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The Congo Free State (1870 — 1908)
Clearing tropical forests ate away at profit margins. However, ample plots of
cleared land were already available. Above, a Congolese farming village (Baringa,
Equateur) is emptied and levelled to make way for a rubber plantation.Main
articles: Colonisation of the Congo, Congo Free State, and Belgian Congo
European exploration and administration took place from the 1870s until the
1920s — first by Sir Henry Morton Stanley who undertook his explorations mainly
under the sponsorship of King Leopold II of Belgium, who desired what was to
become the Congo as a colony. In a succession of negotiations, Leopold,
professing humanitarian objectives in his capacity as chairman of the
Association Internationale Africaine, played one European rival against the
other. The Congo territory was acquired formally by Leopold at the Conference of
Berlin in 1885. He made the land his private property and named it the Congo
Free State. Leopold's regime began undertaking various projects, such as the
railway that ran from the coast to Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) which took years
to complete. Nearly all these projects were aimed at increasing the capital
Leopold and his cohorts could extract from the colony, leading to atrocious
exploitation of Africans. In the Free State, the local population was brutalized
in exchange for rubber, a growing market with the development of rubber tires.
The selling of the rubber made a fortune for Leopold, who built several
buildings in Brussels and Ostend to honour himself and his country. During the
period between 1885 and 1908, between five and 15 (the commonly accepted figure
is about ten) million Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation and
diseases. A government commission later concluded that the population of the
Congo had been "reduced by half" during this brutal period. To enforce the
rubber quotas, the Force Publique (FP) was called in. The FP was an army, but
its aim was not to defend the country, but to terrorise the local population.
The Force Publique made the practice of cutting off the limbs of the natives as
a means of enforcing rubber quotas a matter of policy; this practice was
widespread. The actions of the Free State's administration sparked international
protests led by E. D. Morel and British diplomat/Irish patriot Roger Casement,
whose 1904 report on the Congo condemned the practice, as well as famous writers
such as Mark Twain. Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness also takes place
in Congo Free State. In 1908, the Belgian parliament, which was at first
reluctant, bowed to international pressure (especially from Great Britain) by
taking over the Free State from the king as a Belgian colony. From then on, it
became the Belgian Congo, under the rule of the elected Belgian government.
The Belgian administration: Belgian Congo (1908 – 1960)
Main article: Belgian Congo
Conditions in the Congo improved followed the Belgian government's takeover.
Select Bantu languages were taught in primary schools, a rare occurrence in
colonial education. Colonial doctors were to greatly reduce the spread of
African trypanosomiasis, commonly known as sleeping sickness. The colonial
administration implemented a variety of economic reforms that focused on the
improvement of infrastructure: railways, ports, roads, mines, plantations and
industrial areas. The Congolese people, however, lacked political power and
faced legal discrimination. All colonial policies were decided in Brussels and
Leopoldville. The Belgian Colony-secretary and Governor-general, neither of whom
was elected by the Congolese people, wielded absolute power. Among the Congolese
people, resistance against their undemocratic regime grew over time. In 1955,
the Congolese upper class (the so-called "évolués"), many of whom had been
educated in Europe, initiated a campaign to end the inequality.
During World War II, the small Congolese army achieved several victories against
the Italians in North Africa. The Belgian Congo, which was also rich in uranium
deposits, supplied the uranium that was used by the United States to build the
atomic weapons that were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August 1945.
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