Hello and welcome to the fourth lesson in this unit on World War I.

In the course of this unit, we're going to be answering the inquiry question, how total was it for people across the British Empire? In the course of this unit, we're going to be looking at lots of different things, including the international tension that was building up in Europe, how that led to the outbreak of war, but also how the war impacted people across the British Empire, but also in Britain.

However, for today's lesson, we're just going to be focusing on World War I in the colonies.

For this lesson, you're going to need a pen and paper.

If you don't have one, that's absolutely fine.

Just pause the video now, go and grab everything you need and then come back and press play when you're ready to start the lesson.

Great.

Now we're ready to go.

As you can see, we've got our lesson outcome on this slide.

By the end of this lesson, you can explain the contribution of colonial troops to the First World War, and the war was fought across the British Empire.

Now, in order to achieve this lesson outcome, we're going to need some keywords.

For this lesson, we've only got three, empire, colony, and siege.

Before we see these words in context, it's going to be a really good idea to have a look at some definitions just to get us started.

So an empire is a group of countries or provinces ruled from another country by one person or a group of people.

In this case, we'll be looking at a variety of empires, including the British and German empires.

A colony is a country or area under the control of another country and occupied by settlers from that country.

So today's lesson, remember, we're looking at war in the colonies, so we're looking at war in a country or area under the control of another country.

And then finally, a siege is a military operation in which an army forces an area to surrender by cutting off access to essential supplies.

Now we've had a look at a few definitions we can get started on today's lesson.

Our lesson for today is broken down into three parts.

The first part of the lesson looks at the First Battle of Garoua in 1914.

Now though war was declared between European powers in 1914, it would impact people and take troops from across the world.

This was because many of these European powers had empires and these empires had colonies that stretched across the globe.

Now, each of these European empires knew that they would need their colonies if they hoped to win the war.

This was because their colonies provided money, resources, land, labour, and most importantly, troops.

Now, if we have a look at this map here, we can see the German example.

In the light green colour.

We can see Germany highlighted in Europe and in the darker green shade, we can see Germany's colonies across the world.

These colonies will provide money, land, and resources to Germany, and in turn, support the German war effort.

However, on the flip side of this, empires knew that if they were to attack another empire's colonies, they would therefore weaken their war effort.

That's because they knew how important their colonies were to them, and therefore, if another empire was to lose the support of their colony, they knew that that would be a detrimental loss to them.

Now, before we see how this played out in World War I, let's pause and take a moment to check our understanding so far.

Why did empires target each other's colonies in World War I? Was it A, empires needed their colonies to support the war effort, B, empires each needed more colonies that were rich in gold and oil, or C, empires did not target each other's colonies in World War I.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come back and press play when you've got an idea.

Excellent work, it's A.

Empires each needed their colonies to support their war effort.

We know that they needed the colonies to provide money, land, resources, and most importantly, troops.

Yes, colonies that were rich in gold and oil will have helped, but they needed them to support their war efforts, so that alone wasn't enough.

And we know that empires did in fact target each other's colonies in World War I as a way of weakening their enemies' empire.

Now let's have a look at how this plan to attack their enemies' colonies played out.

If you have a look at the slide here, you'll see local African and British troops in German West Africa.

Now you might be wondering, what on earth do local African troops and British troops have to do in German West Africa in 1914? Now the clue is in everything we've learned about so far.

Remember, these European empires were looking to weaken the empires of their enemy in the hope of winning the war in Europe.

One of the easiest points to attack was German West Africa, because it was made up of two poorly defended colonies, Togoland and Kamerun.

Today, they're the independent nations of Togo and Kamerun.

Only three days after Britain declared war in Germany, the Gold Coast Regiment, a British colonial force from what is now Ghana, was sent to invade the German Togoland.

And with very little resistance, Togoland was quickly taken by the British forces whose attention now turned to the German colony of Kamerun.

We can see these troops here united having just fought against the German army.

Now having turned their attention to Kamerun, they found it defended by 1,000 German troops and 3,000 locally recruited troops.

The British forces, however, were made up of troops from the colony of Nigeria that's now modern day Nigeria and the Gold Coast Regiment.

And they were later joined by troops from British India.

So it wasn't just local troops that were fighting in their own colonies, but troops from other colonies who travelled across the British Empire.

