East African Campaign (1914-918) Part I: The German Empire

Map of Colonized Africa right before the outbreak of WWI. Courtesy of davidjl123 / Somebody500 via wikimedia at https://brilliantmaps.com/africa-1914/

World War I, also known as the Great War, was labeled thus because it involved nearly every nation on the world in some capacity. Every great power was militarily involved. Despite its status as a “world war”, the bulk of the fighting took place in Europe and the Middle East. There were battles in far-flung theatres amongst the belligerents' colonies, but these were considered side-shows. These theatres also did not last long into the war. Against the Entente’s Britain, France, Belgium, Japan, and later Portugal, the only member of the Central Powers to have colonies was Germany. It could not hold on to is oversea possessions against the British Royal Navy and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Entente’s colonial forces. It would need to win on the European continent and get some or all of its territory back in a post-war settlement. By the end of 1915 all of its colonies had been conquered. All save one.

German East Africa, the crown jewel of the young German Empire, would see fighting all the way past the armistice of November 11, 1918. Led by the determined General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the Germans and their native African soldiers would at first repel Entente intrusions and then lead them on long chases. They would furthermore strike into enemy colonies. Though defeated, Lettow-Vorbeck and his men would gain universal admiration and a considerable body of literature within military history. Many writers have claimed that his efforts diverted valuable resources from Europe, thus helping out the overall war effort. This series will look at several questions. What was the true impact of the East African campaign on the war overall?  How did German East Africa hold on so long? How much was owed to German genius and how much to British mistakes? Were there other factors? And how did the Africans themselves perceive the conflict and how were they affected? Before diving into the war, it would be good to start with a brief history of German East Africa.

The German Empire Goes International

Germany was late to the colonial game. A confederation of states in Central Europe, it had only coalesced into a proper German nation under the guidance of the powerful state of Prussia, moreso through the first German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. This confederation became the German Empire in 1871, following the nationalist fervor whipped up by the short and successful Franco-Prussian War. Though proclaiming itself an empire, it did not seek to join Britain, France, and other powers in seizing foreign lands and creating colonies. Many attribute this delay to its still recent status as a full nation. However, Bismarck, the most influential and powerful politician of his time, had practical reasons for avoiding colonialism. A man of pragmatic politics and realistic thinking, he recognized that colonies, while a symbol of national strength and prestige, would be difficult to turn into a profitable enterprise and a needless source of potential future conflict. The writer and historian Edward Paice shares Bismarck's thinking from the benefit of hindsight, believing the rabid imperial competition in the colonies played a key role in shoving the great powers into a world war.

Bismarck faced considerable opposition on his anti-colonial policy. Many Germans were eager to increase their international standing and play catch up with Britain and France. Another rationale was the emigration issue. Millions of Germans were going west to America. If lands in Africa and even the Pacific were brought under German rule, then these citizens could move there and remain German. Ironically, Bismarck made a move that would ensure the expansion of Germany overseas. In 1884 he urged claims to several parts of Africa. They were just that, claims. The intention was to put Britain at unease in a current diplomatic battle. However, too many German figures of authority wanted a true colonial empire and saw their opening. One adventurer, Dr. Carl Peters, traveled along Eastern Africa and began to negotiate deals with the native leaders. At the same time, he received an imperial charter from Kaiser Wilhelm I, enabling the formation of the German East Africa Company.

With the sanction of the home government, Peters set about solidifying German rule. His public justifications for conquering further inland were shared with the other colonial powers: destruction of the slave trade and the protection of business interests. The Germans proved to be brutal, both towards the slavers and the people they sought to rescue. Many Africans or Arabs caught marching or boating slaves were hung on the spot. Natives who resisted The German East Africa Company could expect brutal punishments. Peters had the backs of many whipped until they resembled “chopped meat”.

The doctor picked many fights, some resulting in swift success and others in chaotic failure. In December of 1883 he almost lost an expedition when he attacked the hilltop Masai village of Elbejet. He was forced to conduct a fighting retreat and the Masai became pro-British and anti-German. In 1888, the Sultanate of Zanzibar was forced to accept foreign rule when five German gunboats threateningly loomed offshore. Peters’ aggressive expansionism also caused conflict with Britain, which had some concern regarding how this would affect its own imperial holdings. Indeed, German colonization drove the British to act more rapidly in staking their own claims in East Africa.

