Editing History of Cameroon (section)

====League of Nations Mandate, Free France, and UN Trust Territory====
[[File:Missionnaire Cameroun.jpg|thumb|right|French Missionary with the Sultan of [[Ngaoundéré]] in 1920]]
The French administration declined to return much of the property in Cameroon to its prior German owners, reassigning much of it to French companies. This was particularly the case for the [[SOCFIN Group|Société financière des Caoutchoucs]], which obtained plantations put into operation during the German period and became the largest company in French Cameroon. Roads and other infrastructure projects were undertaken with native labor, often in extremely harsh conditions. The Douala-Yaoundé railway line, begun under the German regime, was completed. Thousands of workers were forcibly deported to this site to work fifty-four hours a week. Workers also suffered from lack of food and the massive presence of mosquitoes and related illnesses. In 1925, the mortality rate on the site was 61.7%. However, the other sites were not as deadly, although working conditions were generally very harsh.<ref name=modo />

French Cameroon joined the [[Free France]] in August 1940. The system established by Free France was essentially a military dictatorship. [[Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque]] established a state of siege throughout the country and abolished almost all public freedom. The objective was to neutralize any potential feelings of independence or sympathy for the former German colonizer. Indigenous people known for their Germanophilia were executed in public places. In 1945, the country was placed under the supervision of the United Nations, as successor to the League of Nations, which left Cameroon under French control as a [[UN Trust Territory]].