In order to wipe out the stain of Leopoldian ill treatment of the African population and gain international respectability, the Belgian authorities tried to turn the Congo into a "model colony." The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The city of Tianjin (Tientsin), a treaty port in China (18601945) included nine foreign-controlled concessions (Chinese: ; pinyin: zujie). "Africa: Belgian Colonies It was during the Belgian colonial administration that the foundations for the postcolonial and present-day ethnic tensions and political instability were laid. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. In 1843, he signed a contract with Ladd & Co. to colonize the Kingdom of Hawaii, but the deal fell apart when Ladd & Co. ran into financial difficulties. Subnationalism in Africa: Ethnicity, Alliances, and Politics. His rule was brutal and millions of Congolese died as a result. Mass Crimes Against Humanity: The Congo Free State Genocide Circa 1895-1912. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Belgian_colonial_empire&oldid=1023550, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. 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. By the time Belgium's second king, Leopold II, was crowned, Belgian enthusiasm for colonialism had abated. colony, any nonself-governing territory subject to the jurisdiction of a usually distant country. In the first years of the twentieth century, the Congo question became an important international issue, since the British government took this matter to heart, especially after an official enquiry commission, appointed by king Leopold, had confirmed the existence of excesses (1904). French Colonial Rule - African Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo King Leopold II and the Belgians extend their military rule over the much desired Congo Basin in Central Africa. Ekwe-Ekwe, Herbert. In 1966 he renamed the Congolese cities of Lopoldville (Kinshasa), Stanley-ville (Kisangani), and Elisabethville (Lubumbashi). [1], Much of the initial infrastructure was the work of Stanley Morton Stanley who, having extensively explored the Congo, was employed by Leopold from 1878. Joseph Mobutu, who later changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko, was appointed army chief of staff by Lumumba. [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. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. The king imposed a harsh labor regime on the Congolese populations in order to extort ever-growing amounts of wild rubber. Keen on establishing Belgium as an imperial power, he led the first European efforts to develop the Congo River basin, making possible the formation in 1885 of the . 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. Of Belgium's other colonies, the most significant was Ruanda-Urundi, a portion of German East Africa, which was given to Belgium as a League of Nations Mandate, when Germany lost all of its colonies at the end of World War I. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. [15] By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony.[16]. I should say that Burundi was a German colony in 1885 up to around 1916, and then when the Belgians-when the Germans left, the Belgians came in as colonizers. While some Africans initially welcomed European rule, others opposed it from the start. Before the European incursion into Rwanda and the Belgian colonization, Rwanda was united under the central leadership of an absolute Tutsi monarchy. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . Revolts and violence against Tutsi, known as the Rwandan Revolution, occurred in the events leading to independence. Very little money was invested in educationwhich was left to missionaries, mainly Roman Catholic, and consisted of basic literacy and numeracy. The rubber trade, which was of critical economic importance to sustaining Leopold's enterprise, was marked by especially inhumane conditions. Uprisings, revolts, assassinations, and other acts of resistance were common during King Leopold's rule. Forrest, Joshua B. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS Any four countries? As early as 1860, he was urging his state to imitate its neighbors in acquiring overseas territory, "extend beyond the sea whenever an opportunity is offered," he said, "you will find there precious outlets for your products, food for your commerce and a still better position in the great European family. Yielding to international pressure, the parliament of Belgium annexed the Congo Free State and took over its administration on November 15, 1908, as the colony of the Belgian Congo. That the Tutsi and Hutu were originally two castes of the same people, speaking a common language, and that the antagonism had been created by Belgian colonial forces for their own purposes, were facts somehow lost in the international dialogue. In 1876 Leopold convoked an International Geographic Conference in Brussels, where prominent geographers and explorers were invited. [22], In 1919, the island of Comacina was bequeathed to King Albert I of Belgium for a year, and became an enclave under the sovereignty of Belgium. Mobutu and his supporters were so corrupt and stole so much money from the Congolese people that his government was described as a kleptocracy, or government by thieves. The Belgian colonial empire consisted of three African colonies possessed by Belgium between 1901 to 1962. Towards the end of colonial rule, the governor general at the time, Lon Antoine Marie Petillon (in office 1952-1958), wanted to grant Africans more civil rights. 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. Even in the first decades of its existence, it showed little inclination toward overseas expansion. Third, most of the ethnic tensions in these countries are caused by rapid population growth and the fight for scarce resources by the leaders of the various ethnic groups. Finally in 1908, Leopold was forced to hand over the Congo Free State, his personal fiefdom, to the Belgian state. With the exception of Brandenburg-Prussia's short-lived attempt to gain a foothold on the West African coast and to participate in the 17th-century transatlantic slave trade, German colonialism began only in the 1880s. Belgium itself could not stay aloof, because of its growing involvement in the Congo Free State. [15] One of the results was the development of a new middle class of Europeanised African "volus" in the cities. The Belgian administration of the Congo was run by a relatively modest corps of civil servants (in 1947 only about 44,000 whites, 3,200 of whom were public employees, were present in this vast country, inhabited by some 11 million Africans). 1992. Leopold II exploited the Congo for its natural rubber, which was starting to become a valuable commodity. In the late 19th century, Belgian engineers were employed on construction of the BeijingHankou Railway, leading the Belgian government to unsuccessfully claim a concession in Hankou (Hankow). Le Congo: De la colonisation Belge l'indpendance, 2nd ed. Harris, Joseph E. 1998. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Protestant missionaries were also active and Protestants today comprise 29 percent with an additional 10 percent belonging to the Kimbanguists (an African Independent Church banned in colonial times). The Belgians ruled over Congo from 1909 to 1960, while their rule over Rwanda lasted from 1918 to 1962. Leopold II became known as the "Butcher of the Congo," where millions of Africans died as a result of the brutality of his rule. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopolds establishing a colony himself. Despite the modest improvements in the lives of the Congolese, the Belgians created two separate societies in the Congo: the whites and the natives. There had been vicious cycles of violence beginning in December 1963 when Hutus killed more than 10,000 Tutsis and sent about 150,000 into exile. Colonialism in Africa - WorldAtlas [21] The agreement was approved by the Belgian parliament on 13 July 1931. 2023 . Encyclopedia.com. This exploration led initially to the establishment of the Congo Free State. Here are some facts about Belgian rule and the two countries' difficult bilateral ties since. Specifically, in 1929, they eliminated all the non-Tutsi chiefs, and as a result the Hutus lost all their representation in the colonial government. Some argued for a gradual shift to self-governance because of the lack of personnel equipped to take over the responsibilities of governance. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Which seven European countries placed virtually all of Africa under European control between 1880 and 1900?, What reforms did Muhammad Ali introduce during a 30-year reign in Egypt, What did Boers believe was ordained by God in relation to racial differences and more. 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. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. ." Intermarriage was not prohibited in this caste system. How do I move data from one tab to another in Excel? However, the Government was not in favor, arguing that this could result in political instability. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State, which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II.

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