The War on the Means of Communication in Cameroon (1914-1916)
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76
The Anglo-French desire to take over German spheres of influence during the First World War led the French and British into a heavy dependence on their lines of communication. The war that started in Europe following the July 1914 crisis quickly spread to action in Cameroon by the British and French expeditionary forces. What strategies did the Allied forces employ in forcing out the Schutztruppe (the German colonial army) in their policy of unseating the German colonial administration? For many historians, Germany was threatened with economic suffocation, being as it was, cut off from international markets by a very strict blockade. The Anglo-French forces exploited the situation and confined the German colonial administration to the interior of Cameroon. This paper, based on various sources, examines how communication lines, initially reserved for German forces and extending from the coast into the interior, became an essential element for final Allied victory. Two railway lines: the Nordbahn (northern railway line) and the Mittellandbahn (central railway line), connected by paved roads, finally contributed to the retreat of the Germans in 1915 towards the neutral Spanish territory of Fernando Po.
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