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"The Horror, The Horror, The Horror." The German Colonization of East Africa by one of the Most Controversial Figures of European Colonization, Exiled to London and Pardoned Posthumously by Adolf Hitler. 

Original antique map showing East Africa and the route taken by the German explorer Carl Peters. This scarce map was included in the English translation of Peters's work (published in the same year as the German original), named New Light on Dark Africa, although most editions today are found lacking the map.

The map shows the region from the Indian Ocean inland to the vicinity of Lake Victoria, showing the region now part of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. This part of the continent remained little mapped until the systematic surveying undertaken by German scientists in conjunction with colonization efforts. The map shows a number of rivers, settlements, lakes, and more around the region. Some of the regions shown are recently renamed by the German colonizers, including the Kaiser Wilhelm II Mountains and the Friedrich Franz Mountains.

The map shows the line of an Anglo-German treaty that extended the German sphere of influence only south of Lake Victoria. Carl Peters's route up the Tana River is marked, along with a number of points of importance and all the locations at which Peters planted a German flag - an overt act of defiance against the British authorities.

The Emin Pasha Expedition

This map shows the route of Peters's 1888 expedition that was purportedly undertaken to support the German-born Ottoman ruler of the region, "Emin" Pasha. Cuttoff from the rest of the world by an Islamic revolt, his letters managed to arrive back in Europe where he gained popular support. A British expedition by Henry Morton Stanley was sent up the Congo River to relieve the Emin, as was Carl Peters.

However, once in Africa, Peters made the true intention of his expedition apparent. He was there to try to grow German influence in Uganda and Equatoria in an unsanctioned expedition, viewed by local British authorities as an illegal military encroachment. In 1890, Peters negotiated a treaty with the king of Uganda, and he cemented German rule in the region.

Returning to Germany triumphant, Peters published his Die Deutsche Emin Pasha Expedition, translated into English as New Light in Dark Africa, which included this map to show the route of his expedition.

Dr. Carl Peters

Carl Peters was a stringent proponent of German colonization, being the founder of the Society for German Colonization and a staunch nationalist. Just before the Berlin Conference in 1884, he traveled to East Africa to try and renegotiate treaties with local tribes, which Otto von Bismarck disapproved of as this latter feared for Anglo-German relations. However, Peters forced von Bismarck's hand by offering to sell the negotiated lands to King Leopold II.

Over the next few years, Peters further established himself as the foremost proponent of German colonization of East Africa and negotiated further treaties - often without Bismarck's approval - that cemented Germany as a colonial power in the region.

As a reward for his efforts, Peters was appointed as the Imperial High Commissioner for the Kilimanjaro Region. By 1896, however, he had made a name for himself as too brutal even for European imperialist sensibilities to handle, and he reached a breaking point when he executed one of his concubines and her lover and razed both of their villages. He was recalled to Berlin but fled to London before he could be tried. He spent the rest of his career involved in Rhodesia and was pardoned posthumously by Hitler.