Cristianismo

HISTORY OF CAMEROON    
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|A German colony: AD 1884-1914 |
|In the early 19th century there is considerable activity in Cameroon by British and | | |
|American missionaries, but a German connection begins only when the Woermann Company | | ||of Hamburg builds a warehouse in 1868 on the estuary of the Wouri river. Other German| | |
|traders follow, in sufficient numbers to send requests home for the appointment of a | | |
|consul. | | |
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|Their hopes are metin full by Bismarck's dramatic decision in 1884 to establish a | | |
|German empire in Africa. Gustav Nachtigal arrives in Cameroon in that year to make a | | |
|treaty with one of the local kings and to annexe the region for the German emperor. A| | |
|consul is appointed before the year is out, followed by a governor in 1885. | | |
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|This first year is not without local troubles. Chiefs not party to the treaty with | | |
|the Germans attack their turncoat colleague's village and tear down the German flag. | | |
|Unfortunately for them the German warship Bismarck is in the vicinity. The result is | | |
|savage reprisals, followed in turn by the murder of theWoermann Company's local | | |
|representative. | | |
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|But on the broader international scene, Germany makes very satisfactory progress. In | | |
|negotiations, begun at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5, France and Britain cedetheir| | |
|local interests on the coast. Some ten years later, in 1893-4, inland frontiers are | | |
|agreed with British Nigeria to the west and French Equatorial Africa to the east. | | |
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|Finally in 1911, in this ongoing game of colonial diplomacy, Cameroon is granted | | |
|105,000square miles of French Equatorial Africa in return for acknowledging French | | |
|rights over Morocco. | | |
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|The Germans have considerable difficulty in enforcing their authority over the | | |
|colony. At first, like othercolonial powers in Africa, they leave the local | | |
|administration largely to commercial companies. These are granted concessions over | | |
|vast territories and ruthlessly use forced labour to make a profit on banana, rubber,| | |
|palm-oil and cocoa plantations. But Cameroon is moving gradually towards a more | | |
|state-controlled administration when its existenceas a German colony is brought to | | |
|an abrupt end. | | |
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|French and British rule: AD 1916-1960 |
|When World War I breaks out in 1914, aligning France and Britain againstGermany, the| | |
|two German colonies on the Gulf of Guinea are in an impossible position. Both | | |
|Togoland and Cameroon are sandwiched between British and French colonies. Within | | |
|weeks of the start of the war military action begins on the borders. By early 1916 | | |
|the British and French are in control of both German colonies. | | |
|...