![[RV prac/history/rwanda/_resources/Pasted image 20240902093304.png]]
German rule 1884-1919
Germany occupied the area known as ==German East Africa==, consisted of the present-day countries of Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
In 1894, the German explorer ==Gustay Adolf von Götzen== was probably the first European to explore the modern-day country of Rwanda.
The ==rebellion of 1905== was caused by the Kaiser’s attempt to let the local residents to grow cotton, a cash crop for export profit.
At the ==Paris Peace conference==, the ==Treaty of Versailles== took away all Germany’s colonies in Africa and gave %%the bulk of German East Africa to Britain and %%the north-western area to Belgium.
Belgian rule 1919-1962
Rwanda came under Belgian rule in 1919. The ethnic divide in Rwanda is essentially a myth cultivated by the early Europeans and used as a means to exercise control.
Promulgated History
The European promulgated a version of history that emphasized the supremacy of Tutsi, and reinforced social stereotypes. This laid the ground for the genocide.
Education
Belgians offered special treatment to the Tutsi, who were taught mathematics in elementary school. Hutu children were offered singing classes and natural sciences, which were compulsory for the Tutsi but optional for Hutu children. Tutsi children were educated in French but Hutu children in the local language, Kinyarwanda. It was all part of helping the Tutsi in their social advancement - and serving the needs of the Belgian colonial masters in the administration of their mandate.
Reinforced Identity
Significantly for the future genocide, following a census in 1933, the Belgians imposed an identity card system which classifed the ethnicity of each person. After this, a person’s ethnic identity was designated for life -or death.
-> link to long term cause: [[RV prac/history/rwanda/themes/cause of genocide(civil war)|cause of genocide(civil war)]]
The Rwanda revolution and independence 1959-62
First Conflict 1959
In 1957 the Hutus formed ==PARMEHUTU==, the largest party for Hutu emancipation. In 1959 the Tutsi formed the ==National Rwandese Union (UNAR)==, trying to put distance between themselves and their former colonial rulers. After ==King Mutari lll== died in July 1959, a period of ethnic violence broke out, following the beating of a Hutu politician by Tutsi groups. What followed was a foretaste of what was to come three decades later, Hutu masses staged an uprising under PARMEHUTU direction. Belgium government was accused by the Tusti of assisting the Hutu in the violence.
-> link to long term cause: [[RV prac/history/rwanda/themes/cause of genocide(civil war)|cause of genocide(civil war)]]
Consequence
The would-be king (Kigeli V) was deposed and fled the country along with thousands of Tutsi refugees, and a provisional Hutu government was installed.
Estimates of the dead in this period vary from 10,000 to 100,000, nearly all of them were Tutsi, and this became Rwanda’s first ethnically driven conflict.
Many Tutsi fled to refugee settlements in the neighbouring countries of Zaire, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi and from these exiled groups rose ==Tutsi rebel movements (the “children of ’59”)==. One of these rebel groups was the ==Rwandan Patriotic Front (the RPF)== later to be led by ==Paul Kagame==.
What impacts did the colonial era have on Ruanda-Urundi?
The impacts included:
- the weakening and limitation of the power of the king and the local chiefs
- close collaboration between Belgian colonial authorities, the church and missionaries
- political power being given largely to the Tutsi
- the introduction of identity cards with ethnicity designated
- the large-scale conversion of the people to Christianity
- the establishment of formal education and the construction of schools along Western lines
- the creation of political parties
- the introduction of new crops such as cassava and a forced labour system
- refugee Rwandans fleeing to Uganda and elsewhere
- elections in 1961 and independence on 1 July 1962.