In 1884, King Bell of the Duala people, along with leaders of other ethnic groups in Cameroon, signed a "protection treaty" with German trading companies that effectively made Cameroon a German colony.
In 1888, Wilhelm II was sworn in as Emperor of the German Empire and became a staunch defender of the colonial empire that Bismarck had established at the Berlin Conference in 1884-85.
A STORY ABOUT SPACE, ADVENTURERS AND DISTANT COLONIES
"Germany needs more space." This was one of the justifications propagated in Germany in the late 19th century for aggressively pursuing colonial territories. In fact, Germany was experiencing explosive population growth during this period, causing tensions in major cities such as Berlin. However, a massive settler movement never occurred, and ultimately there was never a real problem of space, which would have led to mass emigration.
German colonial history remained largely a story of adventurers, sailors, and traders, some of whom made huge profits from forced labor on their plantations.
Whenever natives resisted the arbitrary rule established by the Germans, the empire struck back with brutal punishments, murder, rape and burning villages.
King Bell's grandson Rudolf Duala Manga Bell was sent to Germany by his father to study the language and became a lover and admirer of German literature and music. As a law student in Bonn, he also became a staunch supporter of the German legal system. In 1910, Manga Bell was crowned King of the Duala as heir to the throne. He was then appointed by the Empire as a liaison between the German colonial administration and the local population.
To counter the increasingly brutal abuses of the Germans in Cameroon, Manga Bell always opted for settling disputes according to the rule of law, for example by repeatedly submitting petitions to the German Reichstag. He was firmly convinced that Germany would honor the treaty his grandfather had signed. Only when the German Reich under Kaiser Wilhelm II, after largely ignoring his pleas, sought to establish an apartheid system in the town of Duala by forcibly expropriating and expelling the population, did he - after all legal means had been exhausted - resort to rebellion. The Germans summarily put him on trial for treason without due process and executed him, along with several other leaders, by hanging.
The next day, another 200 people were hanged. Manga Bell's body was left hanging for three days to set an example.
In Cameroon, Rudolf Manga Bell, who had largely been forgotten there for many years, is now revered as a national hero. In Germany, however, he has not been rehabilitated to this day
"Germany needs more space." This was one of the justifications propagated in Germany in the late 19th century for aggressively pursuing colonial territories. In fact, Germany was experiencing explosive population growth during this period, causing tensions in major cities such as Berlin. However, a massive settler movement never occurred, and ultimately there was never a real problem of space, which would have led to mass emigration.
German colonial history remained largely a story of adventurers, sailors, and traders, some of whom made huge profits from forced labor on their plantations.
Whenever natives resisted the arbitrary rule established by the Germans, the empire struck back with brutal punishments, murder, rape and burning villages.
The worst such event was when the Herero and Nama people in German Southwest Africa rose up against the German settlers: The empire struck back with an extermination order against the Herero, the first genocide of the 20th century. It was also the first time Germany used concentration camps to systematically work people to death with forced labor and malnutrition.
The death toll caused by German colonial activities in German East Africa (today’s Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) was even higher than in German Southwest (today’s Namibia). Yet many people in Germany still believe the myth that because the German colonial empire was of relatively short duration, it was "not as bad" as other colonial powers. Most Germans still do not know that Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania, Namibia, Burundi, Rwanda, New Guinea and numerous other Western Pacific/Micronesian islands were all German colonies - and what crimes were committed by the Germans in each of these countries.
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