First World War outside Europe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The First World War outside of Europe included numerous secondary theaters of the First World War . Among other things, there was fighting for the German colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Most of the German overseas territories were captured by the Entente and their allies after brief fighting . The colonial forces were not intended for war against external opponents and the German territories were all surrounded by areas under the control of the Entente, which also had control of the sea routes. The fighting lasted beyond 1916 only in East Africa . The last units of the local protection force only surrendered after the official armistice in Europe.

Other theaters of war outside Europe were in the Caucasus and in the oriental regions of the Ottoman Empire ( Hejaz , Levant , Mesopotamia ). In addition, there were agent activities , intelligence missions and support actions to initiate uprisings , especially in Africa and Asia .

Time course of the First World War in a global dimension:
From the spring of 1916, the non-European sphere of influence of the Central Powers was limited to the Arab-Ottoman region and small areas of East Africa, while the Entente Powers had colonies and allies on all continents.

Theaters of war in and near the German colonies

German colonies, fighting directions and surrenders in the First World War
The enemies of the Central Powers 1917 (based on a map by Georg von Moser)

The First World War at colonial theaters only played a subordinate role in the course of the war. The German Empire due to the difficult accessibility and supply situation had little opportunity to defend their colonies permanently. The armed forces were not designed for external conflicts, but served to maintain power internally. The parliament in Berlin was also of the opinion that the fate of the colonies on the European battlefields would be decided. They also hoped for the Congo Act of 1885, in which the European powers had committed themselves not to extend a war to the colonies.

The German colonies included: the Kiautschou naval base in northern China, the Pacific island regions of German New Guinea and German Samoa, and the African colonies of Togo , Cameroon , German South West Africa and German East Africa . The total area of ​​these areas was 2,953,000 km² (about eight times that of today's Germany ), the total number of inhabitants over 12 million.

The protection troops in the three large African colonies numbered a total of around 15,000 men who were actually not stationed for armed conflicts, but were supposed to secure rule and prevent rebellions by the locals. In the smaller colonies there were only police units. The already high administrative costs should not increase immeasurably by a large armed force. The surrender of the German colonies at the beginning of the First World War was a matter of time.

Kiautschou

Shot German gun near Tsingtau

Which until 1897 Kiautschou China had been leased for 99 years, represented an exceptional case because it does not like all the other colonies the Reichskolonialamt but as naval base the Admiralty was under. In 1914 the III. Naval battalion stationed there, whose 1,500 men were reinforced by 3,400 men at the beginning of the war (a Chinese offer of reinforcement by tens of thousands of men was ignored). On August 10, 1914, Japan issued an ultimatum to Germany demanding the immediate surrender of the colony, which, however , remained unanswered by Governor Alfred Meyer-Waldeck . Thirteen days after the ultimatum, the Japanese declared war . Since Vienna refused to withdraw the cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth from Tsingtau, Japan also declared war on Austria-Hungary ; the cruiser's whereabouts in Tsingtau was viewed as an express wish of Kaiser Wilhelm II . The planes of the Japanese aircraft mother ship Wakamiya made naval history as the first aircraft to successfully attack land and sea targets from a ship. The Austro-Hungarian cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth and the German gunboat Jaguar were the target of the first sea-based air raid in history off Tsingtau on September 6, 1914, both ships were not hit. Together with British troops, the Japanese enclosed the entire lease area from the land (via neutral China) and sea. After days of artillery bombardment and a failed general attack by the Allies on the birthday of the Japanese Emperor Yoshihito , the ammunition of the defenders ran out, so that Meyer-Waldeck surrendered on November 7, 1914. Of the 4,900 defenders, 224 fell and 519 of the 53,000 attackers.

The German defenders were taken prisoner of war in Japan. They lived there in several camps and some were not released until 1920. The most famous camps were called Matsuyama and Bandō .

German New Guinea

German reservists at the start of the war in New Guinea in 1914

German New Guinea did not get the news that war had broken out in Europe until August 5, 1914. When Vice Governor Eduard Haber , who had been replacing Governor Albert Hahl , who had been on leave due to illness since spring 1914 , returned a few days later from an expedition into the interior of Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land , 50 armed Germans, including 2 officers, and 240 Melanesian police forces were mobilized .

Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land and Bismarck Archipelago

German landmine near Bitapaka, 1914

After even small Australian advance detachments had destroyed the telephone exchanges in Rabaul and Herbertshöhe on August 12, 1914 , Australian forces reached the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land and Bismarck Archipelago in early September 1914 . The total strength included about 6,000 soldiers, a battleship , two cruisers , three destroyers and the only two Australian submarines . The radio station in Bitapaka near Herbertshöhe was to serve as a message point for the East Asian cruiser squadron of the Count von Spee . To do this, it had to be held as long as possible. The station was put into a state of defense with all available means. Trenches were dug and the road to the coast was mined in some places with self-made explosive charges. Around 1,500 Australian volunteers were assigned to take the radio station. Even the scouting troops managed to surprise the German positions. About a quarter of the Melanesian police force surrendered or fled right at the start of the battle. After a five-hour battle, the defenders surrendered. 30 locals, one German and six Australians died in the fighting. Another 35 Australians died in the collision of one of the Australian submarines with another Australian ship. Part of the small German-Melanesian force withdrew into the interior, but on September 17, 1914, Lieutenant Governor Haber decided to surrender. The German government ships Nusa and Komet were seized by the Australian Expeditionary Corps on September 13, 1914 and seized on October 9, 1914.

On September 21, 1914, the transfer of the remaining, so-called “total armed power of the protected area” - five officers, 35 German and 110 Melanesian armed men - to the Australian commander-in-chief. The other villages on Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land and in the Bismarck Archipelago were occupied by Australian forces one after the other without a fight. Morobe was the last German government station to be occupied on January 11, 1915 .

The surrender conditions were very mild: the German officials were sent back to the German Reich with three monthly salaries, German laws and currency remained in place for the time being.

In the province of Morobe , the German captain Hermann Detzner hid in the bush with a few men and only surrendered in November 1918.

Micronesia

The British flag is raised on Nauru , 7 November 1914

The German islands in Micronesia were occupied among other things because of the natural resources on Angaur and Nauru. Japan also took the opportunity to expand its Pacific sphere of influence to the south, after Great Britain initially acted hesitantly.

On August 12, 1914 , the crews of the British cruisers Minotaur and Hampshire destroyed the submarine cable and the radio station on the island of Yap , without occupying the island. As a result, a replacement radio station was built on the German side with the help of the equipment of the survey ship SMS Planet , which, however, was destroyed when the Japanese warships appeared in October 1914. On September 9, the British cruiser Melbourne reached the island of Nauru, with only the radio technology being rendered unusable. Even the German flag was allowed to continue to fly for the time being. Something similar happened on the island of Angaur. The Australian cruiser Sydney arrived there on September 26th . A landing party of the cruiser confiscated the radio equipment in such a hurry that it could reasonably be restored by the islanders after the ship had left. Angaur was finally occupied by the Japanese on October 9th. All other German islands in Micronesia, with the exception of Nauru, were occupied by Japanese troops without a fight , most recently the island of Rota on October 21, 1914. The island of Nauru, which was coveted because of its phosphate richness, was occupied by British-Australians on November 6, 1914 Forces coming from Rabaul completely taken over. The British flag was hoisted the next day. Most of the time, the respective island was handed over to the incoming occupiers immediately. Only on Ponape did the assessor Josef Köhler withdraw into the bush with a troop of 50 local police officers until he saw the hopelessness of his situation. The German auxiliary cruiser Cormoran operated for several months in Micronesian waters, but was interned in Guam at the end of 1914 due to a lack of coal supplies and successes in sinking .

Eugenio Blanco, the last Spanish governor of the Carolines , made the Germans an offer. From the Philippines , 5,000 volunteers were to be provided for the fight against Japan. However, this - unofficial - offer was rejected by the German Foreign Office and the Imperial Naval Command. Spain and the United States , which owned the Philippines, might have been drawn into the war.

