View source for Ruanda-Urundi

{{Short description|Belgian territory in Africa (1916–1962)}}
{{for|the dialect continuum|Rwanda-Rundi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = {{Plainlist|
{{native name|fr|Territoire du Ruanda-Urundi}}
}}
| conventional_long_name = Territory of Ruanda-Urundi
| common_name            = Ruanda-Urundi
| status                 = League of Nations Mandate
| empire                 = Belgium|
| image_flag             = Flag of Belgium.svg
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Ruanda-Urundi.svg
| symbol_type_article    = Seal of Rwanda
| image_map              = LocationRuandaUrundi.png
| image_map_caption      = Ruanda-Urundi (''dark green'') depicted within the Belgian colonial empire (''light green''), {{circa|1935}}
| flag                   = Flag of Belgium
| life_span              = 1916–1962
| p1                     = German East Africa{{!}}{{nobr|German East Africa}}
| flag_p1                = Reichskolonialflagge.svg
| s1                     = Kingdom of Burundi{{!}}{{nobr|Kingdom of Burundi}}
| flag_s1                = Flag of Burundi (1962-1966).svg
| s2                     = Rwanda{{!}}{{nobr|Republic of Rwanda}}
| flag_s2                = Flag of Rwanda (1962-2001).svg
| capital                = [[Bujumbura|Usumbura]]
| common_languages       = [[French language|French]] (official)<br>{{smaller|also: [[Dutch language|Dutch]].<br>Majority: [[Kinyarwanda]], [[Kirundi]] and [[Swahili language|Swahili]]}}
| religion               = [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] (de facto)<br>{{smaller|also: [[Protestantism]], [[Islam]] and others}}
| currency               = [[Congolese franc#First franc, 1887–1967|Belgian Congo franc]] {{smaller|(1916–60)}}<br>[[Ruanda-Urundi franc]] {{smaller|(1960–62)}}
| event_pre              = [[Tabora offensive#Capture of Ruanda, Urundi and Kigoma|Belgian invasion]]
| date_pre               = 6 May 1916
| event_start            = Mandate created
| date_start             = 20 July
| year_start             = 1922
| event1                 = Administrative merger with [[Belgian Congo]]
| date_event1            = 1 March 1926
| event2                 = Mandate becomes {{nobr|Trust Territory}}
| date_event2            = 13 December 1946
| event3                 = Rwanda gains autonomy
| date_event3            = 18 October 1960
| event4                 = Burundi gains autonomy
| date_event4            = 21 December 1961
| event_end              = Independence
| date_end               = 1 July
| year_end               = 1962
| today                  = [[Burundi]]<br>[[Rwanda]]
| demonym                = 
| area_km2               = 
| area_rank              = 
| GDP_PPP                = 
| GDP_PPP_year           = 
| HDI                    = 
| HDI_year               = 
| linking_name           = 
}}

'''Ruanda-Urundi''' ({{IPA|fr|ʁwɑ̃da uʁundi}}),{{efn|''Ruanda-Urundi'' is sometimes seen rendered phonetically into [[Dutch language|Dutch]] as {{lang|nl|Roeanda-Oeroendi}}.}} later '''Rwanda-Burundi''', was a [[League of Nations Class B Mandate|mandate]] and later [[United Nations trust territories|trust territory]] ruled by [[Belgium]] between 1916 and 1962. 

Once part of [[German East Africa]], the region was occupied by troops from the [[Belgian Congo]] during the [[East African campaign (World War I)|East African campaign]] in [[World War I]]. It was administered by Belgium under [[military occupation]] from 1916 to 1922. It was subsequently awarded to Belgium as a [[League of Nations Class B Mandate|Class-B Mandate]] under the [[League of Nations]] in 1922 and became a [[United Nations trust territories|Trust Territory]] of the [[United Nations]] in the aftermath of [[World War II]] and the dissolution of the League. In 1962, Ruanda-Urundi became the two independent states of [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]].

