Timelines

In 1884, representatives of European states, the USA, and the Ottoman Empire convened in Berlin to determine the colonization of Africa without the presence of African delegates. Subsequently, the German Empire forcibly claimed territories now comprising Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, Papua New Guinea, and the Marshall Islands. Later, regions in what is now China, Western Samoa, and Micronesia were annexed. Life in these colonies was marked by dispossession, forced labor, mistreatment, and oppression. People resisted through work refusal, escape, political organization, and armed struggle. Examples include the Herero and Nama War in Namibia, where German soldiers perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century, the Maji-Maji War in Tanzania, and the rebellion in Jiaozhou. Numerous individuals from the German colonies, primarily men, came to the empire for education, participation in so-called Völkerschauen, work as seamen, accompanying colonial officials, missionaries, and traders, or serving as teachers at colonial institutes.