Allied Occupation of the Former German Colonies 1914 - 1922
This web page contains links to the content of the exhibit pages for the exhibit
'Allied Occupation of the Former German Colonies 1914 - 1922' by Al Kugel.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Germany had ten colonies spread around in Africa, on the Chinese mainland and in the Pacific. The Allies considered it important to capture these territories, both for political reasons and to deny the Germans bases for potential aggressive action.
In particular, they were concerned about the long-range radio stations which could give instructions to the commerce raiders on the high seas. As a result, plans were drawn up for the invasion of these territories. The results were mixed, with no real resistance in the Pacific colonies, a few months for Kiauchau and Togo, and a year or more for the Cameroons and South West Africa. Only in East Africa were the Germans able to continue their military activity throughout the entire war, albeit on a guerrilla basis in 1917 and 1918, thus tying down up to 100,000 or more Allied troops needed on other fronts.
This exhibit tells the story of the Allied activity in the colonies through contemporary postal material, starting with first attacks and continuing through the occupation and immediate postwar periods, including the disposition of the colonies by the Peace Commission.
This exhibit was created by, and is the property of the late Al Kugel, and is being supplied by his heirs as a courtesy to the Military Postal History Society. (See the MPHS webpage) The Military Postal History Society (MPHS) is a non-profit organization for philatelists and stamp collectors interested in the collecting and studying of the postal aspects of all wars and military actions of all countries, including soldiers' campaign covers, naval mail, occupation and internment covers, patriotics, propaganda, V-mail, censorship and similar related material.
This exhibit, created by the late Al Kugel, is made up of 10 frames, each frame containing 16 pages. Due to their size, each frame is available as a separate searchable PDF file. (See the PDF information page for additional help with this file format.)
All pages of the Exhibit of the Allied Occupation of the Former German Colonies in web format
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Updated 6 July 2026