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188-487: Rwanda had been ruled by a Tutsi monarchy since at least the 18th century, with entrenched pro-Tutsi and anti-Hutu policies. Germany and Belgium successively controlled Rwanda through the early 20th century, with both European nations ruling through the kings and perpetuating a pro-Tutsi policy. After 1945, a Hutu counter-elite developed, leading to the deterioration of relations between the groups. The Tutsi leadership agitated for speedy independence to cement their power, and

376-520: A barshchina of three days a week as normal and sufficient for the landowner's needs. In the Black Earth Region , 70% to 77% of the serfs performed barshchina and the rest paid levies ( obrok ). The independent Kingdom of Haiti based at Cap-Haïtien under Henri Christophe imposed a corvée system upon the common citizenry which was used for massive fortifications to protect against French invasion. Plantation owners could pay

564-544: A pre-capitalist form of compulsory over-work. The labour the peasants needed for their own maintenance was distinctly separate from the work they supplied to the landowner (the boyar , or boier in Romanian ) as surplus labour . The 14 days of labour due to the landowner – as prescribed by the corvée code in the Regulamentul Organic  – actually amounted to 42 days, because

752-514: A "racist monopoly". The manifesto called for a transfer of power from the Tutsi to the Hutu based on "statistical law". The release of these competing visions for the country's future brought attention from Belgian politicians and the public to Rwanda's social problems which, up until that point, had only been the concern of sociologists and sections of the colonial administration. In 1958, Gitera visited

940-554: A Catholic White Father working in the country, described the Belgian forces as "a few jeeps speeding along the road". Some arsonists were arrested, but the Belgians could not contain the spread of the uprising, and were forced to call in reinforcements from the neighbouring Congo. King Kigeli requested permission to form his own army to combat the violence, but the colonial resident, Andre Preud'homme refused this request. Preud'homme

1128-558: A Hutu republic. He did this with Harroy's support, by installing Hutu in senior administrative positions; more than half the country's Tutsi chiefs (and many sub-chiefs) were replaced with Hutu, most from the PARMEHUTU party. Logiest labelled the appointments "temporary", promising that elections would follow. Although many UNAR members were tried and convicted for crimes committed during the Tutsi counter-revolution, their Hutu compatriots from PARMEHUTU and APROSOMA who were guilty of inciting

1316-659: A Prussian protectorate over his lands, but this request was never considered in Berlin. In the 1867 constitution of the North German Confederation , article 4.1 declared "colonization" as one of the areas under the "oversight of the Confederation", which remained the case in the Imperial constitution established in 1871. In 1867/8, Otto von Bismarck dispatched the screw corvette Augusta to

1504-589: A certain number of days' labour from their tenants, and from freedmen ; in the latter case the work was called opera officialis . In medieval Europe, the tasks that serfs or villeins were required to perform on a yearly basis for their lords were called opera riga . Plowing and harvesting were principal activities to which this applied. In times of need, the lord could demand additional work called opera corrogata ( Latin : corrogare , lit.   'to requisition'). This term evolved into coroatae , then corveiae , and finally corvée , and

1692-574: A colony occurred in 1859, when Prussia attempted to claim the island of Formosa (modern Taiwan ). Prussia had already sought the approval of the French Emperor Napoleon III for the undertaking, since France was also seeking to acquire colonies in East Asia at that time. Since French interests focused on Vietnam , not Formosa, Prussia could seek to acquire the island. A Prussian naval expedition , which departed Germany at

1880-627: A complete failure. There was a constant lack of supplies and land and around half of the colonists died. The plan was definitively ended with the annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845. Starting in the 1850s German commercial enterprises spread into areas that would later become German colonies in West Africa, East Africa , the Samoan Islands , the unexplored north-east quarter of New Guinea with its adjacent islands,

2068-403: A counterattack to seize power and ostracise the Hutu and the Belgians but were thwarted by Belgian colonel Guy Logiest , who was brought in by the colonial governor. Logiest reestablished law and order, beginning a programme to promote and protect the Hutu elite. The Belgians then replaced many Tutsi chiefs and sub-chiefs with Hutu, consigning King Kigeli V to figurehead status; Kigeli later fled

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2256-554: A coup , killing Kayibanda and assuming the presidency. In 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed primarily of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda; this began the Rwandan Civil War . Although neither side gained a decisive advantage in the war, by 1992 Habyarimana's authority had weakened; mass demonstrations forced him into a coalition with the domestic opposition and to sign

2444-593: A day, for which he was to be paid twenty centimes , a sum sufficient to feed him. Exempted from taxation and labour were soldiers, militia, Government clerks, and any Hova who knew French, also all who had entered into a contract of labour with a colonist. Unfortunately, this latter clause lent itself to tremendous abuses. By paying a small sum to some European, who nominally engaged them, thousands bought their freedom from work and taxation by these fictitious contracts, to be free to continue their lazy, unprofitable existence. To this abuse an end had to be made. The urgency of

2632-551: A few unspecified rights to intervene. In this way, state financial and administrative engagement with the colonies was kept to a minimum. However, this strategy failed within a few years. The poor financial situation of almost all of the "protectorates" as well as the precarious security situation (indigenous revolts broke out in South West Africa and East Africa in 1888, while in Cameroon and Togo border conflicts with

2820-419: A figurehead, but his popularity with the regional chiefs and the Tutsi (who feared the growing Hutu movement) sparked a series of strikes and protests. In early 1959, Belgium convened a parliamentary commission to examine options for democratisation and eventual independence, scheduling elections for the end of the year. With the Belgians and most clergy on his side, Gitera began a campaign targeting Kalinga :

3008-471: A greater proportion were Flemish rather than Walloon Belgians and sympathised with the plight of the Hutu. Economic conditions and the seminary education provided by the church gave the Hutu a social mobility not previously possible, allowing the development of an elite group of Hutu leaders and intellectuals. This group, consisting of Hutu from the precolonial Kingdom of Rwanda, was joined by prominent citizens of kingdoms acquired during colonialism (including

3196-615: A life of semi-serfdom. In the Russian Tsardom and the Russian Empire there were a number of permanent corvées called tyaglyye povinnosti  [ ru ] ( Russian : тяглые повинности , lit.   'tax duties'), which included carriage corvée ( подводная повинность , podvodnaya povinnost' ), coachman corvée ( ямская повинность , yamskaya povinnost' ), and lodging corvée ( постоялая повинность , postoyalaya povinnost' ), among others. In

3384-540: A monopoly in the mistreatment of Africans", and in April 1885, the brothers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt acquired Wituland in modern Kenya . With this, the first wave of German colonial acquisitions was largely completed. The raising of German flags on Pacific islands claimed by Spain between August and October 1885 sparked the Carolines Crisis , in which Germany ultimately backed down. In October 1885,

3572-657: A motive. It is no longer believed that the initiation of colonial expansion represented a radical reversal of Bismarck's politics. The liberal-imperialist ideal of an overseas policy grounded in private economic initiatives, which he had held from the beginning, was not changed much by placing German merchants' possessions under the protection of the Empire. As Bismarck was converted to the colonial idea by 1884, he favored "chartered company" land management rather than establishment of colonial government due to financial considerations. He used official letters of protection to transfer

3760-588: A policy of ruling through the Rwandan monarchy and supporting Tutsi chiefs; this system allowed colonisation with few European troops. Yuhi V Musinga , who emerged as king after a succession crisis following the death of his father Rwabugiri and a struggle with Belgian troops, welcomed the Germans and used them to consolidate his power. The territory became the western border of German East Africa . German rule allowed Rwabugiri's centralisation policy to continue, and

3948-716: A preexisting claim to the island. Hamburg relied on the Royal Navy for its worldwide shipping interests and therefore gave no political support to the Colonial Society. The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants to Texas , established in Mainz in 1842, sought to expand the German settlements into a colony of "New Germany" ( German : Neu Deutschland ). About 7400 settlers were involved. The venture proved

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4136-462: A professorship for "Colonial geography and colonial policy" in 1915. The researcher Hans Meyer was director of the "Institute for Colonial Geography". In 1919, the Seminar for Colonial geography and colonial policy" was established. Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888–1918) was keen for Germany to expand its colonial holdings. Bismarck's immediate successor in 1890, Leo von Caprivi , was willing to maintain

4324-785: A return to Rwanda. Their aims differed; some sought reconciliation with Kayibanda and the new regime, some affiliated with the exiled King Kigeli and others wished to oust the new PARMEHUTU regime from power and establish a socialist republic. Beginning in late 1960 armed groups of Tutsi exiles (called inyenzi or "cockroaches" by the Hutu government) launched attacks into Rwanda from neighbouring countries, with mixed success. The Tutsis in Burundi, supported by that country's newly installed, independent Tutsi republic, caused some disruption in southern Rwanda. The events in Rwanda dramatically worsened Tutsi-Hutu relations in Burundi, and from that point onward

