German Colonies.—At the commencement of the war these had a total area of 1,134,239 square miles, with a population of about 14,890,000, of whom 24,170 (including garrison and police) were whites. Of these whites about 18,500 were settled Germans.

The following is a list of the principal colonies and regions under the protection or influence of Germany, with approximate estimates of area and population:

Colonies
and
Dependencies		Date
of
Acquisition		Method of
Government		Estimated
Area
Sq. Miles		Estimated
Population
In Africa
Togoland1884 Imperial Governor 33,700 1,000,000
Kamerun1884Imperial Governor191,1303,000,000
German South West Africa1884-1890Imperial Governor322,450120,000
German East Africa1885-1890Imperial Governor384,18010,000,000
Total African Possessions1884-1890 931,460 14,120,000
In Asia
Kiauchau Bay1897 Imperial Governor 200 33,000
In the Pacific
German New Guinea
Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land1885-1886 -Imperial Governor- 70,000 -300,000
Bismarck Archipelago188520,000
Caroline Islands1899...
Palau or Pelew Islands1899560 -56,000
Marianne Islands1899250
Solomon Islands18864,200
Marshall Islands, etc.1886150
Samoan Islands
Savii1899 -Imperial Governor- 660 -37,000
Upolu1899340
Total Pacific Possessions1884-1899 96,160 393,000

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, BERLIN

HISTORY OF GERMANY

The earliest information we have of the Germans, the peoples and the tribes who dwelt among the dense forests that stretched from the Rhine to the Vistula and from the Danube to the Baltic Sea, comes to us from the Romans.

First Contact with Romans.—The first tribes of Germanic race to come into collision with the arms of Rome were the Cimbri and Teutones, who in 113 B. C. had invaded Styria, and there met with defeat from the troops of the consul Papirius. When in 58 B. C. Cæsar began his campaigns in Gaul, he found several hordes of Germans, mostly Marcomanni and Suevi, settled between the Rhine and the Vosges, and even on the western side of these hills.

Appealed to by the Gauls of those regions to free them from their German oppressors, Cæsar inflicted a crushing defeat upon their ambitious chieftain, Ariovistus, and chased him and his followers across the Rhine. In the period 166-74 Aurelius was engaged in beating back a formidable incursion of the Marcomanni and Quadi into Roman territory. From the third century we no longer read of single tribes, but of great confederations of tribes, as the Goths, Alemanni, Franks, Frisians, Saxons, Thuringians, and others. Of the history of Germany itself we learn little more that is authentic until we come down to the times of the Franks, by whom the kingdoms of France and Germany were subsequently formed.