Kamerun Currency & Banknote Values

Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1920 in the region of today’s Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern parts of Chad and far northeastern parts of Nigeria. The first German trading post in the Duala area on the Kamerun River delta was established in 1868 by the Hamburg trading company C. Woermann. The territory was under the informal control of the British Empire throughout the years preceding 1884, with substantial British trading operations as well. Eventually, these companies would begin agitating for royal protection. By 1884, Adolph Woermann, as spokesman for all West African companies, petitioned the imperial foreign office for protection by the German Empire. This led to Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck approving the establishment of a colony. The official beginning of the German protectorate of Kamerun was on 17 August 1884.Gustav Nachtigal had arrived in Duala in July and negotiated a treaty with a number of rulers local to the region around Duala, at that time the center of Germany’s trading operations. Initial government fell to large German trading companies and concession companies who had already established themselves in the colony. By 1890, the German government officially took over the colony.