4512-475: A sound fiscal system was of tremendous importance to carry out all the schemes for the welfare and development of the island, and this demanded a local budget. The goal to be kept in view was to make the colony, as soon as possible, self-supporting. This end the Governor-General succeeded in achieving within a few years. The system of forced labour otherwise known as polo y servicios evolved within

4700-424: A sub-chief, before punching him. Mbonyumutwa fought off the attackers and both he and his wife were able to return safely home, but rumours began to spread that he had been killed; according to American theology professor James Jay Carney, Mbonyumutwa may have started the rumours himself. The attack on Mbonyumutwa proved to be the catalyst that set off the anticipated violent conflict between Hutu and Tutsi, following

4888-642: A surer support, while without political protection trade cannot now thrive and progress." After this, in March 1883, the Sierra Leone Convention between the United Kingdom and France was published, in which the two countries' spheres of interest were laid out without consideration of other trading nations. In response the German government asked the senates of the cities of Lübeck , Bremen, and Hamburg for their opinions. In their answer,

5076-536: Is demonstrated in a 1938 work by Sonia E. Howe : There was the introduction of equitable taxation, so vital from the financial point of view; but also of such great political, moral and economic importance. It was the tangible proof of French authority having come to stay; it was the stimulus required to make an inherently lazy people work. Once they had learned to earn they would begin to spend, whereby commerce and industry would develop. The corvée in its old form could not be continued, yet workmen were required both by

5264-475: Is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of public works . As such it represents a form of levy ( taxation ). Unlike other forms of levy, such as a tithe , a corvée does not require the population to have land, crops or cash. The obligation for tenant farmers to perform corvée work for landlords on private landed estates

5452-647: Is levied in Quechua communities in the Andes . An example is the campesino village of Ocra close to Cusco , where each adult is required to perform four days of unpaid labour per month on community projects. Corvée-style labour ( viṣṭi in Sanskrit ) existed in ancient India and lasted until the early 20th century. The practice is mentioned in the Mahabharata , where forced labourers are said to accompany

5640-557: Is very pretty, but my map of Africa lies in Europe. Here is Russia, here is France, and we are in the middle. That is my map of Africa. In 1889, Bismarck considered withdrawing Germany from colonial policy, wishing to entirely end Germany's activities in East Africa and Samoa, according to eyewitnesses. It was further reported that Bismarck wanted nothing more to do with the administration of the colonies and intended to hand them over to

5828-494: The 1884 German federal election and Bismarck's desire to strengthen his own position and bind the National Liberal Party , which supported colonialism, to himself, have also been proposed as domestic factors in the adoption of the colonial policy. Hans-Ulrich Wehler advanced the social imperialism thesis, which holds that the colonial expansion served to "divert" social tensions created by economic crisis to

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6016-475: The Bahutu Manifesto . The authors were assisted in writing this document by young Belgian clergymen sympathetic to the Hutu cause. The Bahutu Manifesto criticised indirect Belgian rule, calling for the abolition of ubuhake and the development of a middle class. It was the first document referring to the Tutsi and Hutu as separate races, labelling the Tutsi as "Hamites" and accusing them of establishing

6204-697: The Caribbean to show the flag of the North German Confederation. At the personal urging of Prince Adalbert , the commander of the North German Federal Navy , and without Bismarck's knowledge, the commander of the Augusta , Franz Kinderling  [ de ] conducted negotiations with José María Castro Madriz , President of Costa Rica with a view to establishing a naval base at Puerto Limón . Bismarck rejected

6392-533: The Communist bloc . UNAR immediately began a campaign promoting Rwandan nationalism, vowing to replace European history in schools with the study of Rwabugiri's conquests and calling for the removal of whites and missionaries. This rhetoric prompted the Catholic Church (and many of its Rwandan students, who credited the church with raising them from poverty) to call UNAR anti-Catholic. Gitera, in turn, used

6580-579: The Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwestafrika  [ de ] nor the Syndicate for West Africa were willing to take on the role. These areas were brought into German possession with extremely unequal treaties following demonstrations of military power. Indigenous rulers ceded vast areas, which they often had no legal claim to, in exchange for vague promises of protection and laughably low purchase prices. Details of

6768-881: The Douala delta in Cameroon , and the mainland coast across from Zanzibar . In 1857, the Austrian frigate Novara departed from Triest on the Novara Expedition, which aimed to explore and take possession of the Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean . The Novara arrived at the Nicobars in 1858, but the Austrians did not subsequently lay claim to the islands. The next state-sponsored attempt to acquire

6956-689: The German Colonial Society . Generally, four arguments were advanced in favor of the acquisition of colonies: Moreover, German public opinion in the late-19th century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved full nationhood, and eventually arrived at an understanding that prestigious African and Pacific colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a High Seas Fleet . Bismarck remained opposed to these arguments and preferred an informal commercial imperialism, in which German companies carried out profitable trade with areas outside Europe and made economic inroads without

7144-734: The German Confederation founded in 1815 and the Zollverein founded in 1834, there was some call from private and economic interests for the establishment of German colonies, especially in the 1840s. However, governments had no such aspirations. In 1839, private interests founded the Hamburg Colonial Society  [ de ] , which sought to purchase the Chatham Islands east of New Zealand and settle German emigrants there, but Great Britain had

7332-738: The Incan civilization, Haiti under Henry I and under American occupation (1915–1934), and Portugal's African colonies until the mid-1960s. Forms of statute labour officially existed until the early 20th century in Canada and the United States . The word corvée has its origins in Rome, and reached English via French . In the later Roman Empire the citizens performed opera publica in lieu of paying taxes; often it consisted of road and bridge work. Roman landlords could also demand

7520-581: The Kiga ). The best-known figure in the movement was Grégoire Kayibanda . Like most of the Hutu counter-elite Kayibanda had trained for the priesthood at the Nyakibanda Seminary , although he was not ordained. After completing his education in 1948, he became a primary-school teacher. In 1952 Kayibanda succeeded Alexis Kagame as editor of the Catholic magazine, L'Ami . During the late 1950s he

7708-653: The Marshall Islands was only established in 1885. Von Werner also acquired a harbor on the islands of Makada and Mioko in the Duke of York Islands in December 1878, which would become a component part of the future protectorate of German New Guinea in 1884. On 20 April 1879, the commander of the screw corvette SMS  Bismarck , Karl August Deinhard  [ de ] and the German Consul for

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7896-584: The Marshall Islands were also claimed and finally several of the Solomon Islands in October 1886. In 1888, Germany ended the civil war on Nauru and annexed the island. The causes of Bismarck's sudden shift to a policy of colonial acquisition remain a matter of controversy among historians. There are two dominant schools of thought: one which focuses on German domestic politics and one which focuses on foreign affairs. In terms of internal politics,

8084-539: The Spanish conquest of Peru to use natives as a source of forced labour on encomiendas and in silver mines . The Incan system that focused on public works found a comeback during the 1960s government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry as a federal effort, with positive effects on Peruvian infrastructure. Remnants of the system are still found today in modern Peru, such as the Mink'a ( Spanish : faena ) communal work that

8272-671: The Standing Committee of the National Assembly voided the decree, effectively abolishing corvée in Vietnam. The British overseas territory of the Pitcairn Islands , which has a population of about 50 and no income or sales tax , has a system of public work whereby all able-bodied people are required to perform, when called upon, jobs such as road maintenance and repairs to public buildings. Since

8460-724: The Triple Alliance . In exchange for this, Germany acquired the Caprivi Strip , which extended German South West Africa east to the Zambezi River (it was hoped that the river would enable overland transport between German South West Africa and German East Africa). In these circumstances, further German colonial aspirations in South East Africa were brought to an end. German interest in African colonies

8648-550: The Twa , a group of aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who settled the area between 8000 and 3000 BC and remain in the country today. Between 700 BC and 1500 AD, a number of Bantu groups migrated into Rwanda and began clearing forests for agriculture. After losing much of their habitat, the forest-dwelling Twa moved to the mountains. Historians have several theories about the Bantu Migrations . According to one,

8836-653: The U.S. Armed Forces enforced a corvée system in the interest of making improvements to infrastructure. Imperial China had a system of conscripting labour from the public, equated to the Western corvée system by many historians. Qin Shi Huang , the first emperor, and following dynasties imposed it for public works like the Great Wall , the Grand Canal , and the system of national roads and highways. However, as