The German inhabitants of the now Japanese islands were able to return to the German Empire via Japan and the United States.

German Samoa

Hoisting of the Union Jack in Samoa, August 30, 1914

The Government Council of German Samoa was informed of the outbreak of war through the Tafaigata radio station that had just been completed . The council decided to surrender the colony without a fight in the event of an attack. Due to the low military resources - Samoa had no protection force - a defense of the island colony was considered hopeless. However, a vigilante group , consisting of 40 conscripted Europeans, guarded the radio station and was ready for any unrest. The Germans expected support from the police, called Fita-Fita , made up of the sons of local chiefs . The colonial administration had important documents and money loaded onto the mail steamer State Secretary Solf and sent the ship to Pago Pago in neighboring and neutral American Samoa .

On August 29, 1914, New Zealand troops, supported by an Australian - French naval association, occupied the German part of the Samoa Islands . On the Australian side, the battleship Australia and the cruisers Melbourne , Sydney , Psyche , Pyramus and Philomel were used. The French armored cruiser Montcalm and the freighters Moeraki and Monowai of the Union Steam Ship Company also appeared off Samoa. The warships covered the landing of nearly 1,500 New Zealand soldiers. Shortly afterwards, the German flag was brought down on the government building. The Germans allowed themselves to be interned in a camp by the New Zealanders without resistance.

On September 14, 1914, the German ships SMS Gneisenau and SMS Scharnhorst of the East Asia Squadron crossed off Apia . However, since the Australian warships were not there at the time, there was no sea battle. The landing, welcomed by the internees and feared by the occupiers, also failed to materialize. Squadron Chief Spee did not consider a recapture , as the enemy strength was unclear and there was no long-term prospect of success. He also refrained from bombarding Apias. The squadron continued its journey to South America , following a pretended westward course . German colonists who had already set out to provide Spee as reinforcement and guide, were taken into captivity.

Togo

Occupation of Togo, 1914

Togo , wedged between English and French colonial territory, without natural boundaries and with a well-developed road network, offered an attractive target. No protection troops were stationed in Togo; the country only had a local police force of 550 men, which was led by five European officers. At the beginning of the war it was increased to a total of 1,500 men, including around 200 Germans, but the largely untrained units lacked war material. On August 6, 1914, French colonial troops occupied the coastal towns of Anecho and Porto Seguro without encountering any resistance. The following day, British units landed at the main port and port of Lome . The Germans, aware of the hopelessness of the situation, withdrew into the interior and limited themselves to blowing up railway bridges in order to slow down the enemy advance. At Bafilo in northeast Togo, there was a battle between smaller German and French departments. Togo's deputy governor, Hans Georg von Doering , had received an order from the German government to defend the transcontinental radio station in Kamina for as long as possible , as information that was important to the war effort could be passed on via wireless radio communications with Germany. The coast radio station Togblekovhe - about 16 kilometers inland in the hinterland of Lome - was destroyed by a German commando so as not to let it fall into enemy hands. Along the Lome-Atakpame railway line, a guerrilla war developed over several days between the retreating German police force and the British-French colonial troops advancing from the coast. At the Chra River (kilometer 123 of the Lome railway line), on August 22, 1914, the heaviest fighting occurred in Togoland. 60 Germans and around 500 local mercenaries had holed up in a strongly fortified position. British and French troops ran against this position for hours. Due to the demoralized mercenaries and porters as well as the lack of ammunition, the position had to be evacuated by the Germans the following day. This cleared the way to the Kamina radio station near Atakpame . On the night of August 24th to 25th, 1914, the station was destroyed by the Germans themselves by setting the machines on fire and knocking down the radio masts.

On August 27, 1914, the handover of the Togo colony took place. The area was divided between French West Africa and the British Gold Coast .

