Colonial Germany

Abstract This chapter gives an introduction to the history of the German Kaiserreich’s colonial activities from the 1980s to 1918 in German East Africa (today’s Tanzania) and German West Africa (parts of today’s Cameroon and Togo), where many Muslims lived. The most important colonial institutions and political figures of the German colonial empire are introduced. The phase of occupation, the reaction of the native Muslim population, their resistance, and their absorption into the new political structure are discussed. Two policy fields are specifically analyzed: the Kaiserreich’s restructuring and introduction of Islamic religious bureaucracy (a form of religious institution-building that prioritized loyalty to the new colonial governors), and subsequently the institutionalization of Islamic religious education to educate new loyal and subservient Muslim subjects.