9024-483: The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia , which abolished corvée and turned the peasants into free proprietors. The former owners were promised compensation, which was to be paid from a fund the peasants had to contribute to for 15 years. Besides the annual fee, the peasants also had to pay for the newly owned land, although at a price below market value. These debts made many peasants return to

9212-409: The origin myths of the Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, calling the King's policies inconsistent with them. The articles did not immediately challenge the King's authority over the Hutu peasants, but their exposure of Rudahigwa's outburst led to a permanent schism between him, the Hutu counter-elite and Belgian authorities. In 1958 the Belgian colonial ministry tried to strip Rudahigwa of his power, reducing him to

9400-430: The pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , have one short letter on the topic of corvée. Of the 382 Amarna letters, there is an undamaged letter from Biridiya of Megiddo entitled " Furnishing corvée workers ". Later, during the Ptolemaic dynasty , Ptolemy V in his Rosetta Stone Decree of 196 BC listed 22 accomplishments to be honored and ten rewards granted to him for the former. One of the shorter accomplishments, near

9588-404: The seigneurial system in what had been New France , in British North America . In 1866, during the French occupation of Mexico , the French Army under Marshal François Achille Bazaine set up a corvée system to provide labour for public works instead of a system of fines. In Romania, corvée was called clacă . Karl Marx described the corvée system of the Danubian Principalities as

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9776-406: The "Treaty of Friendship" agreed between the Samoan chiefs and the German consul in Samoa in January 1879, with the result that the consul assumed control of the administration of the city of Apia on the island of Upolu , along with the consuls of Britain and America. In the 1880s, Bismarck would unsuccessfully attempt to annex Samoa several times. The western Samoan islands, which included Apia,

9964-501: The 1870s, colonialist propaganda achieved increasing public profile in Germany. In 1873, the African Society in Germany  [ de ] was established, which considered exploration of Africa its main function. In 1878 the foundation of the Central Society for Commercial Geography and Promotion of German Interests Abroad  [ de ] was established, which sought to acquire colonies for Germany, and in 1881 West German Society for Colonization and Export  [ de ]

10152-421: The 1888 " Arab revolt " on the East African coast into a holy war . Pre-eminent, however, was the matter of German national prestige and the belief that Germany was locked in a Social Darwinist competition with the other Great Powers, in which Germany as a "late-comer" had to claim her due share. Corv%C3%A9e Corvée ( French: [kɔʁve] ) is a form of unpaid forced labour that

10340-498: The 1890s. Medieval agricultural corvée was not entirely unpaid. By custom the workers could expect small payments, often in the form of food and drink consumed on the spot. Corvée sometimes included military conscription, and the term is also occasionally used in a slightly divergent sense to mean forced requisition of military supplies; this most often took the form of cartage , a lord's right to demand wagons for military transport. Because agricultural corvée tended to be demanded by

10528-425: The 1960 elections; Belgium and Logiest supported PARMEHUTU, and Tutsi influence dwindled. The United Nations Trusteeship Commission, dominated by countries allied with Communist ones and favouring the anti-Belgian, Tutsi UNAR party, lobbied for independently monitored elections. The commission sponsored General Assembly resolutions 1579 and 1580, calling for elections and a referendum on the monarchy; Logiest dismissed

10716-509: The 1993 Arusha Accords with the RPF. The cease-fire ended on 6 April 1994, when Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport and he was killed. Habyarimana's death was the catalyst for the Rwandan genocide , which began a few hours later. In about 100 days, 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi and politically-moderate Hutu were killed in well-planned attacks ordered by the interim government. The Tutsi RPF under Paul Kagame restarted their offensive and methodically regained Rwanda, controlling

10904-553: The Allied powers. Talk of regaining the last Kaiser's lost colonies persisted in Germany until 1943, but never became an official goal of the German government. Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League ; German emigrants had flowed eastward in the direction of the Baltic littoral , Russia and Transylvania and westward to the Americas ; and North German merchants and missionaries showed interest in overseas engagements. The Hanseatic republics of Hamburg and Bremen sent traders across

11092-400: The Belgian administration; his eldest son, Mutara III Rudahigwa , succeeded him and eventually became Rwanda's first Christian king. During the 1930s the Belgians introduced large-scale projects in education, health, public works and agricultural supervision, including new crops and agricultural techniques to improve food supply. Though Rwanda was modernised the Tutsis remained in power, leaving

11280-401: The Belgian authorities, while others crossed into Uganda and the Congo , beginning what would become a mass exodus by the end of the revolution. The arsonists recruited local peasants to their ranks, ensuring the rapid spread of the revolt. Many Hutu still believed that the King was superhuman, and claimed that they carried out the attacks on his behalf. By 9 November violence had spread across

11468-523: The British. It was, he said, a burden and an expense, and he would like to saddle someone else with it." Following 1884, Germany invaded several territories in Africa: German East Africa (including present-day Burundi , Rwanda , and the mainland part of Tanzania ); German South West Africa (present-day Namibia ), German Cameroon (including parts of present-day Cameroon , Gabon , Congo , Central African Republic , Chad and Nigeria ); and Togoland (present-day Togo and parts of Ghana ). Germany

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11656-420: The Confederation through a kind of informal imperialism. In 1867, it was decided to establish five overseas bases. Accordingly, in 1868, land was bought in Yokohama in Japan for a German naval hospital, which remained in operation until 1911. In 1869 the "East Asian Station" ( Ostasiatische Station ) was established there by the navy as the first overseas base, with a permanent presence of German warships. Until

11844-411: The French had just abolished slavery there, and partly to move away from a subsistence economy . The latter involved paying small amounts for the forced labour. This was one attempt by the colonial administration at a solution to the economic tensions that arose under colonialism . The problems were addressed in a way that was typical of colonialism which, along with the contemporary thinking behind it,

12032-422: The French landlords. At that time it was usually directed mainly towards improving the roads. It was greatly resented, and contributed to the widespread discontent that preceded the revolution. Counterrevolution revived corvée in France in 1824, 1836, and 1871, under the name prestation . Every able-bodied man had to give three days' labour or its money equivalent in order to vote. It also continued to exist under

12220-414: The German Empire's acquisition of Qingdao in China as a military port in 1897, Yokohama remained the base of the German fleet in East Asia. It later proved useful following the acquisition of colonies in the Pacific and in Kiaochow . In 1869, the Rhenish Missionary Society , which had been established in southwestern Africa for several decades asked King William of Prussia for protection and suggested

12408-507: The German Empire, in order to protect trade, safeguard raw materials and export-markets and to take advantage of opportunities for capital investment, among other reasons. In the very next year Bismarck shed personal involvement when "he abandoned his colonial drive as suddenly and casually as he had started it" – as if he had committed an error in judgment that could confuse the substance of his more significant policies. "Indeed, in 1889, [Bismarck] tried to give German South West Africa away to

12596-450: The German states had not concentrated on the development of a navy, and this essentially had precluded German participation in earlier imperialist scrambles for remote colonial territory. Without a blue-water navy, a would-be colonial power could not reliably defend, supply or trade with overseas dependencies. The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including

12784-469: The Great Powers of England and France. In 1888, when the journalist Eugen Wolf urged him to acquire further colonies for Germany, so that it would not fall behind in the scramble with the other Great Powers for colonies, which he understood in a social Darwinian sense, Bismarck replied that his priority was rather the protection of the recently won national unity, which he considered to be under threat due to Germany's central location: Your map of Africa

12972-497: The Hamburg merchants demanded the acquisition of colonies in West Africa. In December 1883, Bismarck let Hamburg known that an Imperial commissioner would be sent to West Africa to secure the safety of German trade and to conclude a treaty with "independent Negro states". The screw corvette Sophie would be sent to provide military protection. Additionally, Bismarck requested suggestions on this plan and asked for Adolph Woermann's advice personally on what instructions should be given to

13160-415: The Holy Roman Empire as well as the Habsburg monarchy, and corvée was called robota in Czech . In Russian and other Slavic languages robota denotes any kind of work, but in Czech it specifically refers to unpaid unfree work, corvée or serf labour, or drudgery. The Czech word was imported to part of Germany where corvée was known as Robath , and into Hungarian as robot . The word robota

13348-412: The Hutu arson escaped without charge. In December Logiest was appointed to the new post of special civil resident, replacing more-conservative Preud'homme. The Belgian government empowered him to depose the King and veto his decisions, which meant Kigeli became a constitutional monarch , with Logiest replacing him as the country's de facto leader. The period following Rudahigwa's death in July 1959, and

