GERMAN CAMEROON
(KAMERUN)
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in west Central Africa. It extended far into the hinterland, touching Lake Chad in the northeast and in accordance with the German-French agreement, to the Congo in the Southwest. The Cameroon Mountain, one of the highest elevations in West Africa, is located within the territory.
The country is called "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, and savannas. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. English and French are the official languages.
Cameroon was a Germany colony from July 1884.
History
Portuguese explorers reached the Cameroonian coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões ("River of Prawns"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups, the Bafut Subdivision (or the Kingdom/ Chiefdom/Fondom of Bafut), of the west and northwest established powerful.
The early European presence in Cameroon was primarily devoted to coastal trade and the acquisition of slaves. The slave trade was largely suppressed by the mid-19th century. Christian missions established a presence in the late 19th century and continue to play a role in Cameroonian life.
On July 12, 1884 Gustav Nachtigal signs a treaty with the Chiefs of Doula on behalf of the German Kaiser Wilhelm. In return for trade advantages the chiefs accept a German protectorate.
On July 5, 1884, all of present-day Cameroon and parts of several of its neighbors became a German colony, Kamerun, with a capital first at Buea and later at Yaoundé.
The Imperial German government made substantial investments in the infrastructure of Cameroon, including the extensive railways, such as the 160-metre single-span railway bridge on the Sanaga South branch.
Hospitals were opened all over the colony, including two major hospitals at Douala, one of which specialized in tropical diseases. However, the indigenous peoples proved reluctant to work on these projects, so the Germans instigated a harsh and unpopular system of forced labor.
Jesko von Puttkamer (a German colonial military chief and nine times governor of Cameroon) was relieved of duty as governor of the colony due to his untoward actions toward the native Cameroonians.
In 1911 at the Treaty of Fez after the Agadir Crisis, France ceded a nearly 300,000 km² portion of the territory of French Equatorial Africa to Cameroon which became Neukamerun, while Germany ceded a smaller area in the north in present day Chad to France.
In World War I the British invaded Cameroon from Nigeria in 1914 in the West Africa campaign, with the last German fort in the country surrendering in February 1916.
Cameroon after the Treaty of Versailles
During World War I, Cameroon was occupied by British, French and Belgian troops. With the end of war, Great Britain and France were mandated by the League of Nations, in 1922, by the Treaty of Versailles, Article 22, with the determination not to see any of them returned to Germany — a guarantee secured by Article 119 - until 27 August 1940.
Cameroon was separated into a British part, Cameroons, and a French Cameroun, which became present Cameroon. The British part was later split in half, with one part joining Nigeria and the other Cameroon. (Kamerun, Nigeria-Ostteil, Tschad-Südwestteil, Zentralafrikanische Republik-Westteil, Republik Kongo-Nordostteil, Gabun-Nordteil).
For all former German territories in West and Central Africa the League of Nations established a second class of Mandates, or Class B Mandates, which were deemed to require a greater level of control by the mandatory power. The mandatory power was forbidden to construct military or naval bases within the mandates.
The French mandate was known as Cameroun and the British territory was administered as two areas, Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Northern Cameroons consisted of two non-contiguous sections, divided by where the Nigerian and Cameroun borders met.
Cameroon was separated into a British part, Cameroons, and a French Cameroun, which became present Cameroon. The British part was later split in half, with one part joining Nigeria and the other Cameroon. (Kamerun, Nigeria-Ostteil, Tschad-Südwestteil, Zentralafrikanische Republik-Westteil, Republik Kongo-Nordostteil, Gabun-Nordteil).
France gained the larger geographical share, transferred Neukamerun (New Cameroon) back to neighboring French colonies, and ruled the rest from Yaoundé as Cameroun (French Cameroons).
Britain's territory, a strip bordering Nigeria from the sea to Lake Chad was ruled from Lagos as Cameroons (British Cameroons).
On 13 December 1946 Cameroon was transformed into United Nations Trust Territories, again a British and a French Trust.
The Union des Populations du Cameroun political party advocated independence but was outlawed by France in the 1950s.
In 1960, the French administered part of Cameroon became independent as the Republic of Cameroun. The southern part of British Cameroons merged with it in 1961 to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
The country was renamed the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972 and the Republic of Cameroon in 1984.
Postal history in German Cameroon
German Post Office starting from February 1, 1887.
Postal service was very limited after the occupation of Duala in late September 1914. Mailings were censored; various censors are known from the war period. War post cancellations, especially with censors, are generally in demand and rare.
In 1916, the German garrison evacuates the Yaoundé fortress and flees into the neighboring Spanish colony of Rio Muni.
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