The war was triggered by German colonial policies designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export.

[5] The end of the war was followed by a period of famine, known as the Great Hunger (ukame), caused in large part by the scorched-earth policies used by governor von Götzen to suppress the rebellion.

[8] Germany levied head taxes in 1898 and relied heavily on forced labour to build roads and accomplish various other tasks.

In 1902, governor of German East Africa, Gustav Adolf von Götzen ordered villages to grow cotton as a cash crop for export.

While these measures may have been desirable in theory, they led to great hardship for the African population, not least because of an increase in wild pigs, which did enormous damage to food crops.

[12] Sunseri has summarised the results of the inquiry as follows:Ultimately members of the commission disagreed on the nature of the uprising, dividing between those who saw it as an irrational movement spawned by sorcerers and headmen making use of maji water medicine, disgruntled because they had been steadily losing influence since the advent of colonial rule, and those who dismissed the role of spirit mediums and emphasized the burdens created by German administration.

The governor's circle cultivated the image of an atavistic, superstitious movement rooted in traditional beliefs so as to insulate their policies from close scrutiny.

[14] John Iliffe has said of this work that it is "remarkable for containing no reference whatever to the cotton scheme which the author had initiated," and he calls it "an account of atavistic conspiracy.

This "war medicine" was in fact water (maji in Kiswahili) mixed with castor oil and millet seeds.

[16] Soon the Yao tribes started participating and throughout August the rebels moved from the Matumbi Hills in the southern part of what is now Tanzania and attacked German garrisons throughout the colony.

The attack on Ifakara, on 16 August, destroyed the small German garrison and opened the way to the key fortification at Mahenge.

Though the southern garrison was quite small (there were but 458 European and 588 native soldiers in the entire area), their fortifications and modern weapons gave them an advantage.

A column under Lieutenant Gustav von Blumenthal (1879–1913, buried at Lindi) consisting of himself, one other European and 46 Askaris fell under continuous attack as it marched in early May 1906, from Songea to Mahenge.

In 1905, one of the leaders of German troops in the colony, Captain Wangenheim, wrote to von Götzen, "Only hunger and want can bring about a final submission.

Later historians have challenged that view and claimed that the rebellion cannot be seen as a unified movement but rather a series of revolts conducted for a wide range of reasons, including religion.

Many people in the area itself saw the revolt as one part of a longer series of wars continuing since long before the arrival of Germans in the region.

"[25] John Iliffe interprets the rebellion as a "mass movement [which] originated in peasant grievances, was then sanctified and extended by prophetic religion, and finally crumbled as crisis compelled reliance on fundamental loyalties to kin and tribe".

[5] Patrick Redmond describes the rebellion as "Tanzania's most spectacular manifestation of the rejection of colonial rule" but which had only a "slight chance of success".