German colonialism

German colonial empire
Deutsches Kolonialreich
Colonial empire
1884–1918
Flag Coat of arms
German colonies and protectorates in 1914
Capital		Berlin
Languages		German Local:  Oshiwambo, Bantu, Afrikaans, Swahili (East African colonies) Tsingtao Chinese and Mandarin Chinese (Tianjin and Kiautschou Bay) Papuan languages (German New Guinea) Samoan (German Samoa)
Political structure		Colonial empire
History
•	Established	1884
•	Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty	1890
•	Herero Wars	1904
•	Disestablished	1918
•	Treaty of Versailles	28 June 1919
Area
•	1912 (not including Imperial Germany proper)	2,658,161 km2 (1,026,322 sq mi)

The German colonial empire (German: Deutsches Kolonialreich) constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies and territories of the German Empire. Short-lived attempts of colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but crucial colonial efforts only began in 1884 with the Scramble for Africa. Claiming much of the left-over colonies that were yet unclaimed in the Scramble of Africa, Germany managed to build the third largest colonial empire after the British and the French ones. Germany lost control when World War I began in 1914 and its colonies were seized by its enemies in the first weeks of the war. However some military units held out for a while longer: German South West Africa surrendered in 1915, Kamerun in 1916 and German East Africa only in 1918 at the end of the war. Germany's colonial empire was officially confiscated with the Treaty of Versailles after Germany's defeat in the war and the various units became League of Nations mandates under the supervision (but not ownership) of one of the victorious powers.

Until their 1871 unification, the German states had not concentrated on the development of a navy, and this essentially had precluded German participation in earlier imperialist scrambles for remote colonial territory – the so-called "place in the sun". Germany seemed destined to play catch-up. The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including the age of Otto von Bismarck concentrated on resolving the "German question" in Europe and securing German interests on the continent.