The British forces outnumbered the German troops, and so they expected an easy victory at what became known as the Battle of Garoua in 1914.

However, when the British joined the French to take the German fort, they were shocked when the German forces recaptured the fort and killed a British officer.

However, after learning from their mistakes, they launched another attack and then they successfully took control of the port.

And thus the first battle of Garoua was eventually won by the British.

However, the battle for German Kamerun continued for another two years, because despite the eventual British victory, German forces continued to put up resistance.

However, this resistance came to an end in February, 1916 when the last surviving German Post surrendered.

This moment in February, 1916, brought an end to German Kamerun.

With no colonies left in West Africa, the German force was severely weakened across the world.

This was a huge turning point in the war and just wouldn't have been possible without the contributions of soldiers from colonial Nigeria and the Gold Coast colony, what is now Nigeria and Ghana.

Now let's have a look at a quick question to check our understanding before we put our learning into practise.

Which of the following was not a colony in German West Africa? Was it A, the Gold Coast, B, Togoland, or C, Kamerun? Note that the question is asking, which one was not a colony in German West Africa? Pause the video, have a think, press play when you've made a decision.

Excellent work, well done.

The Gold Coast was not a colony in German West Africa, the Gold Coast Regiment, now part of modern day Ghana, was a British colony.

Togoland and Kamerun were the two German colonies that made up what was known as German West Africa.

They were the two poorly defended colonies that Britain decided to attack within only three days of World War I breaking out.

Now, let's put what we've learned into practise.

I would like you to write a short account of the first Battle of Garoua in 1914.

In your account, I would like you to make sure that you use the following terms, Togoland, Kamerun, fort, resistance, and surrender.

Pause the video, give yourself five to 10 minutes to write your short account, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at what your answer could have looked like.

"After German Togoland surrendered, the British forces made up of troops from the Gold Coast and Nigerian colonies looked to take control of the German colony of Kamerun as well.

Even though the 4,000 troops defending Kamerun were greatly outnumbered by the British army, they were able to recapture the fort.

After nearly two years of resistance, the German army eventually surrendered in February, 1916." Now this would've been great, because you can see here the use of one of our keywords as well, colony.

You've done absolutely fantastic so far.

Let's get into the second part of the lesson.

In the second part of the lesson, we're going to be moving our focus eastwards and looking at the siege of Tsingtao.

Now, if we have a look at this map, it shows us Germany and the German colonies that existed in 1914.

If we focus our attention eastwards and look really closely, we'll find an important German colony known as Qingdao in China.

Although this was a small colony, it was a very important colony for Germany.

It helped them maintain their influence in China.

However, as the war broke out and Britain was looking to weaken Germany's influence around the world, they also turned their attention to Qingdao, as did Japan.

Now, the reason that this would become another battle site for the war wasn't just because Britain turned their attention to China, but because Japan saw an opportunity to expand their own empire all in the name of supporting an ally.

What this meant was Japan would say that they were helping Britain, and they would say that they're supporting an ally, that they were doing so largely because they would benefit from expanding their own influence in China if they were to successfully take Qingdao from Germany.

As a result of this, on the 23rd of August, 1914, Japan declared war on Germany, and in only eight days, a force of 20,000 Japanese troops were ready to begin a siege on the port of Tsingtao.

Now remember, a siege is when one military force surrounds another and attempts to force 'em to surrender by cutting off their supplies.

And that's essentially what the Japanese planned to do at the port of Tsingtao.

And they weren't in this plan alone, because Britain had sent a force of 1,500 Welsh and Indian soldiers to fight alongside the Japanese.

And although the German forces were completely outnumbered, they held out until the 7th of November, 1914.

That's three months on from when the Japanese launched their attack.

However, they eventually surrendered and handed over control of the port to the Japanese.

If we have a look at this slide here, we can see Welsh and Indian troops arriving to the port of Tsingtao to help the Japanese.

Now remember, although this was a plan initially proposed by the British to weaken the German forces in China, it was supported by the Japanese, because they saw an opportunity to expand their own empire in the name of helping an ally that they in turn would gain control of land in China.

So as a result of the war in the colonies, we see other countries getting involved in the war, because Japan had not declared war until late August, 1914 when they prepared to launch the siege of Tsingtao.

Now let's take a moment to check our understanding of this part of the lesson.

