Extract
A Lake Too Far: The Gunboats of Tanganyika
SYNOPSIS OF PART ONE
As the guns of August 1914 began to consume the European mainland with the first great battles of World War I, a much smaller but no less contentious war soon raged in far off German East Africa to determine which of the embattled colonial powers would control strategically vital Lake Tanganyika - Germany or Belgium? More than 400-mi long, the 4700-ft-deep essentially land-locked lake held the key as to which country would be able to benefit from South Africa's abundance of critical resources. With few roads and even fewer railroads leading to the Indian Ocean ports, water-borne transport was the only realistic method of maintaining a flow of much-needed commodities eastward from the many villages and hamlets ringing Lake Tanganyika.As they embraced the colonization of Africa's teeming tribes and territories, Imperial Germany and Belgium were among the first Western nations to harness the rich potential of South African mines, coffee, and rubber plantations. Established as a G...See the full content of this document
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