Cameroon

British gun emplacement near Dschang in South Cameroon, 1915
German defensive position near Garua in North Cameroon, 1914/15

The German protection force in Cameroon had been weakened by uprisings before 1914, and the geographical location of Cameroon enabled the Allies to attack from all four sides at the same time. 8,000 German or local defenders faced 30,000 superior armed opponents. Despite this allied superiority, the Germans, under the leadership of Major Carl Heinrich Zimmermann , were able to record some partial successes until September 1914 and repeatedly drive back the English and French associations. On September 27, 1914, however, the Germans had to give up the port city of Duala and retreat inland. There they began a grueling guerrilla war in the rainforest Südkameruns and a stubborn trench warfare in the savannah north of Cameroon. These defensive successes were essentially made possible by the support of the local population and by the fact that the initial losses in Duala and elsewhere were of little strategic importance. In the following year the fortunes of war changed constantly. Although the defenders were able to repel the attackers again and again with blood, a victory for the Entente became apparent, as the Allies were able to achieve their first operational objective in September 1915: They stood on the Wumbiaga - Éséka line , thus occupying key parts of the country. In January 1916, after the capital Yaoundé had been evacuated , most of the German associations withdrew to neutral Spanish Guinea . During this escape, 900 Germans and 14,000 soldiers of the local auxiliary troops came to neutral ground, 50,000 natives followed them. The remaining units fought until the last Germans could be evacuated from Cameroon. This rearguard finally gave up on February 18, 1916. A mountain position near Mora in the northern tip of Cameroon was able to hold its own against Entente troops up to this point . In retrospect, at eighteen months, the Cameroon campaign lasted much longer than the Entente had ever expected. According to the British historian Hew Strachan , the military performance of Zimmermann and the protection force in Cameroon of those Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa withstood in every respect and made their later successes possible in the first place. Zimmermann's tenacious resistance led to the binding of large allied units in Cameroon, thus giving the German troops in East Africa a respite of over a year.

South West Africa

The South West Africa campaign in 1915
German cannons ("Halbbatterie Westenfeld") in use during the First World War in German South West Africa

The colony of German South West Africa bordered the militarily stronger South African Union in the south , which offered the German side a tactically unfavorable starting position. When the war began, the Germans therefore stationed all their forces on the German-South African border. The fighting broke out with a South African attack on the police station of Ramansdrift, until September 1914 there were several skirmishes against South African and English units, in which the protection forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Joachim von Heydebreck repeatedly achieved smaller successes. In the Battle of Sandfontein , the German Schutztruppe repulsed a numerically superior army from South Africa. The exclave Walvis Bay , which belongs to the South African Union, was occupied by the Germans from September 10, 1914 to December 25, 1914. In October 1914 the fighting came to an end because a Boer uprising against English rule broke out in South Africa , and Prime Minister of the South African Union, Louis Botha, had to withdraw all troops to suppress it . This revolt delayed the British advance for a few months. Some of these Boer militants continued to fight on the German side after this uprising was suppressed.

Von Heydebreck used this break in the fight in the south to carry out a punitive expedition against Portuguese West Africa . Portuguese troops had previously captured the German governor of Outjo , Leonhard Schultze , and shot him while trying to escape. Schultze had tried to get in touch with the Portuguese authorities to clarify whether Germany was at war with Portugal. The Portuguese Fort Naulila was attacked as an act of revenge . Portugal was officially neutral until 1916, but under British pressure it confiscated German supply transports.

After the Boer uprising in South Africa was suppressed, the situation for the Germans became increasingly hopeless. South African troops occupied Swakopmund in the west and at the same time advanced from the south. Windhoek fell on May 11, 1915, so that the German administrative headquarters had to be relocated to Grootfontein . The German protection force evaded further north, but ultimately surrendered - pursued by the enemy - in the mine area of Otavi , which was occupied at the end of June 1915. An armistice was negotiated on July 9, 1915. The South African Union occupied the entire country by mid-August, the German settlers were allowed to return to their farms, and even the 1,300-strong protection force was not disarmed, but only concentrated in a certain part of the country.

East Africa

The theaters of war in East Africa extended over a considerable area. It covered an area from what is now southern Kenya (then part of British East Africa ) to deep into Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa). In between was German East Africa, the largest and most populous of all German colonies. From mid-1915, German East Africa was the only remaining exclave of the Central Powers in the southern hemisphere . The German army command therefore made some efforts to stay in contact with the colony. Two blockade breakers reached the East African coast, but did not return to Germany. Attempts to reach the colony in the course of the Stotzingen mission through a relay radio station and through an airship were canceled on the way.