True or false? Japan led the siege of Tsingtao as it provided them with an opportunity.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come back when you've got an idea.

Great work.

Well done, the answer is true.

Now we need to think about why.

So I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it true, because A, the siege allowed Japan to expand their empire? Remember, an empire is when one ruler or country controls other countries or provinces, or B, the siege allowed them to help expand the British Empire.

Pause the video, have a think, and come back when you've got an answer.

Excellent work.

It is true that Japan led the siege of Tsingtao as it provided them with an opportunity.

The opportunity was for them to expand their own empire.

Remember that the war in the colonies wasn't just British forces trying to weaken the German army, who also led the involvement of other European nations to expand their own empires in the process.

Now let's have another look at a question just to further check our understanding.

Which two of the following statements best describe why the siege Tsingtao was important in World War I? A, because it meant Japan joined the World War, B, because it meant Japan became less powerful, C, it meant the German navy lost an important port in Asia, or D, it meant Japanese troops came to fight on the Western Front.

Now pause the video, have a think, and then come back and press play when you're done.

Excellent work.

You can see the two correct statements here.

We know that the siege of Tsingtao was important, because it meant that Japan joined the war.

Although they were not part of the Triple Entente, which was a formal alliance between Britain, France, and Russia, we do know that they joined the war in support of Britain and were therefore on the side of the British, French, and Russian troops, further strengthening their military alliance.

We also know that the siege was important as it meant that the German navy lost an important port in Asia.

As we have seen so far, colonies were very important for the European empires fighting in World War I, as they would provide money, land, resources, and more importantly, troops.

For Germany to have lost control in West Africa and now to have lost important port in Asia, this would have a huge impact on their military strength.

Now that we've checked our understanding, let's put into practise what we've learned so far.

I would like you to fill in the blanks and explain how the siege of Tsingtao brought Japan into World War I.

Give yourself five minutes to complete the paragraph, so you can pause the video now, complete the task, and press play when you're done.

You've done absolutely brilliant work this lesson.

Let's have a look at what your completed paragraph should look like.

"Although Japan was not part of the Triple Entente, they were an ally of Britain.

This meant that when Britain wanted to attack Germany's colony in China, Japan offered their support.

However, Japan were also willing to get involved in the war as it provided an opportunity for them to take control of land in China to expand their empire." And as you can see, we've even used two keywords here in our paragraph.

Really well done.

Let's move on to the third and final part of today's lesson.

In the final part of our lesson, we're going to be looking at what became known as the East Africa campaign, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, which was the entire duration of the war.

So we're probably very familiar with this map by now.

We can see Germany and Germany's colonies across the world in 1914.

We already know from the late 1800s, Germany not only controlled parts of China, but also had colonies across Africa.

We've already spoken about the defeat of German West Africa with the support of troops from the colony of Nigeria and the Gold Coast colony.

However, South African troops also fought for the British army and forced the German army in South West Africa to surrender by the summer of 1915.

However, we are now going to turn our attention to German East Africa.

Now in German East Africa, from 1914 to 1918, 125,000 troops from across the British Empire were used to try and force the German army in East Africa to surrender.

Now, the German East African army was made up of only 25,000 men.

So this was assumed to be a quick and easy defeat.

But as we already know, the East Africa Campaign went on for the full four years of World War I.

In this photo, we can see local East African troops fighting for Britain in the East Africa Campaign.

And although this isn't a photograph of the battleground itself, the conditions truly were brutal.

In 1918, a group of locally recruited East African troops marched 1,600 miles over four months, crossing 29 rivers, fighting at least 30 battles.

The East Africa Campaign was different from the Western Front.

There were no battles on the same scale as the battle of the (indistinct), which went on for months.

However, there were still many moments that were just as fatal.

For example, it is estimated that up to half of the 5,000 men who fought in the Battle of Mahiwa and Nyangao were killed in the four days of fighting, these 5,000 troops were soldiers from the Nigerian brigade, local East Africa recruits and one regiment from British Africa.

Now, by the end of the war, we know that the campaign was successful.

They did successfully weaken the German forces.

However, this came at a huge cost.

According to official records, so it is likely that the actual figures are probably slightly higher, if not significantly higher.

Over 105,000 colonial troops lost their lives fighting for the British against Germany East Africa.

