Cameroon GCE Ordinary Level History cheat sheet

Cameroon GCE O Level History - Core Reference

• Pre-colonial Cameroon: the Sao civilisation flourished around Lake Chad (roughly 9th–15th centuries); the Kanem-Bornu empire influenced the north; the Bamum kingdom (Foumban) and Bamileke chiefdoms developed in the western highlands; the Douala and Bassa peoples organised coastal trade societies.

• Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó reached the Wouri estuary around 1472 and named the river 'Rio dos Camarões' (river of prawns), the origin of the name Cameroon.

• The transatlantic slave trade dominated coastal commerce in the 17th–19th centuries; Douala and Bimbia were major trading points, and this trade depopulated and destabilised hinterland societies.

• British Baptist missionary Alfred Saker founded Victoria (Limbe) in 1858 after buying land from local chiefs, marking the start of formal British missionary and commercial presence.

• 1884: Gustav Nachtigal signed treaties with Douala chiefs (Bell and Akwa), and Germany declared Kamerun a protectorate - the start of German colonial rule (1884–1916).

• German rule: Governor Jesko von Puttkamer (1895–1907) used forced labour and harsh plantation systems; the Germans built railways (Douala–Manengouba line), roads, and plantations, and violently suppressed revolts such as the 1904–1905 Bassa uprising.

• 1916: Anglo-French forces defeated Germany in Kamerun during World War I; the territory was partitioned, with France taking the larger eastern part (about four-fifths) and Britain the smaller western strips.

• 1922: the League of Nations granted Britain and France Class B mandates over their respective portions; after World War II (1946) these became United Nations Trust Territories administered by Britain and France.

• French Cameroun: the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) was founded in 1948 and demanded independence and reunification; France banned the UPC in 1955, sparking the armed 'maquis' rebellion led by figures such as Ruben Um Nyobè (killed 1958).

• 1 January 1960: French Cameroun became independent with Ahmadou Ahidjo as president; the 1960 constitution established a republic.

• 11 February 1961: a plebiscite in British Southern Cameroons chose union with the Republic of Cameroun (Northern Cameroons voted to join Nigeria); the Foumban Constitutional Conference (July 1961) prepared the federation.

• 1 October 1961: the Federal Republic of Cameroon was created, with Ahidjo as federal president and John Ngu Foncha as vice-president; West Cameroon and East Cameroon were the two federated states.

• 20 May 1972: a national referendum abolished the federation and created the United Republic of Cameroon; the 1984 decree renamed it the Republic of Cameroon.

• 6 November 1982: Ahidjo resigned and Paul Biya became president; a 1984 attempted coup (April) was suppressed, and Biya introduced multi-party politics in the early 1990s (law of December 1990).

• Key skills tested: source analysis (origin, purpose, bias, reliability), chronology, cause and consequence, and evaluation of colonial and post-independence change in Cameroon.