German colonial empire

The German colonial empire comprised the overseas colonies, dependencies and territories of the German Empire, which was unified in 1871 under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck initially resisted building a colonial empire, but during the Scramble for Africa beginning in 1884 Germany claimed much of the remaining uncolonized regions of the continent, eventually building the third largest colonial empire of its era after the British and French, spanning parts of Africa and Oceania. Germany lost control of most of its colonies at the start of the First World War in 1914, though some German forces held out in German East Africa until the wars end, and the empire was formally confiscated under the Treaty of Versailles, with each colony becoming a League of Nations mandate administered by an Allied power. Talk of regaining the lost colonies persisted in Germany until 1943 but never became official government policy. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/