==History==
{{Further|Burundi–Rwanda relations}}
[[Kingdom of Rwanda|Ruanda]] and [[Kingdom of Burundi|Urundi]] were two separate kingdoms in the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes region]] before the [[Scramble for Africa]]. In 1897, the [[German Empire]] established a presence in Rwanda with the formation of an alliance with the king, beginning the colonial era.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKFpAgAAQBAJ |last=Carney |first=J.J. |title=Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era |page=24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780199982288 }}</ref> They were administered as two districts of [[German East Africa]]. The two monarchies were retained as part of the German policy of [[indirect rule]], with the [[List of kings of Rwanda|Ruandan king]] (''mwami'') [[Yuhi V Musinga]] using German support to consolidate his control over subordinate chiefs in exchange for labour and resources.{{sfn|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}}

===Belgian military occupation, 1916–1922===
{{main|Tabora offensive}}
[[File:Eastafrikaoccupation1916.jpg|thumb|left|A [[Belgian Congo]] stamp overprinted for the Belgian Occupied East African Territories in 1916]]
When [[World War I]] broke out in 1914, German colonies were originally meant to preserve their neutrality as mandated in the [[Berlin Conference|Berlin Convention]], but fighting soon broke out on the frontier between German East Africa and the [[Belgian Congo]] around [[Lake Kivu|Lakes Kivu]] and [[Lake Tanganyika|Tanganyika]].{{sfn|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}} As part of the Allied [[East African campaign (World War I)|East African campaign]], Ruanda and Urundi were invaded by a Belgian force in 1916.{{sfn|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}} German forces in the region were small and hugely outnumbered. Ruanda was occupied over April–May and Urundi in June 1916. By September, a large portion of German East Africa was under Belgian occupation reaching as far south as [[Kigoma]] and [[Karema, Tanzania|Karema]] and as far eastwards as [[Tabora]] all in modern-day Tanzania.{{sfn|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}} 

In Ruanda and Urundi, the Belgians were welcomed by some civilians, who were opposed to the autocratic behaviour of the kings.{{sfn|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}} In Urundi, much of the population fled or went into hiding, fearful of war.{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraphs 55–57}} Much of the [[Swahili people|Swahili]] trader community which resided along the shores of Lake Tanganyika fled towards Kigoma, as they had long been commercial rivals with Belgian traders and feared retribution.{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraphs 73–75}} The territory captured was administered by a Belgian [[military occupation]] authority ("Belgian Occupied East African Territories") pending an ultimate decision about its political future. An administration, headed by a Royal Commissioner, was established in February 1917 at the same time as Belgian forces were ordered to withdraw from the Tabora region by the British.{{cn|date=September 2021}} 

While the Germans had begun the practice of conscripting labour from the Ruandans and Urundians during the war, this was limited since the German administration considered sustaining a local labour force logistically challenging. The Belgian occupation force expanded labor conscription;{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraphs 86, 90}} 20,000 men were drafted to act as porters for the [[Mahenge offensive]], and of these only one-third returned home.{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraph 89}} Many died due to malnourishment and disease.{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraph 91}} The new labour practices caused some locals to regret the departure of the Germans.{{sfn|Chrétien|2016|loc=paragraph 92}}

===League of Nations mandate, 1922–1946===
[[File:The christian church in Huye.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Our Lady of Wisdom Cathedral, Butare|Cathedral of Our Lady of Wisdom]] at [[Butare]] (formerly Astrida) in Ruanda. Catholicism expanded rapidly under the Belgian mandate.]]
The [[Treaty of Versailles]] in the aftermath of World War I divided the [[German colonial empire]] among the Allied nations. German East Africa was partitioned, with [[Tanganyika Territory|Tanganyika]] allocated to the British and [[Kionga Triangle|a small area]] allocated to [[First Portuguese Republic|Portugal]]. Belgium was allocated Ruanda-Urundi even though this represented only a fraction of the territories already occupied by the Belgian forces in East Africa. Belgian diplomats had originally hoped that Belgian claims in the region could be traded for territory in [[Portuguese Angola]] to expand the Congo's access to the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. This proved impossible and the [[League of Nations]] officially awarded Ruanda-Urundi to Belgium as a [[League of Nations mandate|B-Class Mandate]] on 20 July 1922. The mandatory regime was also controversial in Belgium and it was not approved by Belgium's parliament until 1924.<ref>William Roger Louis, ''Ruanda-Urundi 1884-1919'' (Oxford U.P., 1963).{{page?|date=October 2020}}</ref> Unlike [[colony|colonies]] which belonged to its colonial power, a mandate was theoretically subject to international oversight through the League's [[Permanent Mandates Commission]] (PMC) in [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]].{{cn|date=July 2021}} 