13536-500: The Hutu by the Tutsi elite. This article was followed up in La Presse Africaine and other Congolese and Burundian newspapers with a series of other articles detailing the history of relations between the groups and the king's status. King Rudahigwa and the Tutsi elite dismissed the claims, retorting that no ethnic impediment to social mobility existed and that the Hutu and Tutsi were indistinguishable. The next catalyst for

13724-485: The Hutu disenfranchised and subject to large-scale forced labour. In 1935 Belgium introduced identity cards, labelling an individual as Tutsi, Hutu, Twa or Naturalised. Although wealthy Hutu had previously been able to become honorary Tutsi, the identity cards ended further social mobility. Belgium continued to rule Rwanda as a UN Trust Territory after World War II , with a mandate to oversee its eventual independence . The economic landscape had changed considerably during

13912-560: The Hutu elite called for the transfer of power from Tutsi to Hutu, a stance increasingly supported by the Catholic Church and the colonial government. The revolution began in November 1959, with a series of riots and arson attacks on Tutsi homes following an attack on one of the few Hutu sub-chiefs, Dominique Mbonyumutwa , by Tutsi extremists. Violence quickly spread throughout the country. The King and Tutsi politicians attempted

14100-436: The Hutu in his decision making in the country. This was partly for security reasons, as Logiest claimed that the Hutu would continue the violence as long as the Tutsi remained in power, but he also strongly in favour of the revolution on democratic grounds; he saw it as the opportunity for the "oppressed" Hutu peasants to rise up against the Tutsi ruling class. He later wrote in his memoirs: "Some among my assistants thought that I

14288-674: The Imperial commissioner. In March 1884, Gustav Nachtigal was named as the Imperial Commissioner for the West African Coast and set sail for West Africa in the gunboat SMS  Möwe . The year 1884 marks the beginning of actual German colonial acquisitions, building on the overseas possessions and rights that had been acquired for the German Empire since 1876. In one year, Germany's holdings became

14476-710: The King at his palace in Nyanza . Although Gitera had considerable respect for the monarchy, Rudahigwa treated him contemptuously; at one point he grabbed Gitera's throat, calling him and his followers inyangarwanda (haters of Rwanda). This humiliation prompted the MSM, APROSOMA and the pro-Hutu Catholic publications to take a firmer stance against the monarchy. Kinyamateka published a detailed report of Rudahigwa's treatment of Gitera, refuting his semi-divine image and accusing him of pro-Tutsi racism. The magazine also published stories citing

14664-514: The Masses (APROSOMA) party. Religious historians Ian and Jane Linden described him as "more passionate and perhaps compassionate" than Kayibanda and other Hutu ex-seminarians, but "often erratic and sometimes fanatical". Unlike Kayibanda, Gitera called for forceful action against the "oppression" of the monarchy as early as 1957; however, his rhetoric focussed less on the Hutu-Tutsi divide than on

14852-478: The Motherland's trade and industry are mostly illusory. Then, the costs which the foundation, maintenance, and especially the establishment of claims to colonies entail very often exceed the utility which the Motherland gets from them, entirely apart from the fact that it is difficult to justify placing significant tax burdens on the whole nation for the benefit of individual commercial and industrial interests. On

15040-712: The Northern Solomon Islands. These islands were given the status of protectorate. The shift in Bismarck's policy on the acquisition of colonies began as part of his 1878 Schutzzollpolitik  [ de ] policy on the protection of the German economy from foreign competition. The beginning of his colonial policy in connection with the Schutzzollpolitik was the acquisition of Samoa , where there were significant German economic interests. In June 1879, as Imperial Chancellor , he acknowledged

15228-442: The November 1959 arson attacks, continued steadily throughout the revolution. An official, late-1964 total of 336,000 Tutsi settled primarily in the four neighbouring countries of Burundi, Uganda , Tanganyika (later Tanzania ) and Congo-Léopoldville . The exiles, unlike the ethnic Rwandans who migrated during the pre-colonial and colonial eras, were seen as refugees by their host countries and began almost immediately to agitate for

15416-532: The South Seas Islands, Gustav Godeffroy Junior established a treaty of commerce and friendship with "the government" of Huahine , one of the Society Islands , which granted the German fleet the right to anchor at all harbors on the island, among other things. Although Bismarck "remained as contemptuous of all colonial dreams as ever", in 1884, he consented to the acquisition of colonies by

15604-529: The Tutsi-dominated Conseil Supérieur proposed new ministries of finance, education, public works and the interior run by them, independent of Belgium, through a manifesto called mise en point . The Hutu counter-elite responded swiftly to this development, denouncing it as a plot by the Tutsi to cement Tutsi preeminence in post-independence Rwanda. Kayibanda, with eight other Hutu leaders, began work on an alternative work known as

15792-658: The United Kingdom would provide protection to Lüderitz's trade station. Both times the British government refused. From March 1883, Adolph Woermann , a Hamburg bulkgoods trader, shipowner, and member of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce , engaged in extremely confidential negotiations with the Foreign Office, which was headed by Bismarck, for the acquisition of a colony in West Africa . The reason for this

15980-569: The United States and Canada. Its popularity with local governments gradually waned after the American Revolution with the increasing development of the monetary economy. After the American Civil War , some Southern states, with money in short supply, commuted taxing their inhabitants with obligations in the form of labour for public works, or let them pay a fee or tax to avoid it. The system proved unsuccessful because of

16168-548: The Zanzibar Sultanate's mainland property." which became German East Africa . Such exploratory missions required security measures that could be solved with small private, armed contingents recruited mainly in the Sudan and usually led by adventurous former military personnel of lower rank. Brutality, hanging and flogging prevailed during these land-grab expeditions under Peters' control as well as others as no-one "held

16356-620: The acquisition, due to the American Monroe Doctrine . This desire to avoid antagonising the United States also led him to reject a Dutch offer to establish a naval base on the Dutch island of Curaçao . In 1868, Bismarck made his opposition to any colonial acquisitions clear in a letter to the Prussian Minister of War Albrecht von Roon : On the one hand, the benefits which one might derive from colonies for

16544-654: The admiralty. In May 1889, Bismarck offered to sell the German possessions in Africa to the Italian Prime Minister, Francesco Crispi – who countered with an offer to sell Italy's colonies to Germany. Bismarck also found the colonies useful as bargaining chips. Thus, at the Congo Conference held in Berlin from 1884 to 1885, he divvied Africa up between the Great Powers. In 1884, a treaty

16732-400: The age of Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898; in office as Prussian Foreign Minister from 1862 to 1890) concentrated on resolving the " German question " in Europe and on securing German interests on the continent. However, by 1891 the Germans were mostly united under Prussian rule. They also sought a more clear-cut "German" state, and saw colonies as a good way to achieve that. In the states of

16920-447: The agenda and control the administration of the forthcoming elections. Despite this, PARMEHUTU claimed it still needed more time for the Hutu people to become "sufficiently emancipated to defend their rights effectively", and successfully lobbied the Belgians to postpone the communal elections scheduled for January 1960. The elections were rescheduled for June of that year. In March 1960, a United Nations delegation visited Rwanda to assess

17108-508: The army. Manusmriti says that mechanics and artisans should be made to work for the king one day a month; other writers advocated for one day of work every fortnight (in all Indian lunar calendars, every month is divided into two fortnights, corresponding to the waxing and the waning moons). For poorer citizens, forced labour was seen as a way to pay their taxes since they could not pay ordinary taxes. Citizens, especially skilled workers, were sometimes made to both pay ordinary taxes and work for

17296-685: The banker Adolph von Hansemann to produce a report on German colonial goals in the Pacific and the possibility of enforcing them. Hansemann submitted his Memorandum on Colonial Aspirations in the South Seas to Bismarck in September of the same year. The proposed territorial acquisitions were almost all taken or claimed as colonies four years later. Those Pacific territories that were claimed in 1884 but not taken were finally brought under German colonial administration in 1899. Significantly, Hausemann

17484-771: The beginning of the First World War in 1914, but some German forces held out in German East Africa until the end of the war. After the German defeat in World War I , Germany's colonial empire was officially confiscated as part of the Treaty of Versailles between the Allies and German Weimar Republic . Each colony became a League of Nations mandate under the administration, although not sovereignty, of one of

17672-569: The borders, since the government often responded with further attacks on the Tutsi still living in Rwanda. In December 1963 the Burundi-based rebels launched a large-scale surprise attack , seizing Bugesera and advancing to positions near Kigali. The ill-equipped and poorly-organised invaders were easily defeated by the government, whose response to the attack was the largest killing of Tutsi to date: an estimated 10,000 in December 1963 and January 1964, including all Tutsi politicians still in

