THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF GERMAN EAST AFRICA AS PART OF BELGIAN COLONIALISM: INTERNATIONAL LAW PRINCIPLES AND BEYOND

Within the framework of the First World War, and with the declared objective of protecting the Belgian colony's territory, the Force publique - the Belgian Congo's armed force entered onto bordering German and allied colonial territory in Cameroon, German East Africa, Rhodesia and French Equatorial Africa. Belgian colonial troops, however, only participated in the administration of territories located in German East Africa. This article explores the British-Belgian occupation experience in this region alongside the evolution of international legal norms. It uses this specific experience, approached mainly from a Belgian perspective, to highlight the way factors such as competing interests and war aims, ideological perceptions, and political and military balance of power influenced the development of legal notions and principles. It provides a focused analysis of three interconnected developments in the field of international law: the application of the law of military occupation in the colonial domain, the disappearance of the right of conquest, and the emergence of the League of Nations mandate system. Events related to the destiny of German East Africa during and shortly after the war participated, through the tensions they originated or let surface, in the emergence of new legal interpretation, notions and principles. These crystalized and found expression in the framework of postwar negotiations, mainly in an attempt to absorb the contradictions between colonialist views and ideas on self-determination pushed forward by President Wilson. They framed the discourse of Belgium and other powers, including France and Great Britain. The point of balance found at that time rested on the positions of colonial powers reluctant to abandon too easily their wartime 'acquisitions' and that of president Wilson, who was dedicated to the principle of self-determination but convinced this one could not be applied in an absolute or dogmatic way.