Administratively, the mandate was divided into two ''pays'', Ruanda and Urundi, each under the nominal leadership of a ''[[Mwami]]'' as [[Tribal chief|customary ruler]]. The city of [[Bujumbura|Usumbura]] (modern-day Bujumbura) and its adjoining townships were classified separately as ''centres extra‑coutumiers'', while the ''pays'' were subdivided into territories.{{sfn|Weinstein|1976|p=238}}

After a period of inertia, the Belgian administration became actively involved in Ruanda-Urundi between 1926 and 1931 under the governorship of [[Charles Voisin (governor)|Charles Voisin]]. The reforms produced a dense road-network and improved agriculture, with the emergence of [[Cash crop|cash crop farming]] in [[cotton]] and [[coffee]].{{sfn|Pedersen|2015|p=256}} However, four major famines did ravage parts of the mandate after crop failures in [[Rumanura famine|1916–1918]], [[Gakwege famine|1924–26]], [[Rwakayihura famine|1928–30]] and [[Ruzagayura famine|1943–44]].{{cn|date=October 2022}} The Belgians were far more involved in the territory than the Germans, especially in Ruanda. Despite the mandate rules that the Belgians had to develop the territories and prepare them for independence, the economic policy practised in the Belgian Congo was exported eastwards: the Belgians demanded that the territories earn profits for their country and that any development must come out of funds gathered in the territory. These funds mostly came from the extensive cultivation of coffee in the region's rich volcanic soils.

[[File:Kisanga-mijn Ruandese arbeiders einde-jaren 1920.JPG|thumb|[[Banyarwanda|Ruandan]] labour migrants at the Kisanga copper mine in [[Katanga Province|Katanga]] ([[Belgian Congo]]) in {{circa}} 1930]]
To implement their vision, the Belgians extended and consolidated a power structure based on indigenous institutions. In practice, they developed a [[Tutsi]] ruling class to formally control a mostly [[Hutu]] population, through the system of chiefs and sub-chiefs under the overall rule of the two ''Mwami''. Belgian administrators were influenced by the so-called [[Hamitic hypothesis]] which suggested that the Tutsi were partially descended from a [[Semitic people]] and were therefore inherently superior to the Hutu who were seen as purely African.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2014-02-23|title=Hamitic myth that led to Genocide in Rwanda|url=https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/91902|access-date=2021-01-17|website=The New Times {{!}} Rwanda|language=en}}{{better source|date=February 2021}}</ref> In this context, the Belgian administration preferred to rule through purely Tutsi authorities therefore further stratifying the society on ethnic lines. Hutu anger at the Tutsi domination was largely focused on the Tutsi elite rather than the distant colonial power.<ref name="autogenerated1">Peter Langford, "The Rwandan Path to Genocide: The Genesis of the Capacity of the Rwandan Post-colonial State to Organise and Unleash a project of Extermination". ''Civil Wars'' Vol. 7 n.3</ref> Musinga was deposed by the administration as ''mwami'' of Ruanda in November 1931 after being accused of disloyalty.{{sfn|Pedersen|2015|p=253–5}} He was replaced by his son [[Mutara III Rudahigwa]].

Although promising the League it would promote education, Belgium left the task to subsidised Catholic missions and mostly unsubsidised Protestant missions. Catholicism expanded rapidly through the Rwandan population in consequence. An elite secondary school, the [[Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare|Groupe Scolaire d'Astrida]], was established in 1929. As late as 1961, fewer than 100 people from Ruanda-Urundi had been educated beyond the secondary level.<ref>Mary T. Duarte, "Education in Ruanda-Urundi, 1946-61, " ''Historian'' (1995) 57#2 pp 275–84</ref>

===United Nations trust territory, 1946–1962===
[[File:Plaza de la Independencia.JPG|thumb|Monument in [[Bujumbura]] commemorating Burundi's independence on 1 July 1962]]
The League of Nations was [[League of Nations#Demise and legacy|formally dissolved]] in April 1946, following its failure to prevent World War II. It was succeeded, for practical purposes, by the new [[United Nations]] (UN). In December 1946, the new body voted to end the mandate over Ruanda-Urundi and replace it with the new status of "[[United Nations trust territories|Trust Territory]]". To provide oversight, the PMC was superseded by the [[United Nations Trusteeship Council]]. The transition was accompanied by a promise that the Belgians would prepare the territory for independence, but the Belgians felt the area would take many decades to be ready for self-rule and wanted the process to take enough time before happening.