17860-613: The boundaries of their spheres of interest in East Africa. After Bismarck had ended the policy of colonial acquisition in March 1890, he concluded the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty with Britain on 1 July 1890, in which Germany renounced all remaining claims north of German East Africa. In this way, he established a balance with Great Britain. Renouncing the German claims to the Somali coast between Burgabo and Alula also improved relations with Italy, one of Germany's partners in

18048-431: The breakdown of relations was the occurrence of the country's first democratic elections under universal male suffrage in September 1956. The populace were permitted to vote for the sub-chiefs, and 66% of those elected were Hutu. Higher positions in the traditional and colonial hierarchies were still appointed rather than elected, and these remained overwhelmingly Tutsi. The imbalance between these two weightings highlighted

18236-457: The church's anti-UNAR stance to falsely claim its support for APROSOMA. The colonial government moved to limit UNAR's power, attempting to depose three chiefs who were prominent in the party and opening fire on protesters at a rally. Kayibanda registered the MSM as an official party, renaming it the Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu (PARMEHUTU). He began mobilising cells of supporters across

18424-409: The colonial burden of what already existed, but opposed new ventures. Others who followed, especially Bernhard von Bülow , as foreign minister and chancellor, sanctioned the acquisition of further Pacific Ocean colonies and provided substantial treasury assistance to existing protectorates to employ administrators, commercial agents, surveyors, local "peacekeepers" and tax collectors. This accorded with

18612-527: The colonists, and by the Government for its vast schemes of public works. The General [Gallieni] therefore passed a temporary law, in which taxation and labour were combined, to be modified according to country, the people, and their mentality. Thus, for instance, every male among the Hovas , from the age of sixteen to sixty, had either to pay twenty-five francs a year, or give fifty days of labour of nine hours

18800-678: The commander of the ship decided to return to Germany due to the exhaustion of the men after the year-long expedition and the need for repairs to the ship. After the Second Schleswig War in 1864, colonialist societies in Prussia aspired to take possession of the Nicobar islands which had previously been in Danish possession. For its part, Denmark unsuccessfully proposed to exchange the Danish West Indies for some of

18988-826: The commerce and administration of individual "German protectorates" to private companies. The administration of these areas was assigned to the German East Africa Company (1885–1890), the German Witu Company (1887–1890), the German New Guinea Company (1885–1899), and the Jaluit Company in the Marshall Islands (1888–1906). Bismarck would have liked the German colonies in west Africa and southwest Africa to be administered in this way as well, but neither

19176-519: The complex three-chieftain system, so one chief (usually Tutsi) instead of three (typically split between Tutsi and Hutu) ruled a local area. Belgian reforms also extended uburetwa (forced labour by Hutus for Tutsi chiefs) to individuals, not just communities, and to regions not previously covered by the system. Tutsi chiefs began a process of land reform with Belgian support; grazing areas traditionally controlled by Hutu collectives were seized by Tutsi and privatised with minimal compensation. Beginning in

19364-486: The context of Russian history, the term corvée is also sometimes used to translate the terms barshchina ( барщина ) or boyarshchina ( боярщина ), which refer to the obligatory work that the Russian serfs performed for the pomeshchik (Russian landed nobility ) on their land. While no official government regulation on the duration of barshchina labour existed, a 1797 ukase by Paul I of Russia described

19552-766: The country's Tutsi-led regimes sought to avoid a similar revolution in their own territory. Fear of such a development strongly motivated the Burundian government to massacre thousands of Hutus in 1972 in response to a Hutu uprising, with the participation of some Rwandan Tutsi refugees. Refugees in the Congo, Uganda and Tanzania were less able to organise military operations because of local conditions; exiles in Tanzania were treated well by local authorities and many settled permanently, giving up aspirations to return to Rwanda. The rebel attacks themselves propelled more refugees across

19740-457: The country's progress towards independence. The major political parties encouraged street demonstrations, which deteriorated into fresh outbreaks of violence, during the UN visit. Tutsi homes were burnt in view of the delegation, leading them to declare in April that Belgian plans for June elections were unworkable. Instead, they proposed a roundtable discussion involving all four political parties to end

19928-399: The country, calling for an independent Hutu state under a constitutional monarchy. Historian Catharine Newbury described the situation in late 1959 as a "simmering cauldron"; by late October, with the parliamentary report due and elections approaching, tensions had reached the breaking point. On 1 November 1959 Dominique Mbonyumutwa , one of the few Hutu sub-chiefs and a PARMEHUTU activist,

20116-481: The country, except for Gitera's home province of Astrida ( Butare ) and the far southwest and east. Rioting was heaviest in the northwest; in Ruhengeri, every Tutsi home was destroyed by fire. The initial Belgian response to the violence was muted; the colonial government had just 300 troops in Rwanda in early November, despite the threat of civil war that had escalated through the preceding months. Alphonse van Hoof,

20304-443: The country. Despite continued anti-Tutsi violence, Belgium organized local elections in mid-1960. Hutu parties gained control of nearly all communes, effectively ending the revolution. Logiest and Hutu leader Grégoire Kayibanda declared Rwanda an autonomous republic in 1961, and the country became independent in 1962. The revolution caused at least 336,000 Tutsi to flee to neighbouring countries, where they lived as refugees. Although

20492-455: The country. The international community did little in response, and President Kayibanda's domestic power was reinforced. Infighting and the defeat put an end to the Tutsi rebels, who were of no further threat to Rwanda after 1964. After the 1963–64 Tutsi massacre and defeat of the Tutsis, Kayibanda and PARMEHUTU ruled Rwanda unchecked for the next decade, overseeing a Hutu hegemony justified by

20680-607: The decision to colonize is seen as an extension of the concept of the European balance of power to a global context. Participating in the Scramble for Africa would also reinforce its position as one of the Great Powers . Improving relations with France through a "colonial entente" that would divert French attention from revanchism related to Alsace-Lorraine , which had been annexed by Germany in 1871, has also been seen as

20868-457: The demand for corvée grew too high and the system became dysfunctional. Its official decline is linked to the abolition of serfdom by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and Habsburg ruler, in 1781. It continued to exist however, and was only abolished during the revolutions of 1848 , along with the legal inequality between the nobility and common people. Bohemia (or the Czech lands ) was a part of

21056-643: The efforts as "perfectly useless", and made little effort to implement them. A National Reconciliation Conference was held in Belgium in January 1961, which ended in failure. Logiest and Kayibanda then convened a meeting of the country's local leaders, at which a "sovereign democratic Republic of Rwanda" was proclaimed with Dominique Mbonyumutwa its interim president. The UN published a report that an "oppressive system has been replaced by another one", but its ability to influence events had ended. PARMEHUTU won control of

21244-458: The elections Guy Logiest announced that "the revolution is over", tensions remained high and local massacres of Tutsi continued throughout 1960 and 1961. King Kigeli, living under virtual arrest in southern Rwanda, fled the country in July 1960 and lived for several decades in locations across East Africa before settling in the United States. Rwanda settled into the new reality of Hutu dominance after

21432-589: The emancipation of the poor. The Hutu counter-elite enjoyed reasonable relations with the King and the Tutsi elite in the early 1950s, as the quest for democracy dominated political life. Young Tutsi and Hutu who had been educated in Catholic seminaries or worked in international commerce, came together as " evolués ", working in junior roles in the colonial administration. Hutu–Tutsi relations deteriorated rapidly from 1956, however. In July, Congolese newspaper La Presse Africaine published an article by an anonymous Rwandan priest detailing alleged centuries-long abuses of

21620-524: The end of 1859, was tasked with concluding trade treaties in Asia for Prussia and the other states of the Zollverein and with occupying Formosa. However, this task was not carried out, due to the limited strength of the expedition forces and because they did not wish to preclude a trade treaty with Qing China . In a cabinet order of 6 January 1862, the expedition's ambassador, Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg

21808-536: The establishment of a coal station on the Tongan island of Vavaʻu , guaranteeing all usage rights of the specified area to the German Empire, but leaving the King of Tonga's sovereignty untouched. No actual colonization occurred. On 16 July 1878, the commander of the screw corvette SMS  Ariadne , Bartholomäus von Werner  [ de ] occupied Falealili and Saluafata on the Samoan island of Upolu "in

21996-764: The establishment of a naval station at Walvis Bay . William was very interested in this suggestion, but the matter was forgotten following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War . A French proposal after the Franco-Prussian War to hand over the French colony of Cochinchina instead of Alsace–Lorraine , was rejected by Bismarck and a majority of the delegates in the North German Reichstag in 1870. After German Unification in 1871, Bismarck maintained his earlier position. During

