Cameroun

Cameroun was a French and British mandate territory in central Africa, now constituting the majority of the territory of the Republic of Cameroon.

The area of present-day Cameroon was integrated to French Equatorial Africa (AEF) during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. However, in 1911 France ceded parts of the territory to German Cameroon, known as Neukamerun ("New Kamerun") as a result of the Agadir Crisis, and it became a German protectorate. During World War I, it was occupied by British and French troops, and later mandated to each country by the League of Nations in 1922. The British mandate was known as Cameroons and the French as Cameroun. Following World War II each of the mandate territories was made a United Nations Trust Territory. An insurrection headed by Ruben Um Nyobé and the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) erupted in 1955, strongly repressed by the French Fourth Republic. Cameroun became independent as the Republic of Cameroun in January, 1960 and in October, 1961 the southern part of British Cameroons joined to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. The Muslim northern part of Cameroons had opted for union with Nigeria in May the same year. The conflict with the UPC lasted until the 1970s.