[18], While the Compagnie belge de colonisation was granted the land in perpetuity, the concession did not become a colony in the political sense. Poor relations between factions within the Congo, the continued involvement of Belgium in Congolese affairs, and intervention by major parties of the Cold War led to a five-year-long period of war and political instability, known as the Congo Crisis, from 1960 to 1965. 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. The Belgians, in turn, gave the Tutsis privileged positions in politics, education, and business. Before the European incursion into Rwanda and the Belgian colonization, Rwanda was united under the central leadership of an absolute Tutsi monarchy. 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. It also had a small concession in China and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS
Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State - National Geographic Society It also had a small concession in China and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. His regime in the Congo operated as a forced labor colony, with murder and mutilation as punishment for villagers who did not collect and supply the rubber quota they were given. 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. Rwanda also has a new constitution, and amnesty was granted for most of the Hutu genocide perpetrators. After a year, it was returned to the Italian State in 1920. Mobutu in his bid to stay in power for life did not build a strong army. It became a League of Nations Class B mandate allotted to Belgium, from 1924 to 1945. [citation needed], Leopold achieved international recognition for the Congo Free State in 1885. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. colony, any nonself-governing territory subject to the jurisdiction of a usually distant country. [CDATA[ "[1] In 1876, he told delegates at an international conference on geography which he sponsored in Brussels that: To open to civilization the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress. Because the United Kingdom, France, and Portugal had conflicting interests in this region, Leopold's skillful personal diplomacy succeeded in playing the contradictory ambitions of these countries against each other. Belgium is a small country in northwest Europe that joined Europe's race for colonies in the late 19th century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Supporters of the second option led by Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) won the day and the Belgian Congo became independent on June 30, 1960. His inability to disarm the ex-Rwandan soldiers and perpetuators of the 1994 genocide who were now living in Congo led to the invasion of the Congo by a combined army of Tutsi-led governments of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda and the Congolese rebel leader Laurent Kabila. The rural masses were primarily engaged in a neglected and stagnating indigenous agriculture, aimed at self-subsistence but facing growing difficulties feeding the increasing population, particularly from the 1950s. More or Less: Heroes and Killers of the 20th Century. In 1971, in a continuation of his Africanization policy, the Congo River was renamed the Zaire River and consequently, Congo was renamed the Republic of Zaire. 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. 5 How did Belgium maintain power in Congo? (art. On reaching Kinshasa in May 1997, Kabila declared himself president and changed the name of Zaire back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Belgium administered these mandates through a system of indirect rule. Uprisings, revolts, assassinations, and other acts of resistance were common during King Leopold's rule. These conflicting measures brought anarchy and led to the creation of extreme groupsfrom both the majority Hutus and the minority Tutsiswanting to protect the interests of their respective peoples. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Yet, Leopold personally subscribed to what was sometimes called the "progressive" view of imperialism: That it had a moral justification as a civilizing mission. 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. By the time this was universally recognized in 1839, most European powers already had colonies and protectorates outside Europe and had begun to form spheres of influence. There were slight improvements in the everyday economic and social life of the Congolese that were comparable to conditions in other European colonies in Africa. Britain, France, Germany and Belgium had territories on the African continent. Their regime in the Congo used forced labour, and murder and mutilation on indigenous Congolese who did not fulfill quotas for rubber collections. It was an apartheid type of social and political system. 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. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Nzongola-Ntalaja, Georges. 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. Encyclopedia.com. 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. What are the most attractive personality traits in a man? An agreement was reached between the Belgian and Chinese governments in August 1929 to return the concession to China. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"n0hifXIP06k4AZAYPfhaWe9Vz2rtENJE3ukkjTyT.f4-86400-0"};
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. However, when independence came, the territories were ill-prepared for self-governance since little effort had been made to train and equip an African leadership. A map, published in Portugal in 1623, showing a representation of Africa as understood by colonizers. The economic system of the kingdom was organized into guilds based on agriculture and handicraft industries. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. OF DECOLONIZATION
The scramble for Africa - The British Empire - BBC Bitesize The former colonial power cannot be solely blamed for all the atrocities and political instability that has characterized life in its now defunct empire, but a significant degree of responsibility is attributable. New York: Times Books. It was during the Belgian colonial administration that the foundations for the postcolonial and present-day ethnic tensions and political instability were laid. Although the Congo Free State was not a Belgian colony, Belgium was its chief beneficiary in terms of trade and the employment of its citizens. Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. Map of Africa in 1910. According to one estimate, casualties were as high as 66 percent of the local population. Stanley "built roads along the entire stretch of the Congo" and set up "a chain of trading stations." Source for information on Portugal's African Colonies: Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450 dictionary. Lumumba in turn dismissed the president, creating a political stalemate. The second king of Belgium, Leopold II, was a very ambitious man who wanted to personally enrich himself and enhance his country's prestige by annexing and colonizing lands in Africa. . Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. When France, in the early 1880s, started to develop a political hold along the banks of the lower Congo, the AIC (which, in the meantime, had hired the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley (18411904) as its local manager) also began to conclude treaties whereby African chiefs recognized the association's sovereignty. Nevertheless, there were interethnic wars on some occasions. As part of the Treaty of Versailles, the major part of German East Africa was handed over to British control but Ruanda-Urundi, twice the size of Belgium but only about 2 percent of the size of the Congo, was confirmed as a Belgian colony by a League of Nations Mandate in 1924, later renewed as a United Nations Trust Territory. 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. However, the Government was not in favor, arguing that this could result in political instability. They used civil disobedience, strikes, and civil unrest against the Belgian colonialists. Other articles where history of Belgium is discussed: Belgium: History of Belgium: This section surveys the history of the Belgian territories after 1579. . As the first census did not take place until 1924, it is difficult to quantify the population loss of the period and these figures have been disputed by some who, like William Rubinstein, claim that the figures cited by Adam Hochschild are speculative estimates based on little evidence. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. When Belgium became a nation in 1830, it had almost no tradition of long-distance trade or colonial activity. 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. Sadowski, Yahya. The Twa or the pygmies, who were the original inhabitants of Rwanda, were outcasts and despised by both the Hutus and the Tutsis. 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. But from 1895 on, the Congo Free State, which Leopold ruled as an absolute monarch, was saved from bankruptcy by the growing demand for rubber.
What did Belgium colonize in Africa? - YourSageInformation It also had small concessions in Guatemala (18431854) and in China (19021931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. As in most colonies, the Congolese economy consisted of a heterogeneous mix of different sectors.