22184-434: The exiles agitated for an immediate return to Rwanda, they were split between those seeking negotiation and those wishing to overthrow the new regime. Some exiles formed armed groups (called inyenzi , or "cockroaches", by the Hutu government), who launched attacks into Rwanda. The largest occurred in late 1963, when a surprise attack approached Kigali . The government fought back, defeating the rebels and killing thousands of

22372-603: The expansionistic policy and a forced upgrade of the Imperial German Navy . Colonial acquisition became a serious factor in German domestic politics. The German colonial society was joined in 1891 by the extremely nationalistic Pan-German League . In addition to the arguments previously made in support of colonialism, it was now argued that Germany had a duty to end the slave trade in the colonies and free indigenous people from their Muslim enslavers. These abolitionist demands, with their clear anti-Muslim bias turned

22560-539: The first settlers were Hutu ; the Tutsi migrated later and formed a distinct racial group, possibly of Cushitic origin. An alternative theory is that the migration was slow and steady, with incoming groups integrating into (rather than conquering) the existing society. In this theory the Hutu-Tutsi distinction arose later as a class distinction, rather than a racial one. The population coalesced, first into clans ( ubwoko ) and into about eight kingdoms by 1700. The country

22748-404: The foreign sphere and helped to reinforce Bismarck's authority. The so-called "Crown-prince thesis" holds that Bismarck was attempting to deliberately worsen the German relationship with the United Kingdom before the anticipated succession of the " anglophile " Frederick III to the German throne in order to prevent him from instituting liberal English-style policies. In terms of foreign policy,

22936-623: The framework of the encomienda system, introduced into the South American colonies by the Spanish government. Polo y servicios in the Spanish Philippines refers to 40 days' forced manual labour for men from 16 to 60 years of age; these workers built community structures such as churches. Exemption from polo was possible via paying the falla (corruption of the Spanish falta , meaning 'absence'), which

23124-484: The globe. Their trading houses conducted themselves as successful Privatkolonisatoren [independent colonizers], concluding treaties and land purchases in Africa and the Pacific with chiefs and/or other tribal leaders. These early agreements with local entities later formed the basis for annexation treaties, diplomatic support and military protection by the German government . However, until their 1871 unification ,

23312-767: The government and have labourers work for them instead. This enabled the Kingdom of Haiti to maintain a stronger economic structure than the Republic of Haiti based in Port-au-Prince in the South under Alexandre Pétion which had a system of agrarian reform distributing land to the labourers. After deploying to Haiti in 1915 as an expression of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine ,

23500-576: The hill. The King's forces lacked the military expertise to win this battle, and eventually the Belgian authorities intervened in Save to prevent bloodshed, leading to Gitera's escape. Although Kigeli and UNAR remained more powerful and better equipped than the Hutu parties, they knew that the Belgians now strongly supported the latter; given enough time, the Hutu would gain the upper hand. Therefore, UNAR sought to ostracise Belgium from power and gain independence as soon as possible. The November 1959 uprising and

23688-564: The imposition was exorbitant and punishment for failure draconian, Qin Shi Huang was resented by the people and criticized by many historians. Corvée labour was effectively abolished following the Ming dynasty . The Inca Empire levied tribute labour through a system called Mit'a which was perceived as a public service to the empire. At its height of efficiency, some subsistence farmers could be called to as many as 300 days of mit'a per year. The Spanish colonial rulers co-opted this system after

23876-526: The key aspect is the public pressure which led to the development of a "Colonial fever" ( Kolonialfieber ) among the German populace. Although the colonial movement was not very strong institutionally, it succeeded in bringing its position into the public debate. A memorandum authored by Adolph Woermann and sent to Bismarck by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on 6 July 1883 is considered to have been particularly important in this respect. The approach of

24064-484: The kingdom west and north, implementing administrative reforms which included ubuhake (where Tutsi patrons ceded cattle—and privileged status—to Hutu or Tutsi clients in exchange for economic and personal service) and uburetwa (a corvée system in which Hutu were forced to work for Tutsi chiefs). Rwabugiri's reforms developed a rift between the Hutu and Tutsi populations. The Berlin Conference of 1884 assigned

24252-648: The labour for farming and infrastructure, by high income taxes on those who found work with private employers, and by selling corvée labour to South Africa . This system, called chibalo , was not abolished in Mozambique until 1962, and continued in some forms until the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Corvée was used in several states and provinces in North America especially for road maintenance, and this practice persisted to some degree in

24440-509: The last quarter of Bismarck's tenure of office. First, Adolf Lüderitz's trading post in the Bay of Angara Pequena (' Lüderitz Bay ') and the surrounding hinterland (' Lüderitzland  [ de ] ') was placed under the protection of the German Empire in April 1884 as German South West Africa . In July, Togoland and Adolph Woermann 's possessions in Cameroon followed, then the northeastern section of New Guinea (' Kaiser-Wilhelmsland ') and

24628-406: The late 1920s, the role of the Catholic Church grew ( see Catholic Church in colonial Rwanda ). This was encouraged by the Belgian government, since the priests knew the country well and facilitated its administration. Many Rwandans (including elite Tutsi) converted, since Catholicism was an increasing prerequisite for social advancement. King Musinga refused to convert, and in 1931 he was deposed by

24816-416: The legislature in September 1961; Kayibanda assumed the presidency, and Rwanda became fully independent on 1 July 1962. The official rhetoric of the government during the independence celebrations placed emphasis on the accomplishments of the revolution, rather than commemorating the end of colonial rule. As the revolution progressed, many Tutsi left Rwanda to escape Hutu purges. The exodus, which began during

25004-427: The lord at the same time that the peasants needed to tend their own plots – e.g. at planting and harvest – it was an object of serious resentment. By the 16th century its use in agricultural settings was on the decline and it became increasingly replaced by paid labour. It nevertheless persisted in many areas of Europe until the French Revolution and beyond. Corvée, specifically socage ,

25192-405: The lost territory in Schleswig in 1865. In 1866 and then again in 1876, Jamal ul-Azam, Sultan of the Sulu Islands , located between Borneo and the Philippines, offered to place his islands under Prussian and then Imperial German control, but both times he was rebuffed. Ahmad ibn Fumo Bakari, the Sultan of Wituland asked the Prussian traveler Richard Brenner  [ de ] to establish

25380-442: The main city, became a German colony in 1899. In April 1880, Bismarck actively intervened in domestic politics in favor of colonial matters, when he presented the Samoa Bill to the Reichstag . It had been endorsed by the Federal Council , but was rejected by the Reichstag. The bill would have provided German financial support to a private German colonial trade company that had fallen into difficulties. In May 1880, Bismarck asked

25568-398: The mantra of "demographic majority and democracy". The regime did not tolerate dissent, ruling in a top-down manner similar to the pre-revolution feudal monarchy and promoting a deeply Catholic, virtuous ethos. By the early 1970s this policy had isolated Rwanda from the rest of the world, and a rebellion began within the Hutu elite. In 1973 senior army commander Juvénal Habyarimana organised

25756-510: The meaning broadened to encompass both the regular and exceptional tasks. The word survives in modern usage, meaning any kind of inevitable or disagreeable chore. From the Egyptian Old Kingdom ( c.  2613 BC , the 4th Dynasty ) onward, corvée contributed to government projects. During the times of the Nile River floods, it was used for construction projects such as pyramids , temples, quarries, canals, roads, and other works. The 1350 BC Amarna letters , mostly addressed to

25944-406: The means through which to comply with this regulation, but if they do not comply in some way, the public authorities will force them to comply." Africans engaged in subsistence agriculture on their own small plots were considered unemployed. The forced labour was sometimes paid, but in cases of rule violations it was sometimes not – as punishment. The state benefited from the use of

26132-449: The middle of the list, is: He (pharaoh) decreed:—Behold, not is permitted to be pressed men of the sailors. The statement implies it was a common practice. Until the late 19th century, many of the Egyptian Public Works , including the Suez Canal , were built using corvée. Legally, the practice ended in Egypt after 1882, when the British Empire took control of the country and opposed forced labour on principle, but its abolition

26320-414: The name of the Empire". The German occupation of these places was revoked in January 1879 with the conclusion of a treaty of friendship between the local rulers and Germany. On 19 November 1878, von Werner established a treaty with the leaders of Jaluit Atoll and the Ralik islands of Lebon and Letahalin, granting privileges like the exclusive right to establish a coal station. An official German colony in

