the 1680s, the Margraviate of Brandenburg, then leading the broader realm of Brandenburg-Prussia, pursued limited imperial efforts in West Africa. The Brandenburg African Company was chartered in 1682 and established two small settlements on the Gold Coast of what is today Ghana. Five years later, a treaty with the king of Arguin in Mauritania established a protectorate over that island, and Brandenburg occupied an abandoned fort originally constructed there by Portugal. Brandenburg — after 1701, the Kingdom of Prussia — pursued these colonial efforts until 1721, when Arguin was captured by the French and the Gold Coast settlements were sold to the Dutch Republic.
Over a century and a half later, the unified German Empire had emerged as a major world power. In 1884, pursuant to the Berlin Conference, colonies were officially established on the African west coast, often in areas already inhabited by German missionaries and merchants. The following year gunboats were dispatched to East Africa to contest the Sultan of Zanzibar's claims of sovereignty over the mainland in what is today Tanzania. Settlements in modern Guinea and Nigeria's Ondo State failed within a year; those in Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo quickly grew into lucrative colonies. Together these six countries constituted Germany's African presence in the age of New Imperialism. They were invaded and largely occupied by the colonial forces of the Allied Powers during World War I, and in 1919 were transferred from German control by the League of Nations and divided between Belgium, France, Portugal, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
The six principal colonies of German Africa, along with native kingdoms and polities, were the legal precedents of the modern states of Burundi, Cameroon, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo. Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Somalia, Zambia, Nigeria, Central African Republic and Republic of the Congo were also under the control of German Africa at various points during its existence.
Background
The roots of German colonization in Africa trace back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when various German states, most notably Brandenburg-Prussia, made efforts to participate in overseas expansion, inspired by the activities of other European powers. The most notable of these early ventures was the establishment of the Brandenburg African Company (Brandenburger Afrikanische Compagnie), which operated between 1682 and 1721. The company founded trading posts, including Neufriedrichsburg along the Gold Coast in present-day Ghana, primarily for the purpose of trading gold, ivory, and slaves. However, these possessions remained minor, struggled with limited resources, and faced competition from Dutch, Danish, and British traders. The colonies were eventually sold to the Dutch in 1721.
During the 1860s and 1870s various organizations emerged in Germany with the aim of acquiring colonies. These groups, such as the Central-Verein für Handels-Geographie und deutsche Interesse in Ausland (founded in 1868 by Hamburg traders like Adolf Woermann) and the Verein für Handels-Geographie of Leipzig, primarily sought to open new markets for German goods and conducted geographical research to support their commercial interests.
The depression of the late 1870s and Germany’s shift to protectionist policies spurred the creation of more active colonial organizations. Notably, Friedrich Fabri founded the Westdeutscher Verein für Kolonisation und Export in 1880, which aimed to unite commercial, missionary, and emigrationist interests. Many of these new groups promoted the idea of colonies as potential outlets for German emigrants, hoping to win middle-class support by emphasizing the benefits of settlement and the alleviation of overpopulation. At the same time, colonialist arguments based on economic expansion gained traction. While emigrationist rhetoric was popular, the most convincing arguments for the government and business leaders were those advocating for trading colonies to secure German markets and protect investments. This dual approach—settlement colonialism for public support and economic colonialism for policy—helped rally a broad base behind the colonial cause.
In 1882, various colonialist factions united to form the Kolonialverein, which actively campaigned for colonies and lobbied the German parliament. Yet, not all colonialists joined this umbrella group; figures like Carl Peters established their own organizations, such as the Gesellschaft für deutsche Kolonisation, which pursued both settlement and commercial activities in East Africa. Key thinkers like Friedrich Fabri and Carl Peters shaped colonial ideology. Fabri, a missionary and publicist, argued in his book Bedarf Deutschland der Colonien, that Germany needed colonies to secure its economic future and provide outlets for surplus population, advocating for settlement colonies in temperate regions. Peters, influenced by British colonialism, combined calls for agricultural settlement with personal commercial ambitions.
