The
German East Africa Company was an organisation founded by
Karl PetersKarl Peters , German traveler in Africa, one of the founders of German East Africa , was born at Neuhaus an der Elbe near Hannover, the son of a Lutheran clergyman....
(with
imperialThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
backing from
Otto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
) on April 2, 1885, to govern
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, including what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika...
(modern
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
). The Company established the colony's first
capital cityCapital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
at
BagamoyoThe town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania, was founded at the end of the 18th century. It was the original capital of German East Africa and was one of the most important trading ports along the East African coast...
, but soon moved the capital to
Dar es SalaamDar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre...
.
In 1888, the Company absorbed the
bankruptBankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring...
German Witu Society, which had been created to trade in the German
protectorateA protectorate, in international law, is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity. In exchange for this, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of...
of
WitulandWituland was an approximately 3000 km² territory in East Africa centered on the town of Witu just inland from Indian Ocean port of Lamu north of the mouth of the Tana River in what is now Kenya.-History:Founded in 1858 by the former ruler of the insular Pate sultanate after several abortive moves...
only a year and a half before.
In April 1888 the Company leased the coastal strip opposite
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
from Sultan
Khalifa bin SaidSayyid Khalifa I bin Said Al-Busaid, GCMG, was the third Sultan of Zanzibar. He ruled Zanzibar from March 26, 1888 to February 13, 1890 and was succeeded by his brother, Ali bin Said Al-Busaid....
for 50 years. Its attempt to take over the administration led to a general
revolt along the coastThe Abushiri Revolt was a so-called insurrection in 1888-1889 by the Arab population of the areas of the East African coast which were granted to Germany by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888...
of what is now Tanzania. The company could only hold to Dar es Salaam and Bagamoyo with the help of the German navy. 1889 it had to request the assistance of the German government to put down the rebellion.
In 1891, after it became apparent that the Company could not handle its dominiums, it sold out to the German government which began to rule German East Africa directly, thus rendering the Company to running some plantations and trade business.
Tom von Prince was born on January 9, 1866, to the British police governor of the British island colony of Mauritius and a German mother. With the death of his father, the mother returned to Germany (Silesia), and entered Tom in an academy for young Prussian male aristocrats. Since Europe was quiet and offered no military advancement, he finally joined Wissmann's Kaiserlich Schutstruppe,
(called the Wissmann Truppe) and liked seeing himself as a hero.
By 1890, Tom von Prince is involved in German East Africa as a Lieutenant attempting to control 'the Street of Caravans' under control of the German's Wissmann Truppe.
Since the
HeheThe Hehe are an ethnic and linguistic group based in Iringa Region in south-central Tanzania. In 1994 the Hehe population was estimated to number 750,000.-History:Their early history is vague and lost in time...
, under
MquawaParamount Chief Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga , more commonly known as Chief Mkwawa, was a Hehe tribal leader in German East Africa who opposed the German colonisation. The name "Mkwawa" is derived from Mukwava, itself a shortened form of Mukwavinyika, meaning "conqueror of many lands"...
, have only attacked and harassed the Germans, leading to the terrible loss of Commander Emil von Zelewski and many of his men, Tom Prince is sent far inland to Lake Nyassa, with a civilian representative of the Antislavery Committee, Wynecken. It is here he meets
Wissmann, who lends him Wissmans' Safari leader Bauer. The three, Prince, Wynecken, and Bauer, are to encircle the Hehe under Mqwawa, with the help of less than 20 Atongas and a few hundred Sangu, enemy of the Hehe.