26508-742: The neighboring British colonies were feared, and in general the demands of efficient administration overwhelmed the colonial companies) compelled Bismarck and his successors to implement direct and formal rule in all the colonies. Although temperate zone cultivation flourished, the demise and often failure of tropical low-land enterprises contributed to changing Bismarck's view. He reluctantly acquiesced to pleas for help to deal with revolts and armed hostilities by often powerful rulers whose lucrative slaving activities seemed at risk. German native military forces initially engaged in dozens of punitive expeditions to apprehend and punish freedom fighters, at times with British assistance. The author Charles Miller offers

26696-428: The neighboring islands ('the Bismarck Archipelago '). In January 1885, the German flag was raised at Kapitaï and Koba on the west African coast. In February, imperialist and "man-of-action" Carl Peters accumulated vast tracts of land for his Society for German Colonization , "emerging from the bush with X-marks [affixed by unlettered tribal chiefs] on documents ... for some 160,000 km (60,000 sq mi) of

26884-400: The occupation of territories or the construction of states. Bismarck and many deputies in the Reichstag had no interest in making colonial conquests merely to acquire square miles of territory. As a result, the first colonial enterprises abroad were extremely hesitant: a Treaty of Friendship between the German Empire and Tonga  [ de ] was signed in 1876, which provided for

27072-407: The other hand, is not sufficiently developed to be able to undertake the task of firmly protecting distant states. He also repeatedly stated "... I am no man for colonies" The policy of the North German Confederation at this time focussed on the acquisition of individual naval bases , not colonies. With these it would be able to use gunboat diplomacy to protect the global trade interests of

27260-436: The overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire . Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck . Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built

27448-414: The perceived unfairness of the system for Hutu. Before 1956, the monarchy and prominent Tutsi had been relaxed about the timeline of independence, convinced that full power would be transferred to them from the Belgians in due course. Alarmed at the growing influence of the Hutu and the tensions between the groups, they began campaigning in late 1956 for a rapid transition to independence. King Rudahigwa and

27636-459: The poor quality of work. In 1894, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that corvée violated the state constitution, and in 1913 Alabama became one of the last states to abolish it. The government of Myanmar is well known for its use of the corvée and has defended the practice in its official newspapers. In Bhutan , the driglam namzha calls for citizens to do work, such as dzong construction, in lieu of part of their tax obligation to

27824-471: The previous months of tension. On 2 November, the day after the attack, a Hutu protest occurred in Ndiza , the home of Athanase Gashagaza , the Tutsi chief who was Mbonyumutwa's direct superior. The protest ended peacefully that day, but on 3 November a larger protest took place in the same location, which turned violent. Hutu vigilantes, declaring themselves "for God, the Church, and Rwanda", killed two Tutsi officials and drove Gashagaza into hiding. Mbonyumutwa

28012-414: The protection of Hutu leaders (including Gitera). On 12 November, after Harroy's declaration of a state of emergency, Logiest was appointed Special Military Resident with a mandate to re-establish order in Rwanda. Sensing that independence was imminent, and that UNAR and the Tutsi leadership had the capability of swiftly forcing a Tutsi-dominated independent kingdom, Logiest pushed the country firmly towards

28200-420: The queen mother, an evaluation by independent doctors confirmed the original diagnosis of haemorrhage. There was also speculation in government spheres that he had committed a ritualistic suicide at the behest of his court historians. The Tutsi elite, believing that Rudahigwa was murdered by the church with the help of the Belgians, immediately began a campaign against both. Rudahigwa's brother Kigeli V Ndahindurwa

28388-404: The remaining Tutsi in Rwanda. No further threat was posed by the refugees until the 1990s, when a civil war initiated by the Tutsi-refugee Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) forced the Hutu government into negotiations. This led to a rise in Hutu extremism and the 1994 genocide , in which over 500,000 Tutsi were killed before the RPF took control. The earliest inhabitants of what is now Rwanda were

28576-431: The rift between Tutsi and Hutu deepened. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi during World War I , and the country came under Belgian control in a 1919 League of Nations mandate , named Ruanda-Urundi . Although Belgium initially continued the German method of government through the monarchy, in 1926, it began a policy of direct colonial rule in line with the norm in the Congo. Reforms included simplifying

28764-406: The royal drum, one of the monarchy's most potent symbols. Rudahigwa became increasingly fearful, smuggling the drum out of the country and drinking heavily. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in July 1959 while seeking medical treatment in Usumbura , Burundi. Many Rwandans believed that Rudahigwa was lethally injected by the Belgians; although an autopsy was never performed because of objections from

28952-445: The state. In Rwanda , the centuries-old tradition of umuganda , or community labour, still continues, usually in the form of one Saturday a month when citizens are required to perform work. Vietnam maintained corvée for females (ages 18–35) and males (ages 18–45) of 10 days yearly for public works at the discretion of the authorities. This was termed labour duty ( Vietnamese : nghĩa vụ lao động ). However, in 2006,

29140-410: The state. If called to work, citizens could pay in cash or kind to discharge their obligations in some cases. In the Maurya and post-Maurya time period, forced labour had become a regular source of income for the state. Written evidence shows rulers granting lands and villages with and without the right to forced labour from workers of those lands. A corvée-style system called soyōchō ( 租庸調 )

29328-482: The subsequent Tutsi "coup" against the Belgians, saw PARMEHUTU gain a decisive lead in popularity over Joseph Gitera's APROSOMA, as well as the Tutsi UNAR. APROSOMA favoured an inclusive approach to Rwandan nationalism, at a time when authoritarian Tutsi rule was fuelling the anti-Tutsi sentiment among the Hutu. PARMEHUTU's ascendancy was further enhanced following the November violence, when Guy Logiest appointed interim leaders primarily from that party, allowing them to set

29516-402: The subsequent fighting between Hutu and Tutsi began the revolution, but according to Carney it was the Belgian response which ensured that it would result in a permanent reversal in the role of the two groups, with the Hutu emerging in power. The single biggest decision maker in this response was Colonel Guy Logiest , a Belgian army colonel working in the Congo with the Force Publique . Logiest

29704-410: The territory to Germany , with imprecise boundaries. When Gustav Adolf von Götzen explored the country ten years later, he discovered that the Kingdom of Rwanda included a fertile region east of Lake Kivu . Germany wanted this region, which was also claimed by Leopold II as part of his own Congo Free State (annexed by Belgium to form the Belgian Congo in 1908). To justify its claim, Germany began

29892-517: The theory that the Germans had the handicap of trying to colonize African areas inhabited by aggressive tribes, whereas their colonial neighbors had more docile peoples to contend with. At that time, the German penchant for giving muscle priority over patience contributed to continued unrest. Several of the African colonies remained powder kegs throughout this phase (and beyond). After 1885, Bismarck opposed further colonial acquisitions and maintained his policy focus on maintaining good relationships with

30080-467: The third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French . The German colonial empire encompassed parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day Burundi , Rwanda , Tanzania , Namibia , Cameroon , Gabon , Congo , Central African Republic , Chad , Nigeria , Togo , Ghana , as well as northeastern New Guinea , Samoa and numerous Micronesian islands. Germany lost control of most of its colonial empire at

30268-417: The third-largest colonial empire, after the British and French empires . Following the British model, Bismarck placed many possessions of German merchants under the protection of the German empire. He took advantage of a period of foreign peace to begin the "colonial experiment", which he remained skeptical of. The transition to official acceptance of colonialism and to colonial government thus occurred during

30456-430: The treaties often remained unclear to them due to the language barrier. They engaged with these deals, however, because the long negotiations with the colonizers and the ritual act of signing a treaty enormously enhanced their authority. These treaties were approved by the German government, which granted complete authority without oversight to the colonial companies, while retaining for itself only ultimate sovereignty and

30644-461: The violence. Despite the UN suggestion to postpone the elections, Belgian authorities pressed ahead and they were held in June and July. The result was an overwhelming victory for PARMEHUTU, which took 160 of 229 seats; Tutsi parties controlled only 19. The communal authorities immediately took local power from the traditional chiefs; many implemented feudal policies similar to that of the Tutsi elite, but favouring Hutu rather than Tutsi. Although after

30832-403: The war; a cash economy grew, and with it the demand for labourers in the Congolese mines of Katanga and the coffee and sugar plantations of Uganda. There was a simultaneous shift in the Catholic Church; prominent figures in the early Rwandan church, who were from a wealthy and conservative background (such as Léon-Paul Classe ), were replaced by younger clergy of working-class origin. Of these,

31020-504: The whole country by mid-July. As of 2023 Kagame and the RPF remain in control, restoring growth in Rwanda's economy, its number of tourists and the country's Human Development Index . [REDACTED] Media related to Rwandan Revolution at Wikimedia Commons German colonial empire Swahili , Rwanda-Rundi (Burundi, Rwanda, Buha kingdom in Tanzania), Papuan , Samoan (in New Guinea and Samoa ) The German colonial empire ( German : Deutsches Kolonialreich ) constituted

