German East Africa Company

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The flag of the German East Africa Company

The German East Africa Company (German: Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft) was an organisation founded by Karl Peters (with imperial backing from Otto von Bismarck) on April 2, 1885, to govern German East Africa (modern Tanzania). The Company established the colony's first capital city at Bagamoyo, but soon moved the capital to Dar es Salaam.

In 1888, the Company absorbed the bankrupt German Witu Society, which had been created to trade in the German protectorate of Wituland only a year and a half before.

In April 1888 the Company leased the coastal strip opposite Zanzibar from Sultan Khalifa bin Said for 50 years. Its attempt to take over the administration led to a general revolt along the coast 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 Leutenant attempting to control 'the Street of Caravans' under control of the German's Wissmann Truppe.

Since the Hehe, under Mquawa, 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.