Germany has essentially developed a path dependency on East Africa. The emergence of East Africa allowed Germany to unexpectedly gain access to a vast market and raw material supply source since the 1880s, which was impossible in the past.
Although East Africa is not a German colony, its territorial and population advantages can bring greater economic benefits to Germany. After all, without East Africa, Germany could not compete with England and France. While Germany had several colonies in Africa, their actual returns were far less than the profits from direct trade with the vast nation of East Africa.
At that time, East Africa had a public ownership economy, so in its trade with Germany, it wasn't purely driven by profit, but had to consider political, cultural, and geopolitical factors.
