Global InformationCongo Free State information
Congo Free State
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| 1885–1908 | |||||||||||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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| Motto: French: Travail et progrès Dutch: Werk en voortgang (Work and Progress) | |||||||||||||||||
| Anthem: Vers l'avenir | |||||||||||||||||
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| Status | State in personal union with Belgium | ||||||||||||||||
| Capital | Vivi (1885–1886) Boma (1886–1908) 05°51′17″S 13°03′24″E / 5.85472°S 13.05667°E | ||||||||||||||||
| Common languages |
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| Religion | Catholicism (de facto) | ||||||||||||||||
| Government | Absolute monarchy | ||||||||||||||||
| Sovereign | |||||||||||||||||
• 1885–1908 | Leopold II of Belgium | ||||||||||||||||
| Governor-General | |||||||||||||||||
• 1885–1886 (first) | F. W. de Winton | ||||||||||||||||
• 1900–1908 (last) | Théophile Wahis | ||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | New Imperialism | ||||||||||||||||
• Established | 1 July 1885 | ||||||||||||||||
• Congo Arab war | 1892–1894 | ||||||||||||||||
• Battle of Rejaf | 1897 | ||||||||||||||||
• Annexed by Belgium | 15 November 1908 | ||||||||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||||||||
• Total | 2,345,409 km2 (905,567 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
• Water | 77,867 km2 (30,065 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
• Water (%) | 3.32 | ||||||||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||||||||
• 1907 estimate | 9,130,000 | ||||||||||||||||
• Density | 3.8/km2 (9.8/sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Congo Free State franc (1887–1908) | ||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||||||||||||||||
| History of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | ||||||||||||||||
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| See also: Years | ||||||||||||||||
 DRC Portal | ||||||||||||||||
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate nations were in a personal union.[1][2] The Congo Free State was not a part of, nor did it belong to Belgium. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade.[3] Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1885.[4][5][6] The Free State was privately controlled by Leopold from Brussels; he never visited it.[7]
The state included the entire area of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo and existed from 1885 to 1908, when the Belgian Federal Parliament reluctantly annexed the state as a colony belonging to Belgium after international pressure.[8]
Leopold's reign in the Congo eventually earned infamy on account of the atrocities perpetrated on the locals. Ostensibly, the Congo Free State aimed to bring civilization to the local people and to develop the region economically. In reality, Leopold II's administration extracted ivory, rubber, and minerals from the upper Congo basin for sale on the world market through a series of international concessionary companies that brought little benefit to the area. Under Leopold's administration, the Free State became one of the greatest international scandals of the early 20th century. The Casement Report of the British Consul Roger Casement led to the arrest and punishment of officials who had been responsible for killings during a rubber-collecting expedition in 1903.[9]
The loss of life and atrocities inspired literature such as Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness and raised an international outcry. Debate has been ongoing about the high death rate in this period.[10] The highest estimates state that the widespread use of forced labour, torture, and murder led directly and indirectly to the deaths of 50 per cent of the population in the rubber provinces.[11] The lack of accurate records makes it difficult to quantify the number of deaths caused by the exploitation and the lack of immunity to new diseases introduced by contact with European colonists.[12] During the Congo Free State propaganda war, European and US reformers exposed atrocities in the Congo Free State to the public through the Congo Reform Association, founded by Casement and the journalist, author, and politician E. D. Morel. Also active in exposing the activities of the Congo Free State was the author Arthur Conan Doyle, whose book The Crime of the Congo was widely read in the early 1900s.
By 1908, public pressure and diplomatic manoeuvres led to the end of Leopold II's absolutist rule; the Belgian Parliament annexed the Congo Free State as a colony of Belgium. It became known thereafter as the Belgian Congo. In addition, a number of major Belgian investment companies pushed the Belgian government to take over the Congo and develop the mining sector as it was virtually untapped.[13]
- ^ Grant, J.; Barker, J., eds. (2009). "personal union". Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538977-7. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
A personal union is in existence when two sovereign states and separate international persons are linked together through the accidental fact that they have the same individual as monarch. Thus a personal union existed...from 1885 to 1908 between Belgium and the former Congo Free State.
- ^ Lemarchand, Rene (28 April 2023) [1963]. Political Awakening in the Congo: The Politics of Fragmentation. Univ of California Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-520-33863-0.
- ^ Gifford, Paul (1971). France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 221–260. ISBN 9780300012897.
- ^ Katzenellenbogen, S. (1996). "It didn't happen at Berlin: Politics, economics and ignorance in the setting of Africa's colonial boundaries.". In Nugent, P.; Asiwaju, A. I. (eds.). African Boundaries: Barriers, Conduits and Opportunities. London: Pinter. pp. 21–34.
- ^ Cornelis, Sabine. 1991. "Stanley au service de Léopold II: La fondation de l'Etat Indépendant du Congo (1878-1885)