Society for German Colonization

The Society for German Colonization (German: Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation, GfdK) was founded on 28 March 1884 in Berlin by Carl Peters. Its goal was to accumulate capital for the acquisition of German colonial territories in overseas countries.

Peters had just returned from London, where he lived with his well-off uncle Carl Engel and studied the principles of British colonialism. In the autumn of 1884 he proceeded, together with his friend Karl Ludwig Jühlke and Count Joachim von Pfeil, to the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Peters had initially planned to prospect for gold in Southern African Mashonaland (in present-day Zimbabwe) but discovered that the territory had already been overrun by the British.

Peters' Zanzibar expedition was a nuisance to the German government of Chancellor Bismarck, focused on good relations with both Sultan Barghash bin Said and the British Empire, and the German consul Gerhard Rohlfs made that clear to him. Peters, Jühlke and von Pfeil, suspiciously eyed by the British envoy John Kirk, thereupon embarked to the East African Tanganyika mainland. During their journey in November and December 1884, Peters concluded several "treaties of protection" (Schutzverträge) with tribal chiefs in the Useguha, Ussagara, Nguru, and Ukami regions as a "Representative of German Colonization". The provisions, issued in German, conferred all rights to exploit the territories on the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation in exchange for some inexpensive gifts.

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