German East Africa: heartland

German soldiers with field gun in German East Africa, 1914

The heartland of German East Africa (later Tanganyika ) had two railway lines that allowed troops to be transported quickly, and the geographic location also favored defense. The force for German East Africa was in 1914 with Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck a commander, who immediately prepared his forces for a possible war and saw in his calling as many enemy forces in the colony far from decisive European theater to bind. For these reasons, the bloodiest battles of the First World War for a colony took place in German East Africa.

The Allies raised a total of 250,000 British, South African , Indian , Belgian and Portuguese soldiers and up to 1,000,000 African porters . After a general mobilization at the beginning of the war, the defenders reached 3,000 German officers, NCOs and men, as well as 12,100 battle-tested Askaris . A peak of 41,000 Africans carried out porter and auxiliary services. The fighting took place on five very distant theaters of war. Their road and rail networks made it easier for the Germans to get supplies. The effect of the British naval blockade was partially undermined by blockade breakers and improvisation on the German side.

The British reacted to German attacks in the Kenyan border area by bringing in Anglo-Indian colonial troops. After they suffered heavy defeats in battles at Tanga and Longido in 1914 , the British managed South African troops under the former Boer general Jan Christiaan Smuts to Kenya. With a great deal of personnel and material, they succeeded in taking the cities and the railway lines and pushing the protection force into the impassable southern part of the colony.

British East Africa and Zanzibar

Capture of the border town of Taveta in British East Africa (today Kenya) by German troops, August 15, 1914

At the beginning of the war, the Germans made incursions into the south of British East Africa. On August 15, 1914, the German Schutztruppe took the British border town of Taveta and turned it into a military base for operations against the British Uganda Railway . This led the British to the decision to bring thousands of Indian soldiers to Mombasa , who arrived there from September 1914. During the first year and a half of the war, the Uganda Railway was the target of numerous German small combat groups who attacked British military trains and set booby traps against trains running over them. These commando companies led through impassable, arid terrain and were therefore very hard to find. It was not until March 1916 that the British managed to bring the situation under control and secure the long sections of the railway.

The Sultanate of Zanzibar entered the war as a protectorate of Great Britain on August 5, 1914 against the German Reich and on August 20, 1914 against Austria-Hungary. On September 20, 1914, the German cruiser Königsberg shelled the port and radio system of Zanzibar , with the British cruiser Pegasus sank.

German East Africa: Mafia Island

Mafia was the largest German-owned island off the coast of East Africa. At the beginning of the First World War, a small post of the protection force was stationed on the Mafia. On January 10, 1915, British colonial troops occupied the island in order to eliminate the Königsberg , which was hidden in the Rufiji Delta . The landing took place at Ras Kisimani on the southwestern tip of the island. The defenders, three Germans and about twenty askaris under the command of a local planter, gave up the fight against six British companies after five hours. The protection troops were captured by the British. Only one trooper managed to escape with a dhow to Kilwa Kivinje .

German East Africa: Rwanda and Burundi

The German commander-in-chief in East Africa, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, considered these two areas in the far northwest of German East Africa to be militarily untenable and withdrew the protection troops from there at the beginning of the war. The German commander in Rwanda , Captain Max Wintgens, saw the situation differently and assembled a force of 80 men from the African police in Rwanda, with whom he even attacked the Belgian Congo and occupied the island of Idjwi in Lake Kivu . Another unit of 100 men was equipped with Belgian booty weapons. African auxiliary warriors were recruited and quickly trained to become soldiers. The King of Rwanda, Yuhi V. Musinga, also donned the uniform of the German Schutztruppe and supported the defense of his homeland against attacks by the British and Belgians. He also placed warriors under the command of the German commander. In addition, Africans volunteered to serve as soldiers under German command. With this mixed association, Rwanda and Burundi could be held for a long time . In May 1916, Rwanda had to be evacuated against the overwhelming Belgian-British forces. Thereupon the German leadership renounced a military resistance in Burundi and in June 1916 the country was occupied by the Belgians.