More than 45,000 of these troops were from modern day Kenya, and it wasn't just the troops that suffered.

It was estimated that around 300,000 civilians in East Africa also died as a direct result of World War I.

So we know that the East Africa Campaign was different.

The battles were shorter, where battles on the Western front may have lasted for months.

Some of the battles in the East Africa Campaign may have only lasted for a number of days.

However, the human cost of the war was just as high.

Civilians were dying at incredibly high rates and local troops were losing their lives in the tens of thousands.

Now, before we look into our final practise task of today, we're gonna have a look at a quick question just to check our understanding.

Which of the following statements about the East Africa Campaign is true? Is it A, the battles were similar to the battles on the Western Front in conditions and the number of losses, B, the conditions were similar to the Western Front, but there were fewer losses of men, or C, the conditions were different from the Western Front, but the number of losses were also very high? Pause the video, have a think, and when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Excellent work, the answer is C.

The conditions were different to the Western Front.

Remember, the battles went on for shorter periods of time, and they weren't necessarily fought in trenches.

However, the number of losses was also very high with as many as 105,000 colonial troops losing their lives fighting for the British against Germany East Africa, but also in one particular battle with 5,000 men dying in just four days of fighting.

And it's believed that these soldiers were from the colony of Nigeria as well as being local East African recruits and also a regiment from British India.

Now that we've had a good check for our understanding, let's put what we've learned this lesson into practise.

Have a look at this statement.

"The East Africa campaign lasted for two years, but had little impact on the war or on East Africa itself." This is an incorrect statement.

The first task I would like you to do is to correct this statement by rewriting it using what we have learned.

Give yourself a few minutes just to rewrite this statement so you can now pause the video, have a go at the task, and come back when you're done.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at what your corrected statement might have looked like.

"The East Africa Campaign lasted for four years and had a significant impact on World War I and on East Africa itself." Really well done if you spotted those two errors.

It lasted for four years from 1914 to 1918, and it did indeed have a significant impact on both the war and on East Africa itself.

Now, for the second part of this task, I would like you to firstly have a look again at our corrected statement.

"The East Africa Campaign lasted for four years and had a significant impact on World War I and on East Africa itself." Now, what I would like you to do for the final part of this last practise task is to write a paragraph in support of this statement.

In your paragraph, I would like you to make sure you include the following details.

Weakened German army, 105,000 troops, colony of Kenya, and 300,000 civilians.

Pause the video, give yourself five to 10 minutes to complete this task, and when you're done, come back and press play.

Absolutely fantastic work.

You've done brilliantly this lesson.

Let's have a look at what your final response might have looked like.

"The East Africa Campaign had a significant impact on World War I as the efforts of those fighting for the British successfully weakened the German army.

However, it also had a significant impact on East Africa as there were many fatalities which lowered the population in many parts of East Africa.

It is estimated that 105,000 troops lost their lives in the campaign.

45,000 of these troops were from the colony of Kenya.

It also impacted everyday lives for many people as 300,000 civilians were killed in the fighting." That's a huge loss of life in East Africa.

If you managed to get all four key details in your answer, really well done, because you would've clearly explained that the East Africa Campaign wasn't just important because it successfully weakened the German army, but because of the huge impact it had on East Africa, not just because of the troops that contributed and supported the war effort, but for the huge loss of life.

For example, with the colony of Kenya, as you can see included, with 45,000 troops giving their life in the war effort, that was one in every eight men.

Great work today.

Let's wrap up by looking at a few summary points of what we've learned in this lesson.

So firstly, we've learned that World War I was fought both in Europe and in the colonies of European empires.

We've also learned that colonies were attacked as a way of weakening European powers, which needed the support of their colonies.

So for example, with German West Africa being attacked within only three days of Britain declaring war on Germany.

We've also learned that across Africa, troops were locally recruited to fight for Britain, France, and Germany.

Indian troops were also used to attempt to take control of German colonies.

If you remember, we've heard a few times today the Indian troops supported the effort in both German West Africa and Germany East Africa.

And finally, the war in the colonies involved troops from across several continents.

For example, Japan got involved in the siege of Tsingtao in the hope of expanding their own empire under the name of supporting an ally, Britain.

And this meant that the conflict grew very quickly to become a world war, not just a European war.

Excellent work this lesson.

Really well done.