In 1961, the Belgian administration officially renamed Ruanda-Urundi as Rwanda-Burundi.{{sfn|Weinstein|1976|p=247}}

Independence came largely as a result of actions elsewhere. [[African nationalism|African anti-colonial nationalism]] emerged in the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s and the Belgian Government became convinced they could no longer control the territory. Unrest also broke out in Ruanda where the monarchy was deposed in the [[Rwandan Revolution]] (1959–1961). [[Grégoire Kayibanda]] led the dominant and ethnically defined [[PARMEHUTU|Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement]] (''Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu'', PARMEHUTU) in Rwanda, while the equivalent [[Union for National Progress]] (''Union pour le Progrès national'', UPRONA) in Burundi attempted to balance competing Hutu and Tutsi ethnic claims. The independence of the Belgian Congo in June 1960 and the accompanying [[Congo Crisis|period of political instability]] further drove nationalism in Ruanda-Urundi. The assassination of the UPRONA leader [[Louis Rwagasore]] (also Burundi's crown prince) in October 1961 did not halt this movement. After hurried preparations which included the dissolution of the monarchy in the [[Kingdom of Rwanda]] in September 1961, Ruanda-Urundi became independent on 1 July 1962, broken up along traditional lines as the independent [[Rwanda|Republic of Rwanda]] and [[Kingdom of Burundi]]. It took two more years before the government of the two became wholly separate and a further two years until the proclamation of the [[Burundi|Republic of Burundi]].

==Colonial governors==
{{main|List of colonial governors of Ruanda-Urundi}}
Ruanda-Urundi was initially administered by a Royal Commissioner (''commissaire royal'') until the administrative union with the Belgian Congo in 1926. After this, the mandate was administered by a Governor (''gouverneur'') located at [[Bujumbura|Usumbura]] (modern-day Bujumbura) who also held the title of Vice-Governor-General (''vice-gouverneur général'') of the Belgian Congo. Ruanda and Urundi were each administered by a separate [[Resident minister|resident]] (''résident'') subordinate to the Governor.

{{div col}}
;Royal Commissioners (1916–1926)
* {{lang|fr|[[Justin Malfeyt]]|italic=no}} (November 1916 – May 1919)
* {{lang|fr|[[Alfred Marzorati]]|italic=no}} (May 1919 – August 1926)

;Governors (1926–1962)
* {{lang|fr|Alfred Marzorati|italic=no}} (August 1926 – February 1929)
* {{lang|fr|[[Louis Postiaux]]|italic=no}} (February 1929 – July 1930)
* {{lang|fr|[[Charles Voisin (governor)|Charles Voisin]]|italic=no}} (July 1930 – August 1932)
* {{lang|fr|[[Eugène Jungers]]|italic=no}} (August 1932 – July 1946)
* {{lang|fr|[[Maurice Simon (official)|Maurice Simon]]|italic=no}} (July 1946 – August 1949)
* {{lang|fr|[[Léo Pétillon]]|italic=no}} (August 1949 – January 1952)
* {{lang|fr|[[Alfred-Marie Claeys-Boùùaert]]|italic=no}} (January 1952 – March 1955)
* {{lang|fr|[[Jean-Paul Harroy]]|italic=no}} (March 1955 – January 1962)

For a list of '''residents''', see: [[List of colonial residents of Rwanda]] and [[List of colonial residents of Burundi]].