Portuguese East Africa and Northern Rhodesia

In a later phase of their campaign, the British deployed African troops from Kenya, which forced the remnants of the protection force to evade to Portuguese East Africa ( Mozambique ). On November 25, 1917, von Lettow-Vorbeck's troops left the soil of German East Africa by crossing the Rovuma River and invaded the Portuguese colony with the Battle of Ngomano . Von Lettow-Vorbeck was able to capture new supplies in Portuguese East Africa and in 1918 moved again through the south of German East Africa to Northern Rhodesia . Here English parliamentarians brought him the news of the armistice in Europe. The German Schutztruppe then surrendered to the Allies on November 25, 1918.

Other theaters of war outside Europe

First World War in the oriental region (1917):
  • Entente and allies
  • Central Powers
  • neutral states

    • During the First World War , the German Reich supported anti-colonial , nationalist and religious endeavors in Africa and Asia, outside of its own possessions. This was linked to the goal of contributing to the destabilization of the war opponents in the colonies. This happened, for example, through the procurement of materials and military advice for rebel colonial peoples. The German news agency for the Orient (NfO) played a special role .

    Selected foreign operations of the Central Powers

    The operations included:

    The starting point for these operations was usually the zone of influence of the Ottoman Empire, allied with Germany . Hence the German Asia Corps , which took part in the warfare in the Ottoman-ruled provinces in the Middle East .

    The German Schutztruppe also provided the Boers with weapons and uniforms during the Maritz Rebellion . The rebellion had broken out mainly in the South African province of North Cape and was directed against South Africa's entry into the war on the side of Great Britain.

    There were no theaters of war on the American continent. Corresponding considerations, however, were the content of the so-called Zimmermann dispatch of 1917, the publication of which thwarted Germany's efforts to establish an alliance with Mexico .

    Anatolia

    Since 1915 there were persecution measures up to and including genocide against Armenians , Arameans / Assyrians and Greeks . An invasion of the Dardanelles by the Entente in 1915/16 was repulsed by the Battle of Gallipoli .

    Middle East and North Africa

    After the failure of an Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal , the east bank fell to the British in 1916. An advance by British colonial troops into Mesopotamia initially failed in April 1916 near Kut , but Baghdad was captured in March 1917 . The British, advancing with the support of insurgent Arabs under Lawrence of Arabia as part of the Sinai and Palestine campaigns, inflicted the last decisive defeat on the Ottomans in the Battle of Palestine in September 1918.

    The Central Powers supported the Ottoman military with men and material for use in the Middle East. In addition to Germany, Austria-Hungary also participated in the aid, which included artillery units.

    The last sultan of the Fur Sultanate in what is now Darfur , Ali Dinar , rose against the British claim to rule in 1916. The Sultan hoped for German-Ottoman support and trusted the propaganda of the Central Powers, which after the victory promised an Islamic state in North Africa. However, the uprising was bloodily suppressed by British colonial troops that same year. Dinar was killed in the last few battles.

    Caucasus

    In early November 1914 , Russian troops opened the offensive in the Caucasus . In the winter of 1914/15 the Ottoman 3rd Army tried to counterattack and suffered their first heavy defeat in the Battle of Sarıkamış . In the subsequent Russian counter-offensive, the Ottomans suffered great losses of territory in Eastern Anatolia. After the initial Russian successes, however, the Russian advance came to a standstill in February 1917 due to the effects of the February Revolution . With Azerbaijan , Great Britain , Armenia and the Central Aspic dictatorship , new parties subsequently emerged in this theater of war. The German Reich also sent soldiers to the region with the German Caucasus Expedition.

