Ruanda-Urundi
Territory of Ruanda-Urundi | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1916–1962 | |||||||||||
| Anthems: La Brabançonne ("The Song of Brabant") Vers l'avenir ("Towards the future") | |||||||||||
Ruanda-Urundi (dark green) depicted within the Belgian colonial empire (light green), c. 1935 | |||||||||||
| Status | Mandate of Belgium | ||||||||||
| Capital | Usumbura | ||||||||||
| Common languages | French (official) also: Dutch. Majority: Kinyarwanda, Kirundi and Swahili | ||||||||||
| Religion | Catholicism (de facto) also: Protestantism, Islam and others | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 6 May 1916 | |||||||||||
• Mandate created | 20 July 1922 | ||||||||||
• Administrative merger with Belgian Congo | 1 March 1926 | ||||||||||
• Mandate becomes Trust Territory | 13 December 1946 | ||||||||||
• Rwanda gains autonomy | 18 October 1960 | ||||||||||
• Burundi gains autonomy | 21 December 1961 | ||||||||||
• Independence | 1 July 1962 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Belgian Congo franc (1916–60) Ruanda-Urundi franc (1960–62) | ||||||||||
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| Today part of | Burundi Rwanda | ||||||||||
Ruanda-Urundi (French pronunciation: [ʁwɑ̃da uʁundi]), later Rwanda-Burundi, was a mandate and later 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 in World War I. It was administered by Belgium under military occupation from 1916 to 1922. It was subsequently awarded to Belgium as a Class-B Mandate under the League of Nations in 1922 and became a 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.