;Kings (''abami'') of Ruanda
{{main|List of kings of Rwanda}}
* [[Yuhi V Musinga]] ({{ruled}}November 1896 – November 1931)
* [[Mutara III Rudahigwa]] ({{ruled}}November 1931 – July 1959)
* [[Kigeli V Ndahindurwa]] ({{ruled}}July 1959 – September 1961, when the Ruandan monarchy was abolished)

;Kings (''abami'') of Urundi 
{{main|List of kings of Burundi}}
* [[Mwambutsa IV of Burundi|Mwambutsa IV Bangiricenge]] ({{ruled}}December 1915 – July 1966)
{{div col end}}

==Maps==
<gallery class="center" mode="packed" heights="300px" caption="Territory of Ruanda-Urundi">
File:Ruanda Urundi.jpg|In 1929
File:Ruanda Urundi 1.jpg|In 1938
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Portal|History|Belgium|Burundi|Africa}}
* [[History of Burundi]]
* [[History of Rwanda]]
* [[East African Revival]] (1929–)
* [[Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare|Groupe Scolaire d'Astrida]] (founded 1929)

==References==
===Notes===
{{Notelist}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist|35em}}

===Works cited===
* {{cite journal| last=Chrétien| first=Jean-Pierre| title=La guerre de 1914-1918 au Burundi. Le vécu local d'un conflit mondial| journal=Outre-Mers| volume=1| issue=390–391| pages=127–151| date=2016| doi=10.3917/om.161.0127| language=French| url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-outre-mers-2016-1-page-127.htm| url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book |last1=Pedersen |first1=Susan | author-link = Susan Pedersen (historian) | title=The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-957048-5}}
* {{cite web| ref={{harvid|1914–1918 Online Encyclopedia|2016}}|last1=Samson |first1=Anne |title=Ruanda and Urundi |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/ruanda_and_urundi |website=1914-1918 Online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War |access-date=28 January 2019 |date=2016}}
* {{cite book| last=Weinstein| first=Warren| title=Historical Dictionary of Burundi| publisher=Scarecrow Press| date=1976| location=Metuchen| isbn=9780810809628}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|last=Chrétien|first=Jean-Pierre|title=The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History|date=2003|publisher=Zone Books|location=New York|isbn=9781890951344|edition=English trans.|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781890951344}}
* {{cite book|last=Gahama|first=Joseph|title=Le Burundi sous administration Belge: la période du mandat, 1919-1939|date=1983|publisher=Karthala|location=Paris|isbn=9782865370894|edition=2nd rev.}}
* {{cite book|last=Louis|first=William Roger|author-link=William Roger Louis|title=Ruanda-Urundi 1884-1919|date=1963|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford}}
* {{cite book|last=Newbury|first=Catharine|title=The Cohesion of Oppression: Clientship and Ethnicity in Rwanda, 1860-1960|date=1994|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780231062572}}
* {{cite book|last1=Rumiya|first1=Jean|title=Le Rwanda sous le régime du mandat belge, 1916-1931|date=1992|publisher=Éd. L'Harmattan|location=Paris|isbn=9782738405401}}
* {{cite book|last1=Vijgen|first1=Ingeborg|title=Tussen mandaat en kolonie: Rwanda, Burundi en het Belgische bestuur in opdracht van de Volkenbond (1916-1932)|date=2005|publisher=Acco|location=Leuven|isbn=9789033456213}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Botte |first1=Roger |title=Rwanda and Burundi, 1889-1930: Chronology of a Slow Assassination |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |date=1985 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=289–314|doi=10.2307/217744 |jstor=217744|pmid=11617204}}
* {{cite book |last1=Des Forges |first1=Alison |author-link=Alison Des Forges |title=Defeat is the Only Bad News: Rwanda under Musinga, 1896-1931 |date=2014 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison |isbn=9780299281434}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Ruanda-Urundi}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.schudak.de/timelines/ruanda-urundi1914-1962.html Ruanda-Urundi timeline]

{{League of Nations mandates}}
{{Rwanda topics}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|-2.7|29.9|type:country_region:RW_dim:300km|display=title}}

[[Category:Ruanda-Urundi| ]]
[[Category:League of Nations mandates|Ruanda]]
[[Category:United Nations trust territories|Ruanda]]
[[Category:Former Belgian colonies]]
[[Category:Former colonies in Africa]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1922]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1962]]
[[Category:1922 establishments in Africa]]
[[Category:1962 disestablishments in Africa]]