Though there was a rivalry, no war broke out between Britain and Germany. At the time the British Empire saw France as the greatest potential threat. Deals were worked out dividing East Africa. Britain got what is today Kenya and Uganda. Between British East Africa in the north and Rhodesia to the south was German East Africa. It comprised what is today Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. Germany gained many other colonies in this era. In the Pacific it had a northeastern slice of New Guinea as well as several island chains. It held a small piece of China known as Tsingtao. In Africa it held Togoland (part of present-day Ghana), the Cameroons (Cameroon), German South-West Africa (Namibia) and of course German East Africa. German East Africa was the jewel of the new empire. Three times the size of Germany itself, it held a vast plethora of resources, nearly 8 million inhabitants, and many waterways and lakes. Germans originally had their eye on the source of the Nile, but Britain acquired this, a concession since Germany still controlled overland access between its southern and north-eastern colonies.

The Maji-Maji Uprising

This map shows the extent of the Maji-Maji Rebellion. Words in orange are the names of the participating peoples.

German colonial rule in its first twenty years was heavy-handed and often brutal. Many established rulers and officials were reduced to impotent middlemen, carrying out unpopular policies dictated by Europeans. The colonial governments seized much of the cattle for themselves and white settlers. Much more men than women came to Africa seeking their fortune and sated their desires by forcing relations with the native women. Naturally, the various peoples under German rule, already chafing at being claimed as some foreign power’s subjects, did not react well. Two great uprisings first hit German South-West Africa in 1903 and 1904. These were the Herero and Nama Uprisings. The Herero enjoyed a numerical advantage in their fight and employed hit-and-run tactics. Their attempt at a major battle ended in defeat, but rather than being destroyed they merely returned to their former style of fighting. Impatient, the Germans resorted to vicious, genocidal measures. They killed every male they could find while driving the rest into the Kalahari Desert. The Rebellion was suppressed, the survivors herded into camps as slave labor. Over a third died in these camps, many in brutal working conditions on a new railway's construction. The Nama were far fewer in number than the Herero, yet a few hundred fighters were able to wage a months-long campaign against thousands of better-armed Germans and colonial troops. Among the officers crushing these uprisings was a Paul Lettow-Vorbeck. He gained much respect for the native African fighting man, particularly their method of bush-fighting, and he would consider such methods ten years later.

German East Africa was not safe from warfare either. Straining under taxes and cotton quotas, natives plotted a major revolution. The cotton quotas were especially egregious. The German government decided that cotton production would make the colony profitable and ordered the headmen (the local chiefs) to have their people contribute a set amount of days out of the year cultivating the resource in supervised lots. Not only did the cotton farming interfere with their economies, they received no profit and thus were virtually performing slave labor. Resentment was so universal across the colony that it burst into one of the first pan-African movements. It was well-planned and extensive. The Maji-Maji Rebellion, as it would be called, was held together by religious, ideological fervor, some coming from native religion and other from Sunni Muslims known as the Qadiriyya Brotherhood.It was further bolstered by powerful warrior civilizations such as the Ngoni. Priests claimed to have given the people magic power. Among their gifts was mystical water, Maji, that when sprinkled upon the people would protect them from European weapons (this was quickly disproven).

The uprising came upon the Germans and their native-born colonial soldiers almost out of nowhere on July 31, 1905. Virtually the entire southern half of German East Africa became a warzone. Small outposts of German officers and their Arab and Swahili mercenaries were surrounded. The participants of the Maji-Maji Rebellion, in fact all peoples in the southern half, hoped to drive all foreigners out, and killed many whites and Arabs as the uprising spread. As in South-West Africa, the German response was brutal. Unable to defeat their enemy through fighting, the tiny German force employed scorched-earth tactics, burning every farm and village they came across. This resulted in a famine as well as the spread of disease. The Maji-Maji Uprising was subdued two years after it began in 1907. Conservative estimates place the death toll at over 100,000.

The Maji-Maji Rebellion, as well as events in South-West Africa, forced a serious re-evaluation of German colonial policies. At home, the conservative government was actually voted out by a citizenry distressed at what their colonial agents and soldiers were doing in Africa. New leadership was placed over the colonies. In German East Africa Dr. Heinrich Schnee was installed as governor. Ironically, the most brutal form of European colonialism was now replaced by the most forward-thinking. Schnee’s East Africa government devised laws that aided the colonized. All work contracts had to be supervised by the government. This ensured that Africans would not be forced or duped into unpaid labor. Harsh disciplinary measures such as flogging were banned except for the most heinous of crimes. A thousand schools popped up, among them vocational ones that would help Africans learn modern trades. Alongside the schools sprang up research stations conducting scientific inquiries into the soil and minerals. Agronomists were brought in to help natives with starting farms of cash crops. These cash crops helped turn the colony towards what looked like a profitable future. Also helping was the Central Railway, which proposed to link Lake Tanganyika with the coast. Construction moved far ahead of schedule an was completed in July of 1914. This railway and other services enabled goods to flow quickly and in greater numbers.

