GERMAN EAST AFRICA. By agreements with Great Britain, in 1886 and 189o, and by other agreements with Portugal and the Congo Free State the east central part of Africa was rec ognized as a German possession. At that time the coast lands of what became German East Africa were held by Seyyid Bargash, the Sultan of Zanzibar, who also made vague claims to the interior as far as Lake Tanganyika. At Zanzibar British influence was then predominant and Bargash had in 1877 made an offer to a British merchant, William MacKinnon, to lease to him all his mainland territory. In consequence of the opposition of the Brit ish Government the offer was declined, but when in 1884 the German Colonization Society sought to secure for its country ter ritory on the east coast it deemed it prudent to act secretly, so that both Great Britain and Zanzibar might be confronted with accomplished facts. Making their way inland, three young Ger mans, Karl Peters, Joachim Count Pfeil and Dr. Jdhlke, con cluded a "treaty" in Nov. 1884 with a chieftain in Usambara who was declared to be independent of Zanzibar. Other treaties fol lowed, and on Feb. 17, 1885, the German emperor granted a char ter of protection to the Colonization Society. The German acqui sitions were resented by Zanzibar, but were acquiesced in by the British Government. The sultan was forced to acknowledge their validity, and to grant a German company a lease of his mainland territories south of the mouth of the Umba river. On Oct. 28, 18go, the sultan ceded to Germany the mainland territories, re ceiving as compensation £200,000.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 16, 1888, the German East African Com pany, the lessee of the mainland strip, took over the administra tion from the Arabs. This was followed, five days later, by a re volt of all the coast Arabs against German rule—the Germans, raw hands at the task of managing Orientals, having aroused intense hostility by their brusque treatment of the dispossessed rulers. It was not until the end of 1899 that the revolt was crushed, through the efforts of Maj. Hermann von Wissmann, who was sent out by the German Government. Wissmann remained in the country until 1891 as commissioner, and later (1895-96) was for 18 months governor of the colony—as the German sphere had been constituted by proclamation (Jan. 1, 1897). Towards the native population Wissmann's attitude was conciliatory, and under his rule the resources of the country were developed. Equal success did not attend the efforts of other administrators; in 1891-92 Karl Peters had great trouble with the tribes in the Kilimanjaro dis trict and resorted to very harsh methods, such as the execution of women, to maintain his authority. In 1896 Peters was con demned by a disciplinary court, for a misuse of official power, and lost his commission.
The extension of German authority in the interior met with much opposition, several revolts occurred and a rebellion of the Wangoni in 1905-6 entailed the loss of 120,000 lives. Material development was slow, partly because the Reichstag was niggardly in supplying funds, partly because of the inexperience of the Ger mans in dealing with Africans. A change came about after 1907, when Herr B. Dernburg, then colonial secretary, visited the colony and boldly advocated the adoption of British colonial methods in administration. From that time better conditions prevailed and much good work was done in the scientific study of the resources of the country. Flourishing German settlements grew up in the Usambara highlands, which were linked to Tanga by railway. From Dar es Salaam a trunk railway was built to Ujiji-Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika. Partly owing to the energy of Dr. Albert Schnee, the last German governor, this line was completed, two years before scheduled time, in Feb. 1914. The World War fol lowed, ending in the conquest of German East Africa by British and Belgian troops. By the Treaty of Versailles Germany re nounced her sovereignty over the colony, which came for the most part under British mandate (see TANGANYIKA TERRITORY). Part came under Belgian mandate (see RUANDA-URUNDI).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-S. Passarge and others, Das Deutsche Kolonialreich, Bibliography.-S. Passarge and others, Das Deutsche Kolonialreich, the first volume (Leipzig, 1909) , deals with East Africa ; Vice Consul Norman King wrote a valuable report (Annual Series No. 5171) , published by the British Foreign Office, 1913; A Handbook of East Africa (1916) , prepared for the British Admiralty, and Tanganyika (German East Africa) (1920) , a Foreign Office Handbook, are comple mentary volumes, each with a list of authorities. See also under TANGANYIKA TERRITORY. (F. R. C.)