    Sea war on the oceans

    World War I route and stations of the German East Asia Squadron in 1914
    »Cecilia Island« (Pacific Ocean)
    »Cecilia Island«
    »Cecilia Island«

    In the course of the cruiser war , there were several fighting at overseas coastal locations. Which includes:

    Sea battles outside European waters took place on November 1, 1914 at Coronel and on December 8, 1914 at the Falkland Islands . The restricted sea area imposed by Germany in 1918 also included the Cape Verde Islands and the African coasts near Dakar and the Mediterranean Sea.

    A "land grab" occurred on August 2nd, 1917 when Felix Graf von Luckner , captain of the auxiliary cruiser Seeadler , stranded on the Pacific island of Mopelia ( Maupihaa ). Luckner then proclaimed the foundation of the "German colony" Cäcilieninsel . The crew built the Seeadlerdorf settlement from the remains of the stranded ship. The German seafarers lived on the island for about a month with the prisoners of the ships that had been seized earlier. Luckner set off for the Fiji Islands in a dinghy with a few loyal followers . The other crew members captured the French schooner Lutece on September 5, 1917 and sailed to Easter Island .

    The occupation was a symbolic act with no legal effect. Officially, Maupihaa still belongs to the French overseas territory of French Polynesia .

    Division of the German colonies after the World War

    British occupation forces in Togo (October 1914)
    Mandate areas in the former German colonies and provinces of the former Ottoman Empire
  • British mandate area
  • French mandate area
  • Belgian mandate area
  • Australian mandate area
  • Japanese mandate area
  • New Zealand Mandate Area
  • South African mandate area
  • Common mandate area

    • The Versailles Peace Treaty determined that Germany would give up all of its former colonies. At first they came under the administration of the League of Nations , which determined the further administration. In 1922, China received a League of Nations mandate through Kiautschou .

    Most of the South Sea islands (namely the Northern Mariana Islands , the Marshall Islands and the Carolines ) came under a Japanese mandate and were finally placed under US administration as UN trust areas after the Second World War . The Northern Mariana Islands are still under American administration today; the Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands gained independence in 1990 , Palau in 1994. German Samoa became the New Zealand Mandate of Western Samoa and became independent in 1962. Nauru became the Australian-British-New Zealand mandate and became independent in 1968. Australia received a mandate via German New Guinea ( Territory of New Guinea ), and in 1949 the area was united with the former British New Guinea , also under the Australian Mandate ( Territory of Papua ). In 1975 the territory of Papua and New Guinea was granted independence as part of Papua New Guinea .

    The eastern 2/3 of Togo became French trust territory ( French Togoland ), the country gained independence in 1960, the west was attached to the British Gold Coast ( British Togoland , now part of Ghana ). Cameroon was divided in 1922. The British part came to the crown colony of Nigeria , the French part was under its own administration until independence in 1960. In 1975 there was reunification with the south of the former British part, the north remained with Nigeria. German South West Africa was granted independence as Namibia in 1990 as the last African colony. Most of German East Africa became British, Belgium received the provinces of Rwanda and Burundi (Urundi), and the Kionga Triangle was Portugal's last ever to gain territory to Portuguese East Africa ( Mozambique ). In 1961 the state became independent under the name Tanganyika. This was then combined with Zanzibar to form Tanzania . Belgium released the remaining part as Burundi and Rwanda in 1962.

