What was WW1 Like in Africa? | Animated History

hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair historian with the british french and german empires all having extensive colonies in africa during the first world war it should come as no surprise that there was extensive fighting there although soldiers deployed in the african theater weren't subject to the same gruesome frontal charges and long months of trench warfare found in europe the soldiers fighting in africa had their own set of problems to contend with hostile terrain lack of infrastructure and a constant shortage of supplies made combat there uniquely prolonged miserable and deadly this video was sponsored by bespoke post a subscription club that helps you do everything from surviving in the wilderness to creating classy beverages in the comfort of your own home every month bespoke post will send you a box packed with at least seventy dollars worth of high quality items but with a membership all boxes are just 45 dollars i was sent the boxes last call and aged the former comes with five essential cocktail mixers to make all kinds of pro level drinks the latter comes with a cocktail aging kit and some really cool whiskey tumblers of course the armchair historian would never drink any alcohol so i'll be using my kit to age some fine 7up cherry but if you aren't interested in getting some essentials to build your own home bar something that bespoke post is helping me with they offer a wide array of highly customizable boxes including bags camping gear and wrist watches add-on products are also available from bespoke's online shop as well as free shipping and handling and if you're not completely satisfied returning and swapping items is both simple and convenient new subscribers can get 20 off of their first box with promo code historian 20 at checkout get started and join the club today with the link in the description below when the great war broke out in the summer of 1914 the governing leaders of colonial africa received the news with considerably less enthusiasm than their countrymen back home while the territories claimed by europe's imperial powers appeared vast and menacing much of the land was only held in name with many native africans living in small remote communities still answering to their local kings and chiefs thus many colonial governors feared that being drawn into a global conflict would weaken or break their already tenuous hold over the continent at the beginning of the war many administrators and journalists in africa declared that the colonies should remain neutral and continue to cooperate with each other to consolidate their power in the region this commitment to neutrality was very powerful managing to last a whole one week before france and britain ordered their colonial armies to start invading german colonies the first shots were fired by the french invading german cameroon on august 6th the next day allied forces invaded togoland and german forces in east africa began raiding nearby colonies while togoland would surrender in only three weeks with minimal resistance the defenders of cameroon put up a stubborn fight no british and french forces were able to quickly occupy much of the colony the mountainous terrain of central cameroon proved highly defensible letting the germans hold back the allied forces for more than a year repelling assault after assault on the provisional capital of yaounde meanwhile in response to german raids the british began to prepare an amphibious invasion of german east africa beginning with the capture of the port of tonga in november tonga was sparsely defended and so the allies expected an easy victory but their efforts would be complicated by fierce enemy resistance and of all things bees more on that later not long after the fighting broke out in the northwest the british union of south africa mobilized its forces for what should have been a quick and easy invasion of german southwest africa the south african army outnumbered the german garrison 20-1 and on september 14th they invaded and rapidly began to occupy the german colony however the british rulers of south africa soon found their efforts complicated as always by the boers descendants of dutch settlers in the region the boers had long resented british rule in the region and tensions between the two groups were high on the day after the invasion began a boer politician and former general of the second boer war quotes de la rey was unlawfully shot dead by a british policeman at a roadblock in response one of the commanding officers leading the invasion of southwest africa lieutenant colonel monte moritz defected leading the soldiers under his command in a rebellion against the british south african government the rebellion threw the south african army into disarray and command was turned over to general jan smutz a seasoned british officer in hopes that he could restore order smotes declared martial law in south africa and halted the invasion order to deal with the rebellion the process of putting down the uprising and rounding up war rebels capped smoot occupied for the rest of 1914 giving the small german garrison precious time to regroup meanwhile north of the sahara all territory seemed to be held firmly in the hands of the ontant and neutral italians but the absence of german colonies did not protect north africa from the influence of the great war the diversion of troops to the western front left european colonies in north africa vulnerable to rebellions which the german and ottoman empires were more than happy to aid in the french protectorate of morocco fighting was already ongoing between colonial forces and the zain confederation an alliance of berber tribes that opposed french attempts to consolidate power in the middle atlas mountains most of the troops in morocco had been recalled to defend france and so the remaining forces there had to be stretched dangerously thin across the french line to hide this sudden vulnerability while one hot-headed officer nearly doomed the french defense by marching off and getting his force annihilated in november the zayans never committed to an organized offensive and the fragile french line managed to hold on for the rest of the war nearing the end of 1914 the british launched their invasion of german east africa their first target was the port city of tonga on paper capturing the city should have been easy the british brought four thousand men to battle compared to the german garrison of only 250 conscripts however the british blundered at nearly every stage of the battle first commander arthur aiken made the chivalrous decision to announce himself to the germans and give them an hour to surrender the city before even landing his troops giving german general paul von letoff vorbeck plenty of time to rush to tonga with 750 reinforcements perhaps hoping to make up for lost time aiken ordered his troops to attack as soon as they hit the shore despite their exhaustion after the long journey all the way from india while the british seemingly did everything in their power to lose their own battle the germans also helped taking the attackers by surprise with their well-concealed and fortified