Conquest and Lasting Impact

Rwanda originally belonged to a territory known as Ruanda-Urundi, which encompassed the combined area of the modern countries of Rwanda and Burundi (D).  This territory came under German rule in 1885 due to its late unification and pursuit to claim its own piece of “African cake” during the “Scramble for Africa” (C).  Despite this disadvantage, Germany was able to add Ruanda-Urundi as part of its international landscape during the Berlin Conference that formally divided the continent into sections of European colonies.  In reality, Germany had little effect in Ruanda-Urundi.  Apart from allowing Catholic and Protestant missions to establish schools, medical centers, and farms, the most significant impact that the German era possessed was the purposeful identification and distinct separation of the two major ethnic groups in the territory: the Hutu and the Tutsi (C).  German colonizers and the Belgian colonizers that followed assumed that like in their own countries, physical characteristics determined ethnic differences and thus proceeded to create a social system that enhanced the inherent physical differences between them by discouraging intermarriage (D).  The German colonial government which was officially implemented by 1898 then decided to pursue a policy of indirect rule through the Rwandan monarchy already in place (C).  Consequently, the main policy of this German rule was to “strengthen the homogeny of the Tutsi ruling class and the absolutism of its monarchy” (D). 

German rule lasted up until World War I due to its weakened national state.  Therefore, in 1916, Ruanda-Urundi became a UN trust territory under Belgian administration (D).  The League of Nations provided Belgium a League Mandate for the territory in 1923 (D).  After World War II, the League Mandate was replaced by a United Nations trusteeship in 1946 (D).  Overall, Belgian rule had a greater impact on Ruanda-Urundi than Germany did, and in many ways, benefitted it as a whole (C).  For example, agricultural production soared after teams of agricultural specialists spread across the country and taught Hutu farm families how to increase production by using improved seeds and chemical fertilizers (C).  They also taught Hutu men and women how to shape hillsides into terraces to avoid soil erosion (C).  Belgium also invested a great deal of money into the construction of roads, schools, hospitals, and government buildings.  However, the more important and unfortunately negative effect was that Belgians fed the flame of division and ethnic prejudice that Germany had preserved by pursuing the key policy of strengthening the effective control of the Tutsi throughout Ruanda-Urundi (B).