German East Africa (German: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika (the mainland part of present Tanzania). Its area was 994,996 km (384,170 sq mi), nearly three times the size of Germany today.
The colony came into existence during the 1880s and ended with Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I. Afterwards the territory was divided between Britain and Belgium, and was l...
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German East Africa (German: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika (the mainland part of present Tanzania). Its area was 994,996 km (384,170 sq mi), nearly three times the size of Germany today.
The colony came into existence during the 1880s and ended with Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I. Afterwards the territory was divided between Britain and Belgium, and was later converted to a mandate of the League of Nations.
The colony began with Carl Peters, an adventurer who founded the "Society for German Colonization" and signed treaties with several native chieftains on the mainland opposite Zanzibar. On 3 March 1885, the German government announced it had granted an imperial charter (issued on 17 February) to Peters' company and intended to establish a protectorate in East Africa. Peters then recruited specialists who began exploring south to the Rufiji River and north to Witu, near Lamu on the coast....
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