    See also

    Individual evidence

    1. ^ Wilhelm M. Donko: Austria's Navy in the Far East: All trips by ships of the k. (U.) K. Navy to East Asia, Australia and Oceania from 1820 to 1914. epubli, Berlin 2013. pp. 4, 156–162, 427.
    2. ↑ Reinhard Klein-Arendt: "Kamina ruft Nauen!" - The radio stations in the German colonies 1904–1918 . Cologne: Wilhelm Herbst Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-923925-58-1
    3. ↑ Thomas Morlang: Battle in the South Seas, in: The time story. No. 1, 2014, pp. 98-99.
    4. ^ Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): The German South Seas 1884-1914 - A manual. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn a. a. 2002, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 , p. 815.
    5. ↑ Klein-Arendt: Kamina , p. 262.
    6. ↑ Golf Dornseif: Pioneering Years of Colonial Telegraphy Connections , p. 15 (PDF; 2.2 MB) ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
    7. ↑ Pioneering years of the colonial telegraphy connections ( Memento of October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.2 MB)
    8. ↑ a b Hiery: Südsee , p. 828f. Online excerpt
    9. ↑ Bernd G. Längin : The German Colonies - Schauplätze und Schicksale 1884-1918 . Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn: Mittler, 2005, ISBN 3-8132-0854-0 , p. 304.
    10. ^ Wilfried Westphal: History of the German colonies . Bindlach: Gondrom, 1991, pp. 304f., ISBN 3-8112-0905-1
    11. ^ BG Längin: The German colonies . Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn: Mittler, 2005, p. 304.
    12. ^ Andreas Leipold: The German naval warfare in the Pacific in the years 1914 and 1915. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06602-0 , p. 307.
    13. ↑ Frieda Zieschank: The war breaks out, in: Ulrike Keller (ed.): Travelers in the South Seas (since 1520). Promedia, Vienna 2004 (Original: Leipzig 1918), ISBN 3-85371-224-X , pp. 159–175.
    14. ↑ Gisela Graichen; Horst Founder: German Colonies - Dream and Trauma , 4th edition, Berlin: Ullstein, 2005, p. 334, ISBN 3-550-07637-1
    15. ^ Paul Schreckenbach: The German colonies from the beginning of the war to the end of 1917, in: ders .; Der Weltbrand - Illustrated history from a great time , Vol. 3, Leipzig: Weber, 1920, p. 866.
    16. ↑ Peter Sebald : Togo 1884–1914 - A history of the German “model colony” based on official sources , Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1988, p. 600
    17. ↑ Sebald: Togo , p. 603.
    18. ^ A. Esau: The large station Kamina and the beginning of the world war , In: Telefunken-Zeitung , III. Year, No. 16, July 1919, pp. 31–36 ( entire issue as PDF; 4.7 MB )
    19. ↑ Harald Martenstein: The Front in the Tropics , in GEO epoch No. 14 ISBN 3-570-19451-5
    20. ↑ German Colonial Atlas with Yearbook 1918 - The War in German South West Africa
    21. ↑ Founder: History of the German Colonies , p. 306
    22. ↑ Kettler, JI: Kriegs-Weltkarte, 1917. (Digitized collection of the Berlin State Library), Wikimedia Commons
    23. ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta . Munich 1987, p. 138ff. ISBN 3-453-02420-6
    24. ^ German-Ostafrikanische Zeitung of January 23, 1915 (PDF; 15.9 MB)
    25. ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta - The end of the small cruiser "Königsberg" . Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1987, p. 201, ISBN 3-453-02420-6 .
    26. ^ Mafia Island - German East Africa, January 1915
    27. ↑ Helmut Strizek: Donated colonies - Rwanda and Burundi under German rule , Ch Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, pages 147-151.
    28. ^ Hans Werner Neulen: Feldgrau in Jerusalem . 2nd edition, Munich: Universitas, 2002, p. 100 ff. ISBN 3-8004-1437-6
    29. ^ Neulen: Feldgrau , p. 165f.
    30. ^ Neulen: Feldgrau , p. 201f.
    31. ↑ Peter Heine : Leo Frobenius as a political agent, in: Paideuma , vol. 26 (1980), pp. 1-5. ( Online resource ; summary ).
    32. ↑ Golf Dornseif: The Boer Rebellion ( Memento from October 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.1 MB)
    33. ^ Neulen: Feldgrau , p. 144f.
    34. ↑ Darfur 1916 (engl.)
    35. ^ Rebel Sultan Killed , In: The New York Times , November 14, 1916
    36. ^ Andreas Leipold: The German naval warfare in the Pacific in the years 1914 and 1915. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06602-0 , p. 299.
    37. ^ Andreas Leipold: The German naval warfare in the Pacific in the years 1914 and 1915. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2012, ISBN 978-3-447-06602-0 , p. 308ff.
    38. ↑ Count Felix v. Luckner: Seeteufel - adventures from my life , Leipzig: Koehler, 1922, p. 209f.

    literature

    Web links