Despite the prominence of settlement colonialism in public propaganda, German government and business interests were more motivated by the economic benefits of trading colonies. Economic colonialism envisioned African territories as sources of raw materials and markets for German manufactures, requiring less direct involvement and risk than large-scale settlement. Missionaries and explorers also played a role, though their influence was generally limited. Fabri was a notable exception, using his mission connections to advocate for colonial protectorates, particularly in Southwest Africa. By 1883, the colonial movement had become a significant force in German politics, creating conditions that encouraged Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to reverse his previous opposition to overseas expansion. This paved the way for Germany’s acquisition of colonies in Africa and the Pacific, driven by a mix of commercial ambition, nationalist sentiment, and the search for new markets and prestige.
Acquisition of the colonies
The immediate spark for Bismarck's actions was a series of requests from German trading companies and adventurers who had settled along the African coast, especially in South West Africa (now Namibia), Togo, Cameroon, and East Africa. When rival European powers threatened to invade these areas, German commercial interests petitioned the government for protection and formal colonial status. Among the most prominent of these appeals were Adolf Lüderitz's request for protection of his land holdings in South West Africa and similar petitions from traders in Cameroon and Togo.
Bismarck saw the response to these demands as an opportunity to achieve several goals at once: he could use the colonial enthusiasm of the population to strengthen his political position at home, protect and promote German economic interests abroad, and assert Germany's status as a world power without excessive financial or military commitments. In 1884, he began issuing imperial charters and proclaiming German protectorates in Africa, officially entering Germany into the colonial race. This decision was less the result of a sudden ideological shift than a pragmatic response to changing political, economic, and international conditions.
Eastern Africa
German East Africa was acquired through a combination of treaties, purchase agreements, and military enforcement by agents and representatives of the German Empire in the late nineteenth century. The process began in 1884, when Carl Peters, a German explorer and adventurer, founded the Society for German Colonization (Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation) and traveled to the coastal region of East Africa, an area then under nominal sovereignty of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Peters and his associates negotiated and signed a series of protection treaties with local chiefs in the hinterland of what is now Tanzania between 1884 and 1885. These treaties, often obtained through coercion or deception, granted the German society extensive rights over land and administration.
In 1885, Peters returned to Germany and persuaded the imperial government under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to grant an imperial charter to the newly founded German East Africa Company (Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft, DOAG), giving it authority to administer and exploit the territories claimed through these agreements. The imperial charter provided official recognition and military backing, marking the beginning of formal German involvement. The Sultan of Zanzibar, Barghash bin Said, who claimed sovereignty over the coastal strip, protested the German expansion. Tensions escalated when the German navy demonstrated force off the coast of Zanzibar in 1885, compelling the Sultan to acquiesce.
The company did not waste any time in dispatching eighteen expeditions to make treaties expanding its territories in East Africa, but these moves by the Germans stirred hostility in the region. When the company’s agents landed to take over seven coastal towns in the August of 1888, the tension finally escalated into violence. Warriors flocked to a few of the coastal towns and gave the Germans two days to leave. In one instance, two Germans were killed in the town of Kilwa; German marines were eventually ordered in who cleared the town, killing every person in sight. Resistance was seen all over German-controlled Africa, but the German soldiers and officers made up one of the best and most highly-trained armies in the world, so the action of rebelling did not have much of a long-term impact. Subsequent negotiations, including the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 between Germany and Britain, further defined the boundaries of the colony, with Britain recognizing German claims to mainland East Africa in exchange for German recognition of British interests in Zanzibar and other territories.
The consolidation of German rule in Tanganyika By 1898, the Germans controlled all of Tanganyika’s main population centers and lines of communication. The next item of business for the Germans was to impose their rule over the small-scale societies further away from the caravan routes. This was done either by bargaining with African leaders or through warfare. After diplomacy concluded and the conflicts resulted in German victory, their regime used bands of gunmen to maintain authority over local leaders. Eventually, the main coastal towns, which were more settled, were converted into headquarters of administration districts, and civilian district officers were appointed. Further inland, administration grew outwards from strategic garrisons but was transferred to civilian hands more slowly. By 1914, Tanganyika was divided into 22 administrative districts, and only two of them were still ruled by soldiers. The chief characteristic of German rule was the power and autonomy of the district officer; sheer lack of communication dictated this. Orders from the capital may have taken months to reach remote districts and a remote station could expect a visit from a senior official only once a decade. The district officer exercised full jurisdiction over "natives", for although legislation specified the punishments he might impose, nothing defined the offences for which he might impose them. The German rule of East Africa was solely based on force and German officials inspired great terror.
Two broad phases of district administration