fco_455182 - CAMEROON - FRENCH MANDATE TERRITORIES 50 Centimes ‘Cameroun Français Libre’ 1943 Prétoria

CAMEROON - TERRITORIES UNDER FRENCH MANDATE

(1919-1945)

The 1884 treaty, which delivered Cameroon to the Germans, was confirmed by the Congress of Berlin the following year. Gustave Nachtigal occupied the new colony. In 1911, in order to resolve the Moroccan crisis, France ceded part of the Congo to the Germans, which was attached to Cameroon. The territory had an area of 761,000 km2 and was populated by 2.5 million inhabitants in 1914, including 2,000 whites. At the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919), Cameroon, which had been occupied since 1916 by the Franco-British, became a mandate entrusted to the French. Cameroon is one of the first territories to join Free France on August 27, 1940. At the end of the war, the mandate is transformed into trusteeship and Cameroon obtains its internal autonomy in 1958 and its independence on January 1, 1960.