Littoral

According to UNESCO, Gustav Nachtigal, sent by Chancellor Bismarck, had the Duala kings Bell and Akwa, and other notables, sign a treaty on 12 July 1884 placing their territories under German protection; the Kamerun protectorate was proclaimed on 19 July. The German administration then linked the port of Douala to the interior with two railway lines whose construction relied heavily on forced labour with high mortality. Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, King of the Duala, who opposed the expropriation of Duala land, was hanged in Douala on 8 August 1914; French and British troops took the city in September 1914, and the territory passed under League of Nations mandate on 20 July 1922.

Official sourceUNESCO – General History of AfricaPublished 1 Jan 1985Verified 6 Sept 2026

Events tied to this region

Events tied to this region
Date	Event	Era	Source
1472	Portuguese contact and the naming of the Rio dos Camarões	Early contact and the Atlantic trade	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1660	Rise of the Duala as a coastal trading power	Early contact and the Atlantic trade	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1830–1860	Transition to so-called "legitimate" commerce	Early contact and the Atlantic trade	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
10 June 1840 – 7 May 1841	Anti-slave-trade treaties signed by Bell and Akwa	Early contact and the Atlantic trade	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
1845 – 1858	Alfred Saker’s Baptist mission and the founding of Victoria	Early contact and the Atlantic trade	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
12 July 1884 – 19 July 1884	The Germano-Duala protection treaty and the proclamation of Kamerun	German Kamerun	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
c. 1909–1914	Railway construction and forced labour	German Kamerun	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
6 August 1914 – 10 March 1916	The Kamerun campaign of the First World War	German Kamerun	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
8 August 1914	Resistance and execution of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell	German Kamerun	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
February 1916 – March 1916	The Picot line and the provisional partition of Kamerun	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
28 June 1919	The Treaty of Versailles confirms the partition of Kamerun	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
20 July 1922	League of Nations mandates over French Cameroun and the British Cameroons	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
1924	The indigénat and forced labour in French Cameroun	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
13 December 1946	Cameroon becomes a UN trust territory	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
10 April 1948	Founding of the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC)	Mandates and trusteeships	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa
May 1955 – January 1971	UPC insurrection and the war in the Bassa and Bamileke regions · Contested	Independence and reunification	Official sourceUNESCO – General History of Africa