Postage stamps and postal history of Ruanda-Urundi
The African territories of Ruanda and Urundi came under Belgian control as Ruanda-Urundi after they were seized from Germany during World War I in 1916. They had previously formed part of German East Africa.
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The territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922, and stamps of Belgian Congo were overprinted for the occupied territories with bilingual inscriptions "EST AFRICAIN ALLEMAND OCCUPATION BELGE / DUITSCH OOST AFRIKA BELGISCHE BEZETTING" in French and Dutch.
Ruanda-Urundi later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate under the League of Nations from 1922 to 1945. Stamps of Belgian Congo overprinted "Ruanda-Urundi" were issued in 1924. The first series of definitive stamps featuring local themes was issued in 1931.
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The territory became a Trust Territory of the United Nations in 1946. Ruanda-Urundi gained independence in 1962 as two separate countries of Rwanda and Burundi.[1][2]
See also
References
- Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: North East Africa. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2013, pp. 257-261. ISBN 9780852598764
- "Ruanda-Urundi | Stamps and postal history | StampWorldHistory". Archived from the original on 2017-08-05. Retrieved 12 August 2018.