The Congo Free State, officially presented to the world as a humanitarian and civilizing enterprise destined to abolish slavery and introduce Christianity, became the target of an international protest campaign, led by the British activist Edmund Dene Morel (18731924) and his Congo Reform Association. Germany's African Colonies | Encyclopedia.com * As many as 10 million people are estimated to have died in Congo from killings, famine and disease . 2006. 1998. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced extensive urbanization and the administration aimed to make it into a "model colony". You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Many European countries wanted to colonize distant parts of the world in order to exploit the resources and "civilize" the inhabitants of these less-developed countries. Encyclopedia.com. According to one estimate, casualties were as high as 66 percent of the local population. The boundaries of Colonialism, like those of many literary eras, are difficult to draw. There were other small LubaLunda states in Congo. King Leopold's Legacy. What did Belgium colonize in Africa? - YourSageInformation Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. These mandatory identity cards removed the fluidity from the Rwandan stratification (caste) system, thereby confining people permanently as Hutus, Tutsis, and pygmies. The Belgians empowered the Tutsis so much that their exploitation of the Hutu majority reached new heights. A rich Hutu who purchased a large herd of cattle could become a Tutsi, while a Tutsi who became poor would drop into the Hutu caste. These three protagonists had an enormous influence in the colony, and assisted each other in their respective ventures, even if their interests did not always coincide and, indeed, sometimes openly conflicted. Cawthorne, Nigel. Several Belgian colonial policies sowed the seeds of racial and ethnic rivalries that led to the killings of millions of Africans and also sent millions more into exile from the former Belgian colonies. [6], A sharp reduction of the population of the Congo through excess deaths occurred in the Free State period but estimates of the deaths toll vary considerably. The colonial authorities also obliged these agriculturalists to produce export crops (e.g., cotton), which made them vulnerable to the ups and downs of world markets. London: Zed Books, 2002. The concept of internal colonialism has become so widely used and applied that almost every minority group in the world has b, THE CAUSE OF DECOLONIZATION 2006. "Africa: Belgian Colonies By the mid-1950s, an independence movement was underway. They occupied a large part of this German colony. A governor general exercised more or less absolute power. The killing stopped only when Paul Kagame, with the help of Uganda, led a Tutsi army that drove the Hutu-led military into exile in neighboring Congo. https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/africa-belgian-colonies, "Africa: Belgian Colonies Vocabulary. [14], Congolese troops participated in World War II and were instrumental in forcing the Italians out of their East African colonies during the East African Campaign. Belgian Congo | History & Facts | Britannica The most notable of these empires was the Kingdom of Kongo, which was founded in the fourteenth century and centered around present-day western Congo and northern Angola. Belgium itself had only been independent since 1830, prior to that it was part of the Netherlands (and had a role in that country's colonies) or of France, or was governed by Spain or Austria. The king imposed a harsh labor regime on the Congolese populations in order to extort ever-growing amounts of wild rubber. Factbox: Belgium's colonial rule in Congo and what happened next In 1842, a ship sent by King Leopold I of Belgium arrived in Guatemala; the Belgians observed the natural riches of the department of Izabal and decided to settle in Santo Tomas de Castilla and build infrastructure in the region. Stengers, Jean. The Belgian concession was proclaimed on 7 November 1900 and spanned some 100 hectares (250 acres). Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. Paris: Harmattan, 1992. The second king of Belgium, Leopold II, was a very ambitious man who wanted to personally enrich himself and enhance his countrys prestige by annexing and colonizing lands in Africa. All the major decisions concerning the Congo were made in Brussels, and the Congolese were not allowed to participate in the running of their own country. The United States and Belgium provided the money that Mobutu used to bribe the Congolese army to commit treason against their properly elected government. On 4 May 1843, the Guatemalan parliament issued a decree giving the district of Santo Toms "in perpetuity" to the Compagnie belge de colonisation[fr], a private Belgian company under the protection of King Leopold I of Belgium. German Colonial Rule - African Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo The Congo survived mainly through the king's personal funds. Stanley "built roads along the entire stretch of the Congo" and set up "a chain of trading stations." Maurel, Auguste. Consequently, the Belgian Parliament agreed in 1908 to accept the Congo as its own colony, in order to avoid international intervention or a takeover by a foreign power. 2023 . List of French possessions and colonies - Wikipedia Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Their regime in the Congo used forced labour, and murder and mutilation on indigenous Congolese who did not fulfill quotas for rubber collections. History of Europe - The scramble for colonies | Britannica Supporters of the second option led by Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) won the day and the Belgian Congo became independent on June 30, 1960. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. A classic image depicts the Belgian Congo as being run by the "Trinity" of administration, capital, and the (Catholic) Church. In 1876 Leopold convoked an International Geographic Conference in Brussels, where prominent geographers and explorers were invited. With the support of the Free State's military, the Force Publique, the territory was divided into private concessions. (art. Burundi is a small country in Central Africa, which borders with Rwanda, Zaire, and Tanzania. "Archives Africaines" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brussels (Archives of the former Belgian Ministry of Colonies). After the June 1960 elections, Lumumba became prime minister and Kasavubu the ceremonial president. The discussion at the Conference, which did not have any African leaders, was meant to split up the continent among the European powers without having to go to war. The final decade of the Belgian presence in the Congo was characterized by a notable improvement of the living standard of the growing black urban population. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. On the Congo Free State's own domains, as well as on the vast tracks of land that had been conceded to private companies, brutal and repressive practices took the lives of large numbers of Africansthough exact figures are impossible to establish. These organizations, controlled by the king himself, had in fact a commercial purpose. It replaced the failed British Eastern Coast of Central America Commercial and Agricultural Company. The Belgian Congo was one of the three colonies Belgium occupied. History of Belgium | Britannica Forrest, Joshua B. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. The Belgians, in turn, gave the Tutsis privileged positions in politics, education, and business. The Belgian Congo (French: Congo belge, pronounced [ko bl]; Dutch: Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa between 1908 and 1960 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS Under the cloak of humanitarian and scientific interests, he then created successive private organizations, the most important of which was the Association Internationale du Congo (AIC). Although a few attempts were made by the first king, Leopold I (1790-1865), these were not successful. Belgium, a constitutional monarchy, gained its independence in 1830 from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. [12], Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinit coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests. On the local level, in close contact with the African population, the missionaries played an important role in evangelization, in (primary) education, and in health services. This conflict has been labeled Africas war. Although fighting stopped in 1999, rebel groups continued their attacks on defenseless civilians and the Congolese central government. The boundaries of Colonialism, like those of many literary eras, are difficult to draw. The European incursion into the west coast of Africa and the consequent slave raids increased the migrations of refugees into Kongo. 2023 . Uprisings, revolts, assassinations, and other acts of resistance were common during King Leopold's rule. What Did Belgium Do To Africa? - On Secret Hunt 2004. From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 km 2 (3,900,000 sq mi), the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire.During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire was the second largest colonial empire in the world only behind the British Empire; it . Natives eventually faced dire conditions, characterized by displacement, forced labor, and taxation. ." What were the former British colonies in Africa? Immediately after independence on June 30, 1960, ethnic and personal rivalriesinfluenced by Belgium, other European nations, and the United Statessent the newly independent country into political crisis. [18], While the Compagnie belge de colonisation was granted the land in perpetuity, the concession did not become a colony in the political sense. Leopold II, French in full Lopold-Louis-Philippe-Marie-Victor, Dutch in full Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor, (born April 9, 1835, Brussels, Belgiumdied December 17, 1909, Laeken), king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909. This well-planned genocide started when the Hutu presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were shot down, allegedly by Tutsi rebel soldiers. Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain also rushed to gain territory. Portuguese Colonialism in Africa | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of It became a League of Nations Class B mandate allotted to Belgium, from 1924 to 1945. When Belgium became a nation in 1830, it had almost no tradition of long-distance trade or colonial activity. Map of Belgium's colonies at their maximum extent. Leopold had administered Katanga separately, but in 1910, the Belgian government merged it with the Belgian Congo. From the coastline excursions in Africa and the gradual establishment of trade routes in Asia and in the Indian . Hutus went on a rampage, killing Tutsis in their midst with the aim of exterminating them. After the assassination of Lumumba, many governments ruled Congo in rapid succession: variste Kimba, Joseph Ileo, Cyrille Adoula, and Moise Tshombe. How long should I wait to text after being left on read? (Colonizing other peoples, regardless of the justification . They could also cheaply receive slaves and ivory and sell it at a very high price making a huge profit. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. They used civil disobedience, strikes, and civil unrest against the Belgian colonialists. In 1876 Belgium's King Leopold II convened the Brussels Geographical Conference, which led to the formation of the African International Association. After a year, it was returned to the Italian State in 1920. 2002. The French first began colonizing Africa in the 17th century, although they did not start having a significant presence on the continent until the 19th century. Belgium created two colonies in Africa: the entities now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly the Republic of Zaire) and the Republic of Rwanda , previously Ruanda-Urundi, a former German African colony that was given to Belgium to administer after the defeat of Germany in World War I .
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