31208-404: The working day was considered the time required for the production of an average daily product, "and that average daily product is determined in so crafty a way that no Cyclops would be done with it in 24 hours." The corvée code was supposed to abolish serfdom, but did not achieve anything toward this goal. A land reform took place in 1864, after the Danubian Principalities unified and formed

31396-476: Was "released from carrying out the part of his task concerned with identification of overseas settlements suitable for Prussian settlement." Despite this, one ship from the expedition, the Thetis was sent to Patagonia in South America to investigate its prospects as a colony, since the Prussian naval command in particular were interested in the establishment of a naval strong point on the South American coast. The Thetis had already reached Buenos Aires which

31584-416: Was a Travail, Fidélité, Progrès (TRAFIPRO) food-cooperative board member, edited the pro-Hutu Catholic magazine Kinyamateka , and founded the Mouvement Social Muhutu (MSM). The second major figure of the Hutu elite was Joseph Gitera , another ex-seminarian based in the south of the country who had left the seminary to establish a small brickworks . Gitera founded the Association for Social Promotion of

31772-411: Was a daily fine of one and a half reales . In 1884, the required amount of labour was reduced to 15 days. The system was patterned after the repartimento system for forced labour in Spanish America . In Portuguese Africa (e.g. Mozambique ), the Native Labour Regulations of 1899 stated that all able bodied men must work for six months of every year, and that "[t]hey have full liberty to choose

31960-399: Was a founding member of the New Guinea Consortium for the acquisition of colonies in New Guinea and the Pacific in 1882. In November 1882, the Bremen -based tobacco merchant Adolf Lüderitz contacted the Foreign Office and requested protection for a trade station south of Walvis Bay on the southwest African coast. In February and November 1883, he asked the British government whether

32148-522: Was a personal friend of Ruanda-Urundi governor Jean-Paul Harroy , and had already been asked, before the start of the revolution, to come to Rwanda to evaluate Belgium's military options in the colony. Following the outbreak of violence, Logiest accelerated his departure from the Congo, arriving in Rwanda on 4 November. Logiest arrived with a number of soldiers and paratroopers and was tasked with re-establishing civil order. A devout Catholic, and politically social democratic, Logiest decided early on to favour

32336-477: Was accompanied by a growth of scholarly interest in Africa. In 1845, the orientalist Heinrich Leberecht Fleischer of Leipzig University and others founded the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft . The linguist Hans Stumme , also of Leipzig, researched African languages. Leipzig established a professorship of Anthropology, Ethnography, and Pre-history in 1901 ( Karl Weule , who established an ethnological and biological determinist school of African research) and

32524-400: Was also active in the Pacific, annexing a series of islands that would be called German New Guinea (part of present-day Papua New Guinea and several nearby island groups). The northeastern region of the island of New Guinea was called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland; the Bismarck Archipelago to the islands' east also contained two larger islands named New Mecklenburg and New Pomerania. They also acquired

32712-402: Was among the dead. Many of those arrested were brought to the King's palace at Nyanza, where they were tortured by UNAR officials. Gregoire Kayibanda was in hiding at the time, so was not captured. On 9 and 10 November, Kigeli's troops attacked the hill at Save , close to Astrida, aiming to reach Gitera's home and capture the APROSOMA leader. Gitera responded by assembling his own forces to defend

32900-402: Was attacked after attending mass with his wife at a church close to his home in Byimana , Gitarama Province . The attackers were nine members of UNAR's youth wing, exacting retribution for Mbonyumutwa's refusal to sign a UNAR protest letter, condemning the Belgian removal of the three Tutsi chiefs. The attackers initially engaged Mbonyumutwa in conversation regarding his increasing influence as

33088-449: Was concluded in the name of Lüderitz with the Zulu king Dinuzulu , which would have given Germany a claim to St Lucia Bay in Zululand. However, the claim was dropped as part of a concession to Britain in May 1885, along with a claim to Pondoland . Also in 1885, Germany waived its claim to the west African territories of Kapitaï and Koba and Mahinland , in favor of France and Britain respectively. In 1886, Germany and Britain agreed on

33276-403: Was essential to the feudal system of the Habsburg monarchy and later Austrian Empire , and most German states that belonged to the Holy Roman Empire . Farmers and peasants were obliged to do hard agricultural work for their nobility, typically six months of the year. When a cash economy became established, the duty was gradually replaced by the duty to pay taxes. After the Thirty Years' War ,

33464-401: Was fearful that allowing the Tutsi to arm would escalate the crisis into full-scale civil war. Despite this refusal, Kigeli launched a counterattack against the rioters on 7 November, Mobilising thousands of loyal militia, Kigeli ordered the arrest or killing of a number of prominent Hutu leaders in the hope of quashing the peasant revolt; Joseph Gitera's brother, a prominent member of APROSOMA,

33652-421: Was fertile and densely populated, with its kingdoms strictly controlled socially. The Kingdom of Rwanda , ruled by the Tutsi Nyiginya clan, became increasingly dominant beginning in the mid-18th century. From its origins as a small toparchy near Lake Muhazi the kingdom expanded through conquest and assimilation, reaching its zenith under King ( Mwami ) Kigeli Rwabugiri between 1853 and 1895. Rwabugiri expanded

33840-414: Was found in pre-modern Japan. During the 1930s, it was common practice to import corvée labourers from both China and Korea to work in coal mines. This practice continued until the end of World War II . France annexed Madagascar as a colony in the late 19th century. Governor-General Joseph Gallieni implemented a hybrid corvée and poll tax system, partly for revenue, partly for labour resources as

34028-441: Was founded, which included the "acquisition of agricultural and commercial colonies for the German Empire" in its founding statute. In 1882, the first Society for German Colonization  [ de ] was established, which was a lobby group for colonialist propaganda. In 1887, the competing Society for German Colonization was established with the goal of actually undertaking colonization. The two societies merged in 1887 into

34216-425: Was installed, without Belgian involvement and against their wishes; Linden and Linden have described this succession as a "minor Tutsi coup ". After Kigeli V's coronation, several Tutsi chiefs and palace officials desiring rapid independence formed the Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR) party. Although UNAR was pro-monarchy, it was not controlled by the monarch; the party was anti-Belgian, which attracted support from

34404-414: Was later used by Czech writer Karel Čapek , who after a recommendation by his brother Josef Čapek introduced the word robot for (originally anthropomorphic) machines that do unpaid work for their owners in his 1920 play R.U.R. In France corvée existed until 4 August 1789, shortly after the beginning of the French Revolution, when it was abolished along with a number of other feudal privileges of

34592-530: Was named as his replacement. The protests quickly turned to riots, with Hutu gangs moving through the district attacking Tutsi homes as they went. The violence at this stage consisting primarily of arson rather than killing, except in cases where the Tutsi tried to fight back. First in Ndiza and then across the country, Hutu burned Tutsi homes to the ground primarily by igniting paraffin , a product widely available in Rwanda for use in lamps. Made homeless, many Tutsi sought refuge in Catholic Church missions and with

34780-492: Was postponed until Egypt had paid off its foreign debts. During the 19th century corvée had expanded into a national program. It was favoured for short-term projects such as building irrigation works and dams. However, Nile Delta landowners replaced it with cheap temporary labour recruited from Upper Egypt . As a result, it was used only in scattered locales, and even then there was peasant resistance. It began to disappear as Egypt modernized after 1860, and had fully vanished by

34968-402: Was the fear of tariffs that Hamburg traders might have to pay if the whole of West Africa were to come under British or French control. Finally, a secret request from the Chamber of Commerce to Bismarck for the establishment of a colony in West Africa was submitted on 6 July 1883, stating that "through such acquisitions, German trade in Trans-Atlantic lands could only be given a firmer position and

35156-434: Was widespread throughout history before the Industrial Revolution . The term is most typically used in reference to medieval and early modern Europe , where work was often expected by a feudal landowner of their vassals, or by a monarch of their subjects. The application of the term is not limited to feudal Europe; corvée has also existed in modern and ancient Egypt , ancient Sumer , ancient Rome , China , Japan ,

35344-401: Was wrong in being so partial against the Tutsi and that I was leading Rwanda on a road towards democratisation whose end was distant and uncertain"; but he defended his actions, saying "it was probably the desire to put down the morgue and expose the duplicity of a basically oppressive and unjust aristocracy". After Kigeli and UNAR's retaliation against the Hutu, Logiest and his troops prioritised

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