Kamerun
Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern parts of Chad and far eastern parts of Nigeria. History. 19th century. The first German trading post in the Duala area on the Kamerun River delta was established in 1868 by the Hamburg trading company . The firm's primary agent in Gabon, Johannes Thormählen, expanded activities to the Kamerun River delta. In 1874, together with the Woermann agent  in Liberia, Wilhelm Jantzen, the two merchants founded their own company, Jantzen & Thormählen there. Both of these West Africa houses expanded into shipping with their own sailing ships and steamers and inaugurated scheduled passenger and freight service between Hamburg and Duala. These companies and others obtained extensive acreage from local chiefs and began systematic plantation operations, including bananas. By 1884, Adolph Woermann, as spokesman for all West African companies, petitioned the imperial foreign office for "protection" by the German Empire. Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, sought to utilize the traders on site to govern the region via "chartered companies". However , in response to Bismarck's proposal, the companies withdrew their petition. The commercial interests wanted profitable trading activities under the protection of the Reich, but were determined to stay away from political entanglements. Eventually, Bismarck yielded to the Woermann position and instructed the admiralty to dispatch a gunboat. As a show of German interest, the small gunboat "SMS Möwe" arrived in West Africa. Germany was particularly interested in Cameroon's agricultural potential and asked large firms to exploit it and export its production. Bismarck defined his priorities: "first the merchant, then the soldier". The influence of businessman Adolph Woermann, who  had a trading house in Douala, that Bismarck, initially skeptical, was convinced. Large German trading companies (Woermann, Jantzen und Thoermalen) and concession companies (Sudkamerun Gesellschaft, Nord-West Kamerun Gesellschaft) established themselves massively in the colony. Letting the big companies impose their order, the administration simply supported them, protected them and eliminated native uprisings. Germany planned to build a great African empire, which would connect Kamerun through the Congo to its East African possessions. The German Foreign Minister said shortly before the First World War that the Belgian Congo was too large a colony for a country as small as Belgium . Protectorate of Cameroon. The protectorate of Cameroon was established during the "Scramble for Africa". The German explorer, medical doctor, imperial consul and commissioner for West Africa, Gustav Nachtigal, was the driving force for the colony's establishment. By then well over a dozen German companies based in Hamburg and Bremen, conducted trading and plantation activities in Cameroon. Germany gradually expanded the colony, meeting with heavy resistance in the Bafut Wars and Adamawa Wars. Atrocities and Forced Labour. German Kamerun was dependant on a combination of slavery, which already existed in precolonial times and forms of forced labor on plantations in  South-west Kamerun. Forced laborers could be gathered from conquered ethnic groups or later as a form of taxation, where indigenous rulers had to provide the German colonial system with a number of man-hours. Conditions for the forced laborers were dire and the death rate was so high that after critical missionary reports the Germans were forced to increase supervision to curb excesses. The number of deaths remain unknown According to German imperial consul Paul Döbritz extreme forms of discipline were practised on plantations in German Kamerun, including the cutting of hands, genitals, gouging of eyes and decapitations. Severed  limbs were collected and shown to local authorities as proof of death. 20th century. With subsidies from the imperial treasury, the colony built two rail lines from the port city of Duala to bring agricultural products to market. The Northern line extended to the Manenguba mountains, and the mainline went to Makak on the river Nyong. An extensive postal and telegraph system and a river navigation network with government ships connected the coast to the interior. The Cameroon protectorate was enlarged with New Cameroon (German: "Neukamerun") in 1911 as part of the settlement of the Agadir Crisis, resolved by the  Treaty of Fez. German losses. At the outbreak of World War I, French, Belgian and British troops invaded the German colony in 1914 and fully occupied it during the Kamerun campaign. The last German fort to surrender was the one at Mora in the north of the colony in 1916. Following Germany's defeat, the Treaty of Versailles divided the territory into two League of Nations mandates (Class B) under the administration of Great Britain and France. French Cameroun and part of British Cameroons reunified in 1961 as Cameroon. Planned symbols for Kamerun. In 1914 a series of drafts were  made for proposed Coat of Arms and Flags for the German Colonies. However, World War I broke out before the designs were finished and implemented and the symbols were never actually used. External links. Banknotes of German Cameroon