The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/German East Africa

GERMAN EAST AFRICA, the largest German colonial possession, extending from lat. 1° to about 11° 41' S., and from long. 29° to 40° 40' E, acquired between 1885-90. It has a coast line of 620 miles and lies between British East Africa, Indian Ocean, Portuguese East Africa, Rhodesia, Kongo Free State and the British Sudan. The area is 384,000 square miles. The German Empire is represented by an imperial governor, who appoints a council of five in each of nine communes. The region produces almost every kind of tropical fruit, fibres, sugar, tea, copra, vanilla, rubber, cotton, cinchona, etc., and cattle rearing is extensively carried on. The chief seaports are Dar-es-Salaam (pop. 13,000); Bagamoyo (pop. 14,000); Saadani, Pangani, Kilwa (pop. 10,000 each), and several smaller towns. Fine roads have been built and two railroads are operated. Tanga to New Moshi, 220 miles, and Dar-es-Salaam to Ujiji, 780 miles. There are 51 post offices, 34 telegraph stations, and wireless stations at Dar-es-Salaam, Muansa and Bukoba. The native population, chiefly Banhi tribes, is 7,659,900; foreign colored, Arabs, Syrians and Loanese, 14,900; and white, 5,340, of whom 4,100 were Germans. Attacked by South African and British forces under General Smuts, from the north, and by Belgian and Portuguese from the south and west in 1917, the colony came under the control of the Allied nations.