Figure 1.--Here native boys are drilling in the Congo Free State some time in the 1890s. There aappear to be three Belgians in the back overseeing the drill. |
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Stanley negotiated treaties with local African rulers, obstensibly recognizing King Leopold's sovereignty. The European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognized Leopold's claim (1884-85). King Leopold used an official ceremony at Banana to announced the creation of the Congo Free State (1885). The Congo Free State (CFS) encompased a huge area of central Africa. It was headed by King Leopold as an absolute ruler. It took some time for Leopold to establish full control over all of the Congo. It took several years to conquer mineral-rich Katanga (1891-92). The last area that Leopold established his authority was the remote eastern Congo (1892-84). Here Arab and Arabized Swahili traders resisted Belgian contril. Leopold at first used Tippu Tib as an administrator, but when he proved to independent supressed him. Leopold did not have the capital to develop the resources of his new fiefdom. He managed to secure loans from the Belgian Parliament (1889 and 1895). The loans included a provision giving the Belgian Government the right to annex the Congo in 1901. King Leopold declared all unoccupied land (including cropland temporarily lying fallow) as property of the Congo Free State. essentially his personal property. Leopold gained control of the profitable rubber and ivory trade. Leopold transferred land to concessionaire companies. In return these companies built railroads and other infrastructure. They helped expand Belgian control throughout the country side. Many also paid the state a portion of their profits. Leopold in addition to the concessionaire companies granted himself a large estate around Lake Leopold II. northeast of Kinshasa). Other private companies were established to develop the Congo's mineral resources. These companies worked in Katanga and Kasai. The largest was the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (1905). The Congo Free State, was a far cry from the humanitarian inpulse with which the Victorians justified colonialism. Leopold administered the Congo as his personal property and not a national colony. The people in the the Congo Free State were essentilly turned into slaves worked to enrich Leopold personally. They were subjected to horendous abuses. Belgian's parliament did not proceed to annex the Congo as it was entitled to do in 1901.
Stanley negotiated treaties with local African rulers, obstensibly recognizing King Leopold's sovereignty. The European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognized Leopold's claim (1884-85). King Leopold used an official ceremony at Banana to announced the creation of the Congo Free State (1885). The Congo Free State (CFS) encompased a huge area of central Africa. It was headed by King Leopold as an absolute ruler.
The Congo basin is a huge area. It took some time for Leopold to establish full control over all of the Congo. It took several years to conquer mineral-rich Katanga (1891-92). The last area that Leopold established his authority was the remote eastern Congo (1892-84). Here Arab and Arabized Swahili traders resisted Belgian contril.
Leopold at first used Tippu Tib as an administrator, but when he proved to independent supressed him.
Leopold did not have the capital on his own to develop the boutiful resources of his new fiefdom. He managed to secure loans from the Belgian Parliament (1889 and 1895). The loans included a provision giving the Belgian Government the right to annex the Congo in 1901. King Leopold declared all unoccupied land (including cropland temporarily lying fallow) as property of the Congo Free State. essentially his own personal property. Leopold gained control of the profitable rubber and ivory trade. Leopold transferred land to concessionaire companies. In return these companies built railroads and other needed infrastructure. This helped expand Belgian control throughout the country side. Many also paid the state a portion of their profits. Leopold in addition to the concessionaire companies granted himself a large estate around Lake Leopold II, northeast of Kinshasa. Other private companies were established to develop the Congo's mineral resources. These companies worked in Katanga and Kasai. The largest was the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (1905).
It took some time for the mining projects to produc substantil revenue. King Leopold had to appeal to Parliament for financial aid. He was granted large interest-free loans (1890 and 95), in return for the right of the Belgian government to annexe the territory if it so wishes in 1901. The Belgian parliament did not, however, proceed to annex the Congo as it was entitled to do in 1901. At the time, the economic prospects for the Congo were improving substantially. Both latex from wild rubber trees and ivory from killing elephanrts became very important. At first ivory was the most important. Grafually latex incresed in importance. John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic tire (1888). Until then only smll quantities of rubber were ued for water proofing clothes and a variety of other uses. And while ultimtely it would be primarily used for the automobile, in the late-19th century it was mostly used fo bicycles and in much larger quantities than ever before. Automobiles began appearing after the turn of the 20th century. The ivory and expanding use of rubber. These products turned around Leopold's finances. The Congo Free State exported less than 250 tons of rubber (1892). In only 5 years with the bicycle craze in Europe and America, this increased to 1,500 t (1897). Leopold in ashort period became one of the wealhiest monarchs in Europe.
He began financing spectacular public projects in Brussels and Ostend hoping to imprive his popularity.
The moto for the Congo Free State was 'Work and Progress'. It was in fact a far cry from the humanitarian inpulse with which the Victorians justified colonialism. No where in the colonized countries was this more painfully apparent than the Congo. Colonization in most European colonies meant an end to slvery. The CFS essentially insy\titutionlized slavery. Leopold administered the Congo as his personal property and not a national colony. The people in the the Congo Free State were essentilly turned into slaves laboring to enrich Leopold personally. They were subjected to horendous abuses, including enslavement, rape, and murder of innocents. Villiagers were giveb quota of rubber sap to gather in the forests. Failure to meet the quota which were often unrealisticallhigh could result in amputation. This included both children and adults. Villages which failed to collect the required quotas were required to pay the shortage in severed hands. The hands were collected by the soldiers of the Force Publique and sometimes by the villages themselves. Violence flared with villages attacked other villages to bbtain hands. Photographs of amputees began to circulte, including the child amputees. Mass-deaths in the CFS became an interntional cause célèbre. It became a griwing embarrassment to both the King and Belgium as the truth began to leak out. Belgium had been portrayed itself as a progressive colonial power and upholding human rights. The Congo Reform Movement was organized. Prominent individuals joined, including Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness, Arthur Conan Doyle (Crime of the Congo), Mark Twain (King Leopold's Soliloquy), Bertrand Russell, and Booker T. Washington. It was difficult for King Leopold to refute men with reputations like those associated wit the Congo Reform Movement.
Missionaries througout Asia and Africa were both an element of colonial rule and governence as well as a force for tremdous good. Missionaries in the Congo were permitted only with the approval of Leopold's Congo Free State. He was able to keep the Belgian Catholic mossionaries silent. This proved more difficult for other missionaries. British missionaries in particular compiled evidence of the terrible abuses. [Grant] Reports from missionaries proved to be some of the most compeling evidence against King Leopold's CFS. Witnessing a native killed, a Danish missionary wrote, "The soldier said 'Don’t take this to heart so much. They kill us if we don’t bring the rubber. The Commissioner has promised us if we have plenty of hands he will shorten our service.'" Eyewitness reports from missionaries such thise submitted by American William Henry Sheppard exposed terrible abuses.
He was the son of a former slave. He managed to pursue a childhood dream of going to Africa as a missionary and in the process search for his identity. Sheppard attended Hampton College. The missianry reports came mostly from Protestant missiinaries. The King's spkesmen dismissed these reports as attempts by Protestants to smear honest Roman Catholic priests. King Leopold successfully supressed the truth for more than a decade. As the Kodak Brownie and similar camera made it possible for the missionaries to take photographs and send them out. This was evidence the King's spolesmen could not refute. And missionaries were located throughout the CFS.
The Congo Free State Propaganda War was one of the early propaganda campaigns waged in the world-wide media during the 20th century. The term 'Red Rubber' as popularized. Both King Leopold the critics of the abuses he perpetrated in the Congo Free State were involved. At first the King's critics made little progress. Leopold's well-financed media campaign manaaged to drown out his critics. Rumours began to leak out from the Congo. Leopold attempted to quell them by financing an expensive media campaign to dispove the rumors. He even established a Commission for the Protection of the Natives to root out what he said was "few isolated instances" of abuse. The Commission was a creation purely to mislead the public. Leopold's emisaries bribed publisgers. They accused the critics of operating a campaigns to further the interests of the colonial ambitions of other countries. Briton Edmund Dene Morel was one critic that refused to be muzeled. He emerged as the King's principal critic. He successfully publicized the King's terrible abuse of the Congo people. Morel was a clerk in a major Liverpool shipping office and a keen part-time journalist. He begn to wonder why the ships that brought loads of rubber from the Congo returned full of guns and ammunition for the Force Publique rather than goods for the Congo people. Thanks to Morel, the public began to learn the details of the viloence being directed at the native population. Morel used the mass media, especially the newspapers. He also published pamphlets and books with extensive information garnered from reports, eye-witness testimony, and photigraphs furnished by missionaries and others working in the Congo. Morel managed to attract influential supporters. The publicity eventually forced King Leopold to relinquish personal control of the Congo.
We notice photographs of what were called settlement schools. Settlement houses was a term used to assist the poor in the expanding industrial cities. In the Congo, settlement meant the communities the Belgians supervised and used as administratuve centers. Most were along the Congo River and other riversrs, because there were no improved roads and very limited rail lines. We are not sure what to make of these images of settlement school. We have not been able to find much infirmation about them. The missionaries may have operated some schools, but we are not sure if they were involved in the settlement schools. We have no idea of the type and level of instruction at these schools. We suspect that an important purpose of the settlement schools was to assist with King Leopolds propaganda that he was bringing civilization and Christianity to the Congo. The settlement schools were this very useful in promoting that image. We are not sure how many there were and the number of children that they educated. It would have been a very small part of the popultion, most Congo children had no access to education.
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. This is a novel, but proved extreneky influential.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. Crime of the Congo.
Grant, Kevin. Christian critics of empire: Missionaries, lantern lectures, and the Congo reform campaign in Britain," The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Volume 29, Issue 2, (2001), pp. 27-58.
Twain, Mark. King Leopold's Soliloquy),
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