German East Africa: Information

German East Africa (German: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania. GEA's area was 994,996 square kilometres, which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany, and double the territory of Germany then.

The colony was organized when the German military was asked in the late 1880s to put down a revolt against the activities of the German East Africa Company. It ended with Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I. Ultimately, German East Africa was divided between Britain and Belgium and was reorganized as a mandate of the League of Nations.