The War in Africa – Olin & Uris Libraries

The German colonies in Africa had been acquired in the 1880s and were not well defended. They were also surrounded by territories controlled by Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal. Colonial military forces in Africa were relatively small, poorly equipped and had been created to maintain internal order, rather than conduct military operations against other colonial forces. The Berlin Conference of 1884 had provided for European colonies in Africa to be neutral, if war broke out in Europe; in 1914 none of the European powers had plans to challenge their opponents for control of overseas colonies. News of the outbreak of war was met by an editorial in The East African Standard on 22 August, arguing that Europeans in Africa should not fight each other but instead collaborate to maintain the repression of the indigenous population. However, as David Kilingray points out, the colonial territories in Africa were inevitably dragged in the war once it turned into a global conflict, a “total war.” In the course of the war the Allies felt they had a responsibility to protect the natives from German militarism and technological developments. The Entente powers posed as crusaders for liberalism and enlightenment but little evidence exists that it was seen as such by Africans. Many African soldiers fought on both sides, with a loyalty to military professionalism rather than nationalism and porters had mainly been attracted by pay or had been coerced. The war had been the final period of the “Scramble for Africa”; control and annexation of territory had been the principal war aim of the Europeans.

The following are original maps of colonial Africa and the military operations in Africa. They were generated by staff of the Olin Library Map Collection department.

Cornell University Library Map Collection. Map of Colonial Africa 1914-1918. 2014. Generated by Johannes Plambeck; using ArcView GIS 10 [GIS software]. By 1914 most of Africa was divided among the European powers. Only two countries, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Liberia were independent. The French colonial empire was the largest in area, from North Africa to the equatorial regions of West and Central Africa. The British colonies were smaller in area, but with a larger population. The rest of the territories were controlled by Germany (four colonies), Belgium (the Congo basin), Portugal, the oldest colonial empire (including Angola and Mozambique.), and Spain (the small Rio de Oro and Spanish Morocco).

Africa Operations 1914-1917. 2014. Generated by Johannes Plambeck; using ArcView GIS 10 [GIS software]. A series of conflicts took place in North Africa during World War I (1914–1918). The battles involved mainly Senussi insurgents, Moroccan rebels siding with the Ottoman Empire against the British and the Italians. The Ottoman Empire's intention was to open a new front, which would draw British troops from the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and thus reduce the strength of the opposition faced by the Germans in other fronts. The region had been annexed by Italy in 1911 after the Italo-Turkish War and by France in 1912 and control had not been consolidated by the Italians when the war began in Europe. After the loss of the province of Trablusgarp to Italy in the war of 1911–1912, the local Senussi people continued with their resistance against the Italians. Fighting was conducted by Senussi militia under the leadership of Ahmad al-Sharif, whose followers in Fezzan (southwest Libya) and southern Tripolitania prevented Italian consolidation their hold on these regions. On 24 May 1915, Italy declared war on the Central Powers, and the Italian-Sanussi War became a part of the World War. German and Ottoman agents encouraged rebellions against the Allies in Libya and Morocco, providing light weapons via U-Boats sailing from the shores of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary or through neutral countries like Spain. The Senussi sect was particularly successful in the Sahara, expelling the Italians from Fezzan and tying British and French forces in the frontier regions of Egypt and Algeria. In the Sudan operations against the Sultan of Darfur occurred from 1 March to 31 December 1916. After several skirmishes the Anglo-Egyptian forces captured the Darfur capital of El Fasher. Further south, the Tuareg resisted the French colonial invasion of their Central Saharan homelands. After numerous massacres on both sides, the Tuareg were subdued and required to sign a treaty in Niger in 1917.

Cornell University Library Map Collection. Map of Sub-Saharan Africa 1914-1918. 2014. Generated by Johannes Plambeck; using ArcView GIS 10 [GIS software]. The Sub-Saharan theater comprised a series of conflicts as the Allies sought to conquer four German colonies in the region. There were several major campaigns there during the course of the war. The Togoland Campaign was a French and British invasion of the German colony of Togoland in West Africa. The colony was invaded on 7 August 1914 by British forces from Gold Coast to the west and French forces from Dahomey to the east. German colonial forces withdrew from the capital Lomé and the coastal province and then fought delaying actions. They were able to delay the invaders for several days but surrendered the colony on 26 August 1914. The first engagement between British and German troops in the Cameroon campaign took place in August 1914 at the Battle of Tepe, eventually resulting in German withdrawal. In December 1915, with Allied forces pressing in on the capital, Jaunde, from all sides, the German commander ordered the remaining German units and civilians to escape into the Spanish colony Rio Muni and by mid-February 1916, approximately 7,000 military and 7,000 civilians had reached Spanish territory. An invasion of German South-West Africa from the south failed initially in September 1914. However, by February 1915, the South Africans were ready to occupy German territory. In March they began an advance and entered the capital Windhoek on 5 May 1915. The Germans offered surrender terms, which were rejected. The hostilities continued until July when the German forces in the south surrendered. The East African Campaign consisted of a series of battles and guerilla actions that started in German East Africa and spread to portions of Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia, British East Africa, Uganda and the Belgian Congo. The Allies employed nearly one million people in their fruitless pursuit of the handful of German troops, whose aim was purely to keep as many British forces diverted to his pursuit for as long as possible and to make the British expend the largest possible resources in men, shipping, and supplies to his pursuit. The Germans fought for the whole of World War I, receiving word of the armistice on 14 November 1918 at 7:30 a.m. Both sides waited for confirmation and the Germans formally surrendered on 25 November. Territory of the United Kingdom and Ruanda-Urundi of Belgium, while the Kionga Triangle became a mandate of Portugal.