defensive positions additionally mother nature contributed to the british defeat sending swarms of agitated bees into the fighting even after 5 000 additional troops arrived to reinforce the flagging assault the men were continually plagued by poor morale and after suffering nearly 1 000 casualties they were forced to retreat from tonga the germans barely suffered 100 casualties and were able to loot plenty of medical supplies equipment and maxim guns from their defeated foes effectively supplying them for the rest of the campaign tonga was later described by historian charles hordern as one of the most notable failures in british military history and it effectively halted the invasion of east africa for the following year as 1915 began fighting continued to rage in cameroon and french troops continued to unsuccessfully besiege the capital while british forces were bogged down in the north by the stubborn resistance of two german strongholds known as mora and garwah these old-fashioned stone fortresses long since rendered obsolete in europe were still extremely effective in the underdeveloped landscape of cameroon where heavy artillery was unavailable down in southwest africa the tiny german garrison took advantage of the chaos caused by the moritz rebellion to turn the tables on the south african army they routed the small occupying garrison and reclaimed their captured territory and in february a small german force invaded south africa and attempted to gain control of two fords at the orange river this daring german attack was repelled and one week later the south africans resumed their invasion with the full attention of the massive south african army at last the germans were forced into a rapid retreat and surrendered on july 9th in november the british protectorate of egypt was taken by surprise when the sinusi order a secretive religious order based in libya invaded with ten thousand men and modern weapons provided by the ottoman empire the sinuses quickly gained ground in egypt and attempted to rally the local muslim population to join them against the british unfortunately for the would-be holy warriors local support failed to materialize and the british soon began pushing back the invasion skirmishes along the border would continue for years but the bulk of the sunusi army was decisively defeated at the battle of egelja around the same time the staunch german resistance in cameroon was finally starting to collapse and british and french forces were closing in on the capital seeing the writing on the wall german commander carl zimmerman ordered all german soldiers and civilians to abandon cameroon and retreat to the neighboring spanish colony of rio muni zimmerman's retreat functionally ended the campaign at which time britain and france agreed on terms to divide up cameroon amongst themselves after the conclusion of this campaign the british turned their attention to east africa and it's now infamous commander paul von letoff vorbeck in january 1916 general jan smotes was reassigned from the south and given an army of 20 000 men to finally conquer german east africa this was a massive force for the african theater requiring hundreds of thousands of african porters to carry weapons ammunition and other vital supplies through the harsh landscape of east africa the british army then launched their second invasion of german east africa in february joined by a belgian force coming from the congo in the west much like in cameroon and togoland the germans quickly lost ground against the more numerous invaders but let off four back was determined to make the allies pay dearly for every mile using the thick brush and forests as cover he launched repeated hit and run ambushes against the british as he withdrew slowly whittling down their forces these raids were successful in harassing the allied armies and slowing them down giving tropical diseases all the more time to wreak havoc on the commonwealth forces the invasion dragged on this way for the rest of 1916 with attrition devastating the british force as they slowly trudged further and further into east africa rather than abandon this costly campaign the british chose to make up their losses with more and more african conscripts by the beginning of 1917 more than half of the british army in east africa consisted of local african troops forcibly recruited from across the continent to shore up the faltering offensive as for letoff for back he continued his fighting retreat all the way through 1917 consistently avoiding british attempts to encircle his dwindling army by november the germans had been pushed all the way back to the rivuma river the southern border of the colony and were low on supplies and ammunition rather than surrender let off four back chose to cross the river and invade the poorly defended portuguese colony of mozambique while the allies were able to fully occupy german east africa the german army continued to make a nuisance of itself in the portuguese colony for nine months raiding and pillaging it for supplies in august 1918 they finally returned to their colony and began to retake lost territory from the pitifully small british garrisons now defending it this fighting continued until november when let off four back finally surrendered upon hearing word that an armistice had been signed and the german empire had lost the war all told the war in africa claimed the lives of far fewer soldiers than it did in europe the allies suffered around 42 000 military casualties while the germans suffered around 21 000 the civilian cost was much much higher it's estimated that over 1 million africans were conscripted as porters to support the campaign and more than 100 000 died this caused severe depopulation of many regions for example 45 000 porters were recruited from kenya amounting to 13 of the male population combined with the constant rating and requisitioning a polite word for raiding of local crops and cattle by both sides the european campaigns led to a massive famine in east africa in 1917 which claimed another 300 000 civilian lives as is so often the case the price of war in africa was paid most heavily by these civilians germany's colonies in the region were seized and divided up between britain and france along arbitrary lines even so the first world war was the first time that cracks began to show in the facade of european invincibility paving the way for uprisings against colonial rule these cracks would only continue to grow over the years to come before the whole structure of colonialism finally collapsed after the second world [Music] war

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 477,528

Rating: 4.9559879 out of 5

Keywords: the first world war, the great war, the great war history, battle of the bees, battle of tanga, invasion of tanga, paul von lettow-vorbeck, schutztruppen, british indian troops, african porters, maritz rebellion, invasion of southwest africa, invasion of east africa, invasion of togoland, invasion of kamerun, ww1, world war one, the world war, british empire in africa, french empire in africa, german empire in africa, african theater of war

Id: 2xrbCl0p0T8

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021