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Cameroon has been a colony of Portugal, Germany, Great Britain and France during the time of the European conquest of Africa. Despite being ruled by all these states, it has for the most part been a French colony, and gained its independence from France in 1961. Due to this, there are no maps of the country of Cameroon until this date in history.

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The main changes to Cameroon's political boundaries occurred during colonial occupation, mostly after Germany gave up the territory to France. Afterwards, France ceded Southern Cameroons to Cameroon in 1961, a few months after the country gained its independence. There was also a dispute between the territory of Bakassi, which Cameroon officially owned after the International Court of Justice's ruling.

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Several boundaries of Cameroon are placed in a logical order according the physical characteristics of the landscape. The Central African mangroves form part of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, as do the Mandara Mountains. Lake Chad also forms part of the Cameroon-Chad boundary. The rest of the boundaries are mostly according to the country's old colonial past.

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Bakassi is a peninsula on the Gulf of Guinea that is disputed between Cameroon and Nigeria. The territory lies within the Gulf of Guinea. Both countries almost went to war in the early 1990s, after which Cameroon brought the case to the International Court of Justice. After the ruling, Cameroon officially owned the territory following a ruling from the International Court of Justice that declared that the territory rested within Cameroon. Both countries have still been arguing about the disputed territory since.

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Regional: African Union. Joined July 9th, 2002.

International: OHADA. Joined October 13, 1993.

Supranational: United Nations. Joined September 20th, 1960.

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Cameroon is a cross between a compact state and a prorupted state. The state is mostly compact, with a projection jutting out of its top. This projection has been there since colonial times and its purpose is to access Lake Chad, a fresh water source at Cameroon's very north. Cameroon mostly has its army and police forces in the south close to its major cities and faces some terrorist problems in the north because those areas are harder to reach due to poor infrastructure

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The national flag of Cameroon was adopted on May 20th, 1975 when Cameroon became a unitary state. The flag has a green, red and yellow tricolor with a yellow star in the middle. The central red stripe symbolizes unity and the yellow star in the center in the star of unity. The yellow stands for the sun and the savannahs in the northern part of the country and the green stands for the forests in the south of the country.

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Cameroon is a unitary presidential republic, where the president is head of the state and government. Cameroon has an executive and a legislative branch.

Currently, the government of Cameroon has issues tension between themselves and the Kirdis, an ethnic group in Cameroon. The Kirdis are a relatively small group in Cameroon and have little representation, unlike the Bamileke and the Bamoun, which the government is mostly comprised of.  Due to this, the Kirdis have occasionally rioted in the streets against the government. Lately, the Kirdi have not presented any problems but there is still some tension between them and the government. There is also tension between Christians and the government.

There are currently no examples of devolution in Cameroon. The state is relatively small and there is no need for smaller subunits of government. In fact, in 2008, the government of Cameroon decided to replace the 10 provinces of Cameroon into regions. It seems as if the government does not want devolution in their country and wishes to stay as a unitary state

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http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cameroon/

A family was recently kidnapped by the Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram. The group crossed the international border between Nigeria and Cameroon and took the family hostage for several weeks and recently released them while threatening to enter Cameroon more in the future. This ties to the unit of study because it shows problems the Cameroonian government is having with its borders, as it cannot control them efficiently and therefore allows groups such as these to enter the country. This is not the first group that crosses the international border of Cameroon to kidnap citizens; Catholic priests have also been kidnapped in the past. The government is struggling to keep the country in peace because of such groups that also cause internal conflict between the countr

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Cameroon Acquired February 1st, 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Cameroon Acquired February 1st, 2014.

http://www.ohada.com/ Acquired February 2nd, 2014.

http://www.unfoundation.org/ Acquired February 2nd, 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cameroon Acquired February 4th, 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon

Acquired February 4th, 2014.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cameroon/

Acquired February 5th, 2014.