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Main articles: German East Africa Company and Abushiri revolt
Like other colonial powers, the Germans expanded their empire in the Africa Great Lakes region, ostensibly to explore the region's rich resources and its people. Unlike other imperial powers, however, they never formally abolished either slavery or the slave trade and preferred instead to curtail the production of new "recruits", regulating the existing business of slavery.[page needed]
The colony began when Carl Peters, an adventurer and the founder of the Society for German Colonization, signed treaties with several native chieftains on the mainland which is opposite Zanzibar. On 3 March 1885, the German government announced that it had granted an imperial charter, which was signed by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on 27 February 1885. The charter was granted to Peters' company and was intended to establish a protectorate in the African Great Lakes region. Peters then recruited specialists who began exploring south to the Rufiji River and north to Witu, near Lamu on the coast.[page needed][page needed][page needed]
The Sultan of Zanzibar protested and claimed that he was the ruler of both Zanzibar and the mainland. Chancellor Bismarck sent five warships which arrived on 7 August 1885, training their guns on the Sultan's palace. The Sultan was forced to accept the German claims on the mainland outside a 16-kilometre (10 mi)-strip along the coast. In November 1886 Germany and Britain reached an agreement declaring they would respect the sovereignty of the Sultan of Zanzibar over his islands and the 16-kilometre (10 mi)-strip along the coast. They otherwise agreed on their spheres of interest along what is now the Tanzanian–Kenyan border. The British and Germans agreed to divide the mainland between themselves, and the Sultan had no option but to agree.[page needed]
Askari soldiers under German command in 1896
German rule was established quickly over Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, and Kilwa. Oscar Baumann was sent to explore Masailand and Urundi. During his expedition he discovered the source of the Kagera river, the Alexandra Nile. The caravans of Tom von Prince, Wilhelm Langheld, Emin Pasha, and Charles Stokes were sent to dominate "the Street of Caravans".[citation needed] The Abushiri Revolt of 1888 was put down with British help the following year. In 1890, London and Berlin concluded the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty, which gave Heligoland to Germany and decided the border between GEA and the East Africa Protectorate controlled by Britain, although the exact boundaries remained unsurveyed until 1910.[page needed]
The stretch of border between Kenya and Tanganyika, running from the sea to Lake Victoria, was surveyed by two British brothers: Charles Stewart Smith (British Consul at Mombasa) and his younger brother George Edward Smith (an officer and later a general with the Royal Engineers). Stewart Smith had been appointed British Commissioner in 1892 for the delimitation of the Anglo-German Boundary in Africa, and in the same year they both surveyed the 290-kilometre (180 mi) line from the sea to Mount Kilimanjaro. Twelve years later George Edward Smith returned to complete the survey of the remaining 480 kilometres (300 mi) from Kilimanjaro to Lake Victoria.
A streetscape photo of Dar es Salaam taken by Walther Dobbertin, c. 1906-1918
The German expansion was undertaken by military groups such as the notorious Wissmann Truppe, armed with modern weaponry. The Wissmann Truppe consisted of African soldiers led by German commanders. Under their command the Wissmann Truppe committed widespread atrocities. Between 1891 and 1894, the Hehe people which were led by Chief Mkwawa resisted German expansion. They were defeated because rival tribes supported the Germans. After years of guerrilla warfare, Mkwawa was cornered and committed suicide in 1898.
The colonial expansion led by Carl Peters came with considerable violence against the local populations. Carl Peters was infamous for his brutality, which had earned him the nickname "Mkono-wa-damu", or "Man with the blood-stained hands". He was known for leaving a path of destruction in his wake during his conquests, leaving entire villages slaughtered. Peters was also known for keeping a "harem" of local women, who would be completely at the mercy of Peters. In one instance, he had a woman flogged daily on suspicion of having sexual relations with another native. The native in question was hanged.
Other atrocities included rape, floggings and torture with iron rods. Flogging was so excessive that the German colonies were known by other European powers as the "flogging colonies"[citation needed].
These widespread atrocities caused several uprisings in the German colonies. The Maji Maji Rebellion occurred in 1905 and was put down by Governor Gustav Adolf von Götzen, who ordered measures to create a famine to crush the resistance. It may have cost as many 300,000 lives. Scandal followed with allegations of corruption and brutality. In 1907, Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow appointed Bernhard Dernburg to reform the colonial administration.
Fort Bagamoyo, c. 1891
German colonial administrators relied heavily on native chiefs to keep order and collect taxes. By 1 January 1914, not including local police, the military garrisons of the Schutztruppen (protective troops) in Dar es Salaam, Moshi, Iringa, and Mahenge numbered 110 German officers (including 42 medical officers), 126 non-commissioned officers, and 2,472 Askari (native enlisted men).: 32 
