From the 1920s on, heavy investments in the exploitation of the colony's rich mineral resources transformed the Congo into a major actor in the world economy. 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. With the promise of open trade, Leopold convinced world powers to recognize what eventually became the Association Internationale du Congo (AIC) as the legal authority over a vast territory in the heart of Africa. It was an apartheid type of social and political system. Like the 1994 genocide, it started when extremist Tutsis attacked a Hutu leader, and the Hutus retaliated by killing hundreds of Tutsis. 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). Taking advantage of the political conflict between the president and the prime minister, Mobutu encouraged the military to revolt. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. . The Belgian claim was never formally recognised and the proposal was dropped in 1908. They used civil disobedience, strikes, and civil unrest against the Belgian colonialists. The Congo was also characterized by the extraordinary development of huge mining industries (particularly in the province of Katanga, well known for its copper, and in the Kasai region, famous for its industrial diamonds). Kanyandago, Peter, ed. [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. [11], 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. Millions of Congolese died during this time. Hutus went on a rampage, killing Tutsis in their midst with the aim of exterminating them. This was in contrast to the British and the French, who generally favoured the system of indirect rule whereby traditional leaders were retained in positions of authority under colonial oversight. The first wave of genocide by the Hutus against the Tutsis took place earlier, however, under the administration of the Belgians in 1959. THE ADMINISTRATION OF CONGO BY THE BELGIANS (19081960), HISTORY OF BELGIUM COLONIZATION OF RWANDA, RACE AND ETHNICITY IN PRECOLONIAL AFRICAN BELGIAN COLONIES, ETHNIC RELATIONS DURING THE BELGIAN COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION, ETHNIC AND POLITICAL CONFLICTS IN POSTCOLONIAL BELGIAN COLONIES IN AFRICA. Belgium administered these mandates through a system of indirect rule. These organizations, controlled by the king himself, had in fact a commercial purpose. Although there were several political parties, the two most prominent were Joseph Kasavubus ABAKO, a party based among the Kongo people, and Patrice Lumumbas Congolese National Movement. 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 . . Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Centre d'histoire de l'Afrique de l'universit catholique de Louvain, 1996. 1822) [19]. The United States and Belgium provided the money that Mobutu used to bribe the Congolese army to commit treason against their properly elected government. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. 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 . EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO REINVENT OVERSEA, LEOPOLD II (18351909; ruled 18651909), king of Belgium and personal sovereign of the Congo Free State. POST-1945 HISTORICAL CONTEXTS Supporters of the second option led by Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) won the day and the Belgian Congo became independent on June 30, 1960. Any four countries? 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). The official Belgian attitude was paternalism: Africans were to be cared for and trained as if they were children. It is estimated that millions of Congolese died during this time. The king took several personal initiatives, without the formal backing of his country's government and even without the support of Belgium's leading economic players. 111: 1223. 2023 . Western colonialism, a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world. . Belgian authorities were caught practically unprepared by the sudden wave of black political activism, and subsequently engaged in a process of "precipitous decolonization." 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. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo had extensive urbanization, and the colonial administration began various development programmes aimed at making the territory into a "model colony". 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. Germany's African ColoniesThe unification of Germany in 1871 constituted a watershed in Germany's imperial agenda of acquiring colonies in Africa. There were other small LubaLunda states in Congo. The scramble for Africa - The British Empire - BBC Bitesize The European incursion into the west coast of Africa and the consequent slave raids increased the migrations of refugees into Kongo. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The concept of internal colonialism has become so widely used and applied that almost every minority group in the world has b, The 1994 genocide in Rwanda represents one of the clearest cases of genocide in modern history. Before the coming of the Europeans, the Kingdom of Kongo had well-organized political and administrative structures that rivaled those of the Europeans. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Second, these leaders exacerbated ethnic rivalries and tensions to stay in power. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, Colonialism, Internal . Intermarriage was not prohibited in this caste system. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. Burundi is a small country in Central Africa, which borders with Rwanda, Zaire, and Tanzania. It became a League of Nations Class B mandate allotted to Belgium, from 1924 to 1945. Harris, Joseph E. 1998. It was during the Belgian colonial administration that the foundations for the postcolonial and present-day ethnic tensions and political instability were laid. The other chief colonisers were France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain. A third economic sector consisted of large-scale plantations (e.g., palm oil production by the enterprise founded by the British businessman William Lever [18511925]), also oriented toward export. This exploration led initially to the establishment of the Congo Free State. Paris: Harmattan, 1992. As the independence of Rwanda became inevitable in the 1950s, however, the Belgians changed course and started to empower the Hutus by increasing their political and economic muscle and providing them access to modern education. The Belgians found willing elites to help them rule Rwanda. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. This ended with the seizure of power by Joseph-Dsir Mobutu. From the coastline excursions in Africa and the gradual establishment of trade routes in Asia and in the Indian . History of Europe - The scramble for colonies | Britannica Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps, Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. It was relatively easy for this army to overrun Congo. During a period lasting from 1881 to 1914 in what was known as the Scramble for Africa, several European . Their refusal led Leopold to create a state under his own personal rule. In the margins of the 18841885 Berlin Conference, the world's main powers recognized the AIC as the legal authority over a vast territory in the heart of Africa, a new "state" called the Congo Free State. Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. 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). 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. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. OF DECOLONIZATION Leopold II, King of the Belgiansas his coun, The Thirteen Colonies were British colonies in North America founded between 1607 (Virginia) and 1732 (Georgia). 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. Belgian Congo, French Congo Belge, former colony (coextensive with the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) in Africa, ruled by Belgium from 1908 until 1960. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 helped exacerbate ethnic and political tensions in the Congo. However, the Government was not in favor, arguing that this could result in political instability. In 1966 he renamed the Congolese cities of Lopoldville (Kinshasa), Stanley-ville (Kisangani), and Elisabethville (Lubumbashi). The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". From the late 1920s, some important mining companies had also developed a paternalistic policy aimed at stabilizing and controlling their labor force (Congo had one of the largest wage labor contingents in Africa). Africa: Belgian Colonies | Encyclopedia.com It also annexed Katanga, a territory under the Congo Free State flag, which Leopold had gained in 1891, when he sent an expedition which killed its king, Msiri, cut off his head and hoisted it on a pole. On July 14, the United Nations Security Council authorized a force to help to establish order in the Congo, but this force was unable to bring the seceded Katanga province to order. 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. By the 1870s, many European countries were looking to expand their control in Africa. . Natives eventually faced dire conditions, characterized by displacement, forced labor, and taxation. For example, Belgian and other foreign interests engineer these conflicts so they can continue to loot the resources of Africa. 27 Apr. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. The scramble for colonies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. 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. [4], The Free State government exploited the Congo for its natural resources, first ivory and later rubber which was becoming a valuable commodity. The Belgian colonial administration built some schools, railways, roads, plantations, mines, industrial areas, and airports. From early April 1994 through mid-July 1994, members, Africa, Modern U.S. Security Policy and Interventions, African American Catholics in the United States (History of), https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/africa-belgian-colonies. When Laurent Kabila drove him from power in 1997, Mobutus wealth deposited in foreign banks was in excess of $4 billion. in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. [CDATA[ As was the case with the other former German colonies, the League of Nations entrusted both of these territories to the victorious power as "mandates." The new leader signed a peace treaty with the rebel groups and appointed four vice presidents hailing from former rebel groups. The Belgian colonial empire consisted of three African colonies possessed by Belgium between 1901 to 1962. What African countries were Colonized by the British? - Answers The worst of the genocide took place in 1994 when nearly a million Rwandan citizens (mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus) were massacred. The Congo had a high degree of racial segregation. Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. [13] The country was split into nesting, hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set "native policy" (politique indigne). What has been described as an Apartheid-like system also existed in that the mobility of Africans, but not of Europeans, was restricted and curfews applied to the former. Congo, mythes et ralits: 100 ans d'histoire. During the East African Campaign of World War I, the north-east part of German East Africa, Ruanda-Urundi, was invaded by Belgian and Congolese troops in 1916, and was still occupied by them at the end of the war in 1918. Belgium's African Colonies | Encyclopedia.com The former Belgian colonies have experienced a series of coups, civil wars and have a history of political instability. Political instability created by tension between clan and central leadership in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and tribal rivalry leading to genocide in Rwanda are at least in part the result of a colonial legacy that took far more from Africa than it gave. 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). Rather than control the Congo as a colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa, Leopold privately owned the region. "Belgium's African Colonies All Rights Reserved 2022 Theme: Promos by. 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. 27 Apr. 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. These countries accounted for more than 30% of Africa's population. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, Amin, Idi c. 1925-2003 Factbox: Belgium's colonial rule in Congo and what happened next Handelman, Howard. The people, although classified as Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, essentially spoke the same language. So did Spain, Italy and Portugal by 1914. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Subnationalism in Africa: Ethnicity, Alliances, and Politics. German Colonial Rule - African Studies - Oxford Bibliographies - obo It was, however, the third largest colonial territory in Africa; in contrast, the possessions of Belgium's more powerful neighbor, Germany, came sixth in size. French explorers fanned out in equatorial Africa, and a French mission began the conquest of Indochina in the 1860s. In the west, it 'acquired' Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Southern Cameroon, and Sierra Leone; in the east, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania were under Britain rule; and in the south, Britain successfully overtook South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland. Following the Rwandan Revolution, the mandate became the independent states of Burundi and Rwanda in 1962.[1]. Although a few attempts were made by the first king, Leopold I (17901865), these were not successful. These kingdoms, especially the Kingdom of Kongo, were comparably wealthy, and when the standard of living is high, people tend to get along well. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinit coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests. Map of Africa in 1910. On February 5, 1885, Belgian King Leopold II established the Congo Free State by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession. 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. Stengers, Jean. On January 17, 1961, the government of Moise Tshombe in Katanga, with the full support of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), murdered Lumumba and two of his associates in cold blood. With these events sea power shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and . When Belgium became a nation in 1830, it had almost no tradition of long-distance trade or colonial activity. Along with several other European powers and the United States, as a result of the Boxer Rebellion, Belgium also gained a Concession of two square kilometers in Tientsin (or Tianjin; a Chinese Treaty port). Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, and Spain also rushed to gain territory. 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." Why did they cut off hands in the Congo? 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. Specifically, in 1929, they eliminated all the non-Tutsi chiefs, and as a result the Hutus lost all their representation in the colonial government. This uprising led to the disintegration of the Belgian colonial administration and helped in winning independence for the Congo in 1960. Finally, the constant interventions of the Belgians in the affairs of their former colonies of Congo and Rwanda have made ethnic and political rivalries worse. ." (art. Colonisation of Africa - Wikipedia What are the most attractive personality traits in a man? ." In 1876 he commissioned Sir Henry Morton Stanleys expedition to explore the Congo region. The United States, Belgium, and other Western governments aided Mobutu in overthrowing the government of Lumumba as part of their cold war rivalry with the communist bloc countries led by the Soviet Union. Others cited Belgian's ratification of Article 73 of the United Nations Charter (on self-determination) and argued for a swifter hand-over of power than the 30 years favored by some. Encyclopedia.com. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"n0hifXIP06k4AZAYPfhaWe9Vz2rtENJE3ukkjTyT.f4-86400-0"}; 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. In 1908, in order to defuse an international outcry against the brutality of the Congo Free State, the Belgian government agreed to annex it as a colony, named the Belgian Congo. . EUROPEAN EFFORTS TO REINVENT OVERSEA, colony, any nonself-governing territory subject to the jurisdiction of a usually distant country. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . Belgians, including their government, adopted an ambivalent, even indifferent attitude towards their empire. 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. Much of this was spent on public buildings in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp. Kabilas inability to disarm the Hutu militia and to share power with his former Tutsi allies led to war with his allies. Leopold had administered Katanga separately, but in 1910, the Belgian government merged it with the Belgian Congo. They favored certain ethnic groups, especially the ones that would allow them to continue to colonize and plunder the rich natural resources of the Congo. Finally in 1908, Leopold was forced to hand over the Congo Free State, his personal fiefdom, to the Belgian state. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. By 1899 the British vice consul confirmed and further reported the brutality of Leopolds misrule in Congo. Consequently, colonial policy was determined by a small group of persons, in particular the minister of colonies, a handful of top civil servants in the Ministry of Colonies, some prominent Catholic ecclesiastics, and the leaders of the private companies that were investing increasing amounts of capital in the colony. 2023 . Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Such conditions led to opposition from other European powers, and the Congo Free State ceased to exist in 1908 when it was annexed by Belgium. At the Berlin Conference in 1884, the USA, the Ottoman Empire and 12 European countries divided up most of the . 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.

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