These improvements have been obscured, as they were only a few years old when the war and its attendant miseries and atrocities broke out. Entente propaganda obviously focused on the still recent German atrocities in the Herero and Maji-Maji Uprisings rather than the subsequent efforts by officials to address those atrocities. The image of a brutal imperial Germany was used to justify the takeover and partition of its colonies. Historians themselves have been split. Some have argued that Germany was indeed uniquely brutal and that Governor Schnee’s program of improvement was not earnest or humane, but a program foisted upon a heavily subdued colonized populace. Others believe Germany was heading in a highly progressive direction and that the war disabled the world from seeing the fruit of its efforts.

The Schutztruppe

It was hoped that more humane policies would prevent any reason for future uprisings. But if an uprising did occur the Germans would be ready. Alongside the vast social and economic changes came military ones. The Schutztruppe, Germany’s colonial army, was reformed in response to the tactics employed by the Herero, Nama, and the various participants of the Maji-Maji Uprising. It was devised by German officers who recognized the superiority of native tactics in this environment. After all, they had only won through the sheer levels of brutality they had been willing to employ. The best way to confront native tactics was to use them, and also to employ the same people who knew how to use the terrain to their advantage.

The bulk of the Schutztruppe consisted of native black Africans, known as Askaris. Many post-war writings describe them as fiercely loyal to their white German officers, especially to great commanders like General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. This is a glossy view of their motives. Many had more of a mercenary nature, willing to fight for money and privileges (though they would feel loyalty if they gained consistent success under a powerful military leader). What kept most from following enticing offers by the Entente to defect for greater pay were proud warrior traditions. Germans, and colonial powers in general, recruited from groups they considered more inclined towards war.

This was a result of deeply layered multi-racial thinking, in this case the martial race theory. It was determined that some African peoples were genetically more inclined towards war, while others were more inclined to farming and labor. In terms of finding good soldiers, this was not actually too bad a method. A group that had developed a strong military ethos may be more willing to fulfill its commitment. Of course, such an ethos may not have held up if not for consistent German tactical success. There would be a spate of desertions later on in 1917 and 1918, when the Schutztruppe’s supply problems were more pronounced. What also kept the Askaris loyal were the privileges. On campaign an Askari could expect to have one or two personal porters carrying their gear and rations. They were further allowed to bring their families along, a concession to East African soldiering tradition. Outside of any wives they had they also enjoyed access to personal prostitutes. One author described them as a “black master race”, having a great sense of superiority over other Africans. Not a fiction of race was the African’s greater immunity against disease. Save for those who lived in the highlands, the various African peoples were naturally immune against such scourges as malaria. In order to keep up with their men, white German officers had to take regular doses of quinine pills.

As before, the colonial force was distributed all over East Africa in small outposts. But this time the outposts were constructed with stone fortifications. This would enable the Schutztruppe to hold off any revolting people. It would prevent outposts from being rapidly overrun by superior numbers as had occurred in the Maji-Maji Rebellion.

The Schutztruppe did have some disadvantages, though these were a natural consequence of their original purpose. It was intended to fight natives with spears and ancient rifles and thus there was no reason to give it the latest in cutting-edge weaponry. Rifles dated back to the 1870s and still expelled smoke when fired. Artillery, mostly mountain guns, was limited. The prize of the Schutztruppe arsenal was its machine guns, which were up-to-date and were marvelous against frontal assaults. Overall, the Schutztruppe numbered only 2,500 men. This was a low number even for East Africa, where massive armies were difficult to support for long periods due long stretches of infertile land and dense jungles. If the colony had to be defended against another major European power, it would be difficult to hold.

And such a defense might come soon. War clouds were brewing over Europe as a complex series of entanglements and conflicts threatened to draw the continent, and maybe its overseas colonies, into a great conflagration.

Next Month: War Spills In! Hopes for colonial neutrality in the midst of the Great War are dashed by the strategic considerations of both sides.

Sources

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