what countries did belgium colonize in africa

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. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Much of this was spent on public buildings in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp. Christian missionaries were very successful in the Congo, where the Catholic Church is one of the largest in Africa (approximately 30 million members, or 55 percent of the population). They could also cheaply receive slaves and ivory and sell it at a very high price making a huge profit. Conditions in the colonies did improve after the Belgian government assumed direct control after 1908. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/africa-belgian-colonies. With the support of the Free State's military, the Force Publique, the territory was divided into private concessions. On September 5, President Kasavubu dismissed Lumumba as prime minister. As the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, as the Republic of Congo-Lopoldville in 1960. 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. As a result, Lumumba asked the Soviet Union to help him bring Katanga back to Congo. [21] The agreement was approved by the Belgian parliament on 13 July 1931. In the Congo, the Belgians created an apartheid-like system between the Europeans (Belgians) living in Congo and the Congolese, thereby marginalizing the Congolese in their own society. [14], Congolese troops participated in World War II and were instrumental in forcing the Italians out of their East African colonies during the East African Campaign. If this small European country nevertheless succeeded in ruling a vast colony in Central Africa, this was due only to the tenacity of its second king, Leopold II (18351909). Congo is a multiethnic country with about two hundred ethnic groups. After Belgium began administering the colony, it generally maintained the policies established by the Germans, including indirect rule via local Tutsi rulers, and a policy of ethnic identity cards (later retained in the Republic of Rwanda). Forrest, Joshua B. 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 . Anticolonialism and nationalism found their way into the Congolese population comparatively lateindeed, not until the second half of the 1950s. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinit coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests. 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. The Belgians were always somewhat indifferent towards their colonies, which were not regarded as a vital aspect of their national identity or place in the world, despite the value that Leopold had attached to them. 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's African Colonies The Free State's expenses outstripped its incomes. 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. The Belgian claim was never formally recognised and the proposal was dropped in 1908. 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. 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). Yet, Leopold personally subscribed to what was sometimes called the "progressive" view of imperialism: That it had a moral justification as a civilizing mission. The history of Colonialism as a policy or practice go, Amin, Idi c. 1925-2003 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). They occupied a large part of this German colony. 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. 7 What were the former British colonies in Africa? 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. Here are some facts about Belgian rule and the two countries' difficult bilateral ties since. The Belgians even took the few leadership positions that the Hutus had and gave them to the Tutsis. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 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." In 1876 he commissioned Sir Henry Morton Stanleys expedition to explore the Congo region. In the Congo, political instability started as soon as the Congolese gained their independence from the Belgians in 1960. An increasing number of volunteers had joined the public service and the military in the Congo; Belgian Catholic missions had been protected and promoted by the Free State's authorities; the Belgian Parliament had granted loans to the Congo; and important private groups had started investing in colonial enterprises, particularly in 1906. [15] By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony.[16]. ." However, the Government was not in favor, arguing that this could result in political instability. [3], Although the Congo Free State was not officially a Belgian colony, Belgium was its chief beneficiary, in terms of its trade, the employment of its citizens, and the wealth which Leopold extracted which was used for the construction of numerous fine public buildings in Brussels, Ostend, and Antwerp. Although Great Britain held several, Belgium, Intelligence and Security Agencies, http://www.diplomatie.be/fr/archives/archives.asp, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/belgiums-african-colonies. [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. The Portuguese colonial empire was the first and the last European empire overseas, from the conquest of Ceuta (1415), in Morocco, North Africa, until the formal handover of Macau to the People's Republic of China (1999). [20] Although Belgian companies invested in Tianjin, especially in the city's tram system, the Belgian concession remained inactive. 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). The takeover of the administration by the Belgian government brought some improvements in the lives of the Congolese peoples, who had suffered untold hardships under Leopold II and his private militia. By 1899 the British vice consul confirmed and further reported the brutality of Leopolds misrule in Congo. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Whereas the Hutus were farmers, the Tutsis were cattle herders. 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 itself had gained independence in 1831 when it broke away from the Netherlands and became a new nation. This was the situation until King Leopold II of Belgium made the Congo his personal possession, and it became the only colony owned and run by a single individual. The rubber trade, which was of critical economic importance to sustaining Leopold's enterprise, was marked by especially inhumane conditions. In just a few months' time (from early 1959 to the beginning of 1960), the political prospects for the colony evolved from a long-term loosening of the ties between Belgium and the Congo, to the immediate independence of the African country. Hutus went on a rampage, killing Tutsis in their midst with the aim of exterminating them. [CDATA[ The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. In the Western press, this conflict was portrayed as a racial and cultural one, between the tall, aristocratic, pastoral Tutsis, and Hutus who were uneducated peasant farmers. Secondary and university education were seriously neglected. Revolts and violence against Tutsi, known as the Rwandan Revolution, occurred in the events leading to independence. A further blow came in 1933, when the Belgians issued identity cards to all Rwandans. When did Belgium colonize Congo? In 1960, as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, becoming the Republic of Congo-Lopoldville under Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasa-Vubu. 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. Colonialism in Africa. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. In April of 1885 Belgium's parliament made Leopold the sovereign ruler of this new "state," called the Congo Free State, incorporating all lands not directly occupied by Africans. Congo) in Africa, ruled by Belgium from 1908 until 1960. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. In Rwanda, independence brought increased ethnic tensions because of the policies of the Belgian colonial administration. [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. The Belgians ruled over Congo from 1909 to 1960, while their rule over Rwanda lasted from 1918 to 1962. 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. A number of lobbying groups formed after the unification, including the West German Society for Colonization and Export (1881) and the Central Association for Commercial Geography and the Promotion of German Interests Abroad (1878). At the Berlin Conference in 1884, the USA, the Ottoman Empire and 12 European countries divided up most of the . The Congo Free State, officially presented to the world as a humanitarian and civilizing enterprise destined to abolish slavery and introduce Christianity, became the target of an international protest campaign, led by the British activist Edmund Dene Morel (18731924) and his Congo Reform Association. Indeed, in the beginning, the Congo Free State seemed to be an unviable enterprise. 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. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. 2004. Precolonial Rwanda under the monarchy was highly stratified. In 1865 he succeeded his father, Leopold I, to the Belgian throne. No foreign troops were to be allowed on the concession and Guatemalan troops were to garrison two forts that were to be built near the projected new town. After the end of the war, the Belgian government tried to exchange these territories against the left bank of the Congo River mouth, which was in Portuguese hands. The king imposed a harsh labor regime on the Congolese populations in order to extort ever-growing amounts of wild rubber. Germany had only been unified in 1871 and . The Belgian colonial administration built some schools, railways, roads, plantations, mines, industrial areas, and airports. N'Daywel Nziem, Isidore. 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. The lowest level of administration consisted of the indigenous authorities, the more or less "authentic" traditional African chiefs, who were strictly controlled by Belgian officials. [citation needed], Leopold achieved international recognition for the Congo Free State in 1885. It was established by the Belgian . The European incursion into the west coast of Africa and the consequent slave raids increased the migrations of refugees into Kongo. "Africa: Belgian Colonies GENEALOGY OF THE TERM DECOLONIZATION It was not until the eighteenth century that the Portuguese gained substantial influence in Congo. Paris: Harmattan, 1992. The Twa or the pygmies, who were the original inhabitants of Rwanda, were outcasts and despised by both the Hutus and the Tutsis. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. When Belgium became a nation in 1830, it had almost no tradition of long-distance trade or colonial activity. It is estimated that millions of Congolese died during this time. Finally in 1908, Leopold was forced to hand over the Congo Free State, his personal fiefdom, to the Belgian state. This exploration led initially to the establishment of the Congo Free State. Encyclopedia.com. Specifically, in 1929, they eliminated all the non-Tutsi chiefs, and as a result the Hutus lost all their representation in the colonial government. They favored the takeover of political power by the latter, a policy that succeeded in Rwanda but failed in Burundi. 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 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. 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. Belgian authorities were caught practically unprepared by the sudden wave of black political activism, and subsequently engaged in a process of "precipitous decolonization." The Legacy of Belgium's 19th and 20th Century African Colonies. 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. 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). However, one of the main failures of Belgian colonial policy was the choice not to develop an indigenous elite. The worst of the genocide took place in 1994 when nearly a million Rwandan citizens (mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus) were massacred. It also had small concessions in Guatemala (18431854) and in China (19021931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. Only a tiny fraction of the Congolese population, the so-called volus, succeeded more or less in assimilating the European way of life, but their Belgian masters kept them at the bottom levels of the public service or private companies, without any short-term prospects of exercising responsible tasks. New York: Barnes and Nobles. Among the Congolese, the Belgians used the strategy of divide and rule. Very little money was invested in educationwhich was left to missionaries, mainly Roman Catholic, and consisted of basic literacy and numeracy. Ekwe-Ekwe, Herbert. . French explorers fanned out in equatorial Africa, and a French mission began the conquest of Indochina in the 1860s. These conflicts resulted in many wars and episodes of genocide. On many occasions, the interests of the government and private enterprise became closely tied, and the state helped companies break strikes and remove other barriers raised by the indigenous population. All the members of the castes seemed to be living in harmony until the Belgians came and brought ethnic conflict with them. 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. Handelman, Howard. 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. They used civil disobedience, strikes, and civil unrest against the Belgian colonialists. Despite the modest improvements in the lives of the Congolese, the Belgians created two separate societies in the Congo: the whites and the natives. 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. If this small European country nevertheless succeeded in ruling a vast colony in Central Africa, this was due only to the tenacity of its second king, Leopold II (18351909). 111: 1223. The Consul of Belgium and the president of the Brera Academy established a charitable foundation with the goal of building a village for artists and a hotel.[23]. As in most colonies, the Congolese economy consisted of a heterogeneous mix of different sectors. "Belgium's African Colonies The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. [5] Many deaths can be attributed to new diseases introduced by contact with European colonists, including smallpox which killed nearly half the population in the areas surrounding the lower Congo River. The Portuguese established a relationship with the king of Kongo but stayed in the modern Angolan coastal areas. When Congo became a sovereign nation on June 30, 1960, this new state was utterly unprepared to handle the enormous problems that it had to face, and it slid into years of chaos, internal disruption (e.g., regional secessions, such as Katanga's), and civil waronly to emerge in 1965 under the Mobutu Sese Seko (19301997) dictatorship, which was to last more than thirty years and thoroughly pillaged the country's enormous riches. Most of the ethnic groups speak languages of the widespread Bantu family: Kongo, Mongo, Luba, Bwaka, Kwango, Lulua, Luanda, and Kasai. "[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. 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. OF DECOLONIZATION Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. It was during the Belgian colonial administration that the foundations for the postcolonial and present-day ethnic tensions and political instability were laid. The so-called Colonial Charter of 1908 set out the main lines of the Belgian colonial system: a rigorous separation between the budgets of the colony and the mother country; a strict parliamentary control of executive power (in order to avoid the excesses of the former Leopoldian despotism); the appointment of a governor-general in Congo, whose powers were strictly limited by the metropolitan authorities; and a tight centralism in the colony itself, where provincial authorities were granted little autonomy. [4] By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did in 1908, creating the Belgian Congo. Lumumba was assassinated within a few months of becoming Prime Minister. Colonialism is the act by which a country or state exerts control and domination over another country or state. A classic image depicts the Belgian Congo as being run by the "Trinity" of administration, capital, and the (Catholic) Church. 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. Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps. . Another notable kingdom was the Lunda kingdom of Nwata Kazembe, founded in the early eighteenth century and centered around the Luapula River near the Congo-Zambia border. Taking advantage of the political conflict between the president and the prime minister, Mobutu encouraged the military to revolt. 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. Relations among the Congolese peoples during the precolonial period were largely harmonious. Encyclopedia of Race and Racism. Despite Mobutus dictatorship, relative peace reigned during most of his regime. In 1876 Belgium's King Leopold II convened the Brussels Geographical Conference, which led to the formation of the African International Association. He described his view of the colonial enterprise in these words: Our only program, I am anxious to repeat, is the work of moral and material regeneration, and we must do this among a population whose degeneration in its inherited conditions it is difficult to measure. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has successfully conducted both local and national elections. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Stanley "built roads along the entire stretch of the Congo" and set up "a chain of trading stations." 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. Belgium controlled 3 colonies and 3 concessions during its history, the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960, and Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. Subsequent political problems led to military intervention by the Belgians, who claimed that they intervened to protect Belgian citizens from attack. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/belgiums-african-colonies. Successive governments viewed colonial expansion as economically and politically risky and fundamentally unrewarding, and believed that informal empire, continuing Belgium's booming industrial trade in South America and Russia, was much more promising. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Joseph Mobutu, who later changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko, was appointed army chief of staff by Lumumba. Belgium's African ColoniesWhen Belgium became a nation in 1830, it had almost no tradition of long-distance trade or colonial activity. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Leopold II personally accumulated considerable wealth from exports of rubber and ivory acquired at gunpoint. Even in the first decades of its existence, it showed little inclination toward overseas expansion. Belgium is a small country in northwest Europe that joined Europe's race for colonies in the late 19th century. These organizations, controlled by the king himself, had in fact a commercial purpose. 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 . 5 How did Belgium maintain power in Congo? More or Less: Heroes and Killers of the 20th Century. In the 1500s, Portugal colonized the present-day west . 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. How can a teen start a clothing business? Though its goals were purportedly humanitarian and scientific, Leopold used the association to fund expeditions and establish posts along the Congo River. [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. Encyclopedia.com. It also had a small concession in China and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. The Black Mans Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State. 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. When did Germany colonize Tanzania? Consequently, the Belgian Parliament agreed in 1908 to accept the Congo as its own colony, in order to avoid international intervention or a takeover by a foreign power. 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. Nairobi, Kenya: Paulines Publications Africa.

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what countries did belgium colonize in africa

what countries did belgium colonize in africa