How and Why Did Leopold II Acquire an Empire?

On the 29^th of may 1885 , King Leopold II was declared sovereign of the newly recognised state , the Congo Free State. Under the terms of the General Act of Berlin, he promises to suppress the slave trade, “watch over the preservation” of the 30 million Congolese under his rule and improve “their moral and material conditions of existence”. Yet over the following 23 years Africa witnessed some of the worst atrocities in it’s history committed in the Congo. The question at hand is how and why he acquired this empire in the first place, and in answering this hopefully understand why the atrocities, for which he is infamous, took place.

Leopold was born on the 9^th of April 1835 in Brussels. He was the eldest son of Leopold I , the first king of the Belgians. Joining the Belgian army at an early age, he was later promoted to lieutenant general and served s an honorary commander of his regiment. In 1853 he married Marie Henriette and together they had four children.

Leopold was one of the most widely travelled of all the European monarchs, and through this gradually forms his belief that Belgium should become a colonial power. “ I believe that the moment is come for us to extend our territories. I think that we must lose no time, under penalty of seeing the few remaining good positions seized upon by more enterprising nations than our own” (1860)

Even before this he repeatedly reminded the Senate that “Belgium has not sufficiently remembered that the sea washes one of her boundaries” He weighed up several possibilities from China to Uruguay, from Angola to the Philippines. He was particularly enthralled by the idea of becoming a Belgian pharaoh and repeatedly strove to establish an empire on the Nile. In the 1890’s he even suggested that he would back a British occupation of China if Britain first evacuated Egypt and left it to Leopold. Having taken out subscriptions to various journals of exploration, and as their news from Africa became more promising and definite, he began to focus his attention there.

In 1865 his Father died and he assumed the throne. However as a constitutional monarch, he had no power to decide government policy. He therefore had to spend the next 20 years lobbying the Belgian Parliament to take a colony, until he eventually resolved to establish his own private colony.

In 1867 he joined the Société Geographique de Paris and gave 100 Francs towards the expenses of an international conference organised by them. In 1875 it held a conference, from which Leopold drew many of his ideas and tactics used in the campaign to set up the Congo Free State.

Especially important were the techniques of tropical colonization, discussed in the Economic Section and prompted by the Questions of a well-primed Belgian delegate.

The idea of a noyau dirigéant was one of the main ideas drawn from this. It essentially comprised of a small group of westerners in each community civilizing the mass “mainly by setting a good example”.[i]

This idea sounds very good in theory, but unfortunately Leopold did not put it into practice. The reason for this was that such a system could not ever produce wealth on the scale that Leopold would have regarded as acceptable. It was merely reserved a place in his propaganda campaign, which secured  international recognition for the Congo State, and nothing more was heard of the plan after this.

Perhaps another interesting idea that Leopold learned was the ‘travel light’ recommendation made by the Problems of Travel subcommittee. This would involve setting up of small stations along the main routes, to provide supplies and rest for the small travelling parties.

Historians have tended to be quite cynical of Leopold’s reasons for colonisation. Neal Ascherson points out that “..he calculated that even a nation a hard-headed as the Belgians might respond to humanitarian appeals to suppress the slave trade which would involve their religion in demands for an extension of missionary influence”[ii] Indeed many damning accounts were written of Leopold and his later exploits, but this should not discredit his original intentions. Scott B Cook in his Book Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism rightly points out that final judgement on him should remain speculative, since Leopold’s views changed over time and because he burned many of the pertinent papers.

Cook speculates himself that Leopold’s reasons for colonizing were threefold. First, that colonies would make Belgian industry more competitive by lowering the cost of production, as there was an abundance of cheap raw materials. Second, it was hoped that friction between French and Flemish speakers would lessen with the arrival of new empire generated wealth and international prestige. Finally, colonies could support middle class investments and careers in the form of clerks, administrators, and military officers.[iii]Also encouraging was the fact that the British seemed to be not interested in the Congo Basin.

In 1876 Leopold sponsored an international Geographical conference in Brussels where he proposed the establishment of an international committee for the “propagation of civilisation among the peoples of the Congo region by means of scientific exploration, legal trade and war against the Arabic slave traders.[iv] He laid down an agenda for  1. the precise location of the bases for operations to be acquired. 2. Locations of the routes to be opened up to the interior and 3. established of a central international committee.

This main committee became the ‘Association Internationale pour la traffic et ouvrir l’Afrique Centrale’ or AIA, with Leopold as president. However it was only to last a few years before it simply faded out of existence.

Neal Ascherson asserts that Leopold intended to “use the nature of the AIA as a Trojan horse for Belgian aggrandisement” [v]The initial plan was that the Belgian committee of the AIA would remain active perhaps to form the nucleus of a chartered company which would slide its concessions gradually under Belgian sovereignty. However, this proved not to be wholly the case as Belgium was not only unwilling to do so but unfit to receive it as Leopold saw it.There remained therefore the option of placing this unborn dominion under his own personal trusteeship.

