History The creation of Cameroon
Cameroon, nation like most African nations is a creation of the late 19th Century, although the name ‘Rio dos Cameroes’ had been given to the Wouri Basin by the Portuguese as far back as the 15th century. There had been contact with North Africa through caravan routes across the Sahara as well as with Central Africa. Contact by sea with North Africa and Europe was inaugurated by the sea-loving Phoenicians who discovered the ‘Theo Oekama’ (Chariot of fire), possibly mount Cameroon during an eruption. The Portuguese continued these coastal contacts by discovering Fernando Po in 1462 and the river Wouri which they named ‘Rio dos Cameroes’ (river of prawns). Other visitors and traders included the Poles, French, British, Germans and Spanish. Many trading posts and factories were established along the coast of Bimbia, Cameroon (Douala), Big Batanga (south), by various European traders especially the British.
But in spite of the several treaties contracted between the Douala chiefs and the British to declare protectorate over their people and territory in 1877, 1879 and 1881, Queen Victoria hesitated. In 1884 therefore, chancellor Bismark, in search of a colonial empire for Germany, sent Dr. Gustav Nachtigal to Morocco, Togo, Cameroon and S.W. Africa. Nachtigal negotiated and signed treaties with the kings of Douala, Bimbia and Batanga, thus declaring Kamerun a German Protectorate. German explorers Zintgraff, Zeuner, Thoebecke soon started exploring and surveying their new protectorate. Germany set up an administration based first in Douala, then later at Buea. They created plantations, built roads, railways and houses, schools and ports, using forced labor. They launched pacification expeditions against turbulent groups. By 1914, they had created Kamerun and put in on the map of Africa and the world. Many Germans settled in the country as traders, farmers and administrators.