In 1878 Leopold set up the Comité d’Etates du Haut Congo ( CEHC) an “international commercial, scientific and humanitarian committee” and commissioned Henry Morton Stanley to further explore the Congo. However, Stanley’s real mission was to establish Belgian sovereignty along the rivers south bank and monopoly control over the Congo rubber and ivory trade..“as  circumstances allow, I shall try to transform these points into something like Belgian establishments, or into water on land situations which will be ours… I do not want to risk losing a fine chance to secure us a slice of this magnificent African cake”[vi] He forsees that the posts can develop into a command structure once Europe and Africa have got use to their “pretensions” in the Congo. It is unclear whether or not the expedition and formation of the CEHC met with the approval of the AIA but the significance of this moment was the entrance of the Leopoldian project into the second stage. Ascherson sums this time up by saying “ the philanthropic body had acquired the powers  of a good commercial undertaking. Now, it remained for it to add itself the rights of sovereign territorial dominion.”

Leopold told Stanley privately to “purchase as much land as you will be able to obtain” and that there was “ no question of granting the slightest political power to the Negroes.”

Over the course of two trips that lasted until 1884 Stanley bought all the ivory that he could. Probing from west to east, he set up fortified stations and laid the groundwork for a commercial state. Using every available means, he even resorted to blasting away whole mountainsides which earned him the name Bula Matari, the breaker of rocks. He steamed up stream wherever possible and build roads chiselled through forest the rest of the way.

During his second expedition, which was made after incessant scoldings by Leopold, economic control and military conquest were more openly pushed. This was helped by a portable arsenal of light river steamers, two million rounds of ammunition, one thousand repeating rifles, twelve artillery pieces and four machine guns. In order to consolidate the gains made, twenty-two armed stations were erected and more roads were built.

He also signed over 300 treaties on behalf of Leopold with chiefs who knowingly or otherwise agreed to give up sovereignty over their land in exchange for cloth and trinkets. Leopold asked that the treaties be  “as brief as possible and in a couple of articles must grant us everything”.[vii]  Stanley also achieved more fame when he narrowly beat the French to the occupation of Loilou country, after a series of brilliant marches by his lieutenants, Grand-Elliot and Vandervelde.

International attention became drawn to the region after it became apparent  that Portugal was arranging a deal with Britain over sovereignty of the banks  of the estuary in return for free trade. The Belgians campaigned vigorously for this in the grounds that it was associated with protectionism and slavery. The campaign failed and the treaty was signed in February 1884. However a number of countries put pressure on them, namely France and the U.S.  and the treaty finally became impracticable  to ratify upon Bismarck’s flat refusal to accept it.

This international crisis led up to the calling of the Conference of Berlin in November of that year. Fourteen Nations were present, and the purpose of the conference was to carve up Central Africa between them. Upon conclusion, France is given 670000 square km on the north bank of the Congo and Portugal given 910000 square km to the south. After some deft manipulation, Leopold claimed the remaining 2.3 million square km on the south Bank of the Congo, which became recognised as the État independent du Congo ( Congo Free State – CFS)

Leopold acted soon to secure his fiefdom, building a native army ( the ‘Force Publique’) comprised of Congolese conscripts lead by European officers. Initially it was used to put down the Arab Slave traders but it later was used on the Congolese themselves. Forced labour was used to build the colony’s infrastructure, transport rubber and ivory from the interior  to the river ports, and produce all the territory’s food. At the same time they will be required to pay taxes to the state.

The colony was divided up into two economic zones – a free trade zone open to concession holders, and Leopold’s ‘domaine priveé’ encompassing two thirds of the CFS landmass. Independent traders were prohibited from operating in all areas and Congolese were only allowed trade with approved agents. These agents were paid a bare minimum to maximise profits and the rubber workers were grossly underpaid. Profits of nearly 700% were  reported in the 1890’s. It was this along with a number of other abuses that led to publications such as the ‘ Heart of Darkness’ in 1899. Such reports outraged other nations and they demanded that something be done. “the evils prevalent in the Congo State are therefore, now unanimously declared by the house of commons to be so grave as to call for  international action”

Eventually in 1908 the Belgian parliament finally acted and annexed the CFS under the ‘Colonial Charter’. Leopold’s empire had come to and end.

On answering the question of how and why he Leopold built an empire it is important not to be distracted by the mass of material documenting the horrors that occurred in the CFS. Historians in the years following  the death of Leopold and indeed to present have focused solely on this, and as a result the character of the man has been distorted. Indeed it is quite possible that his intentions were quite normal for the age to begin with, and that over time the power and greed associated with running the colony corrupted him gradually, and made him blind to the atrocities occurring. But this idea seems to be rarely mentioned except in the case of Scott B Cook. This theory is not far fetched when one considers that as a constitutional monarch, he was restricted in the control he had over national affairs, and the CFS acted as an outlet for the frustration he could have felt in not being able to exercise power. In essence he was an absolute monarch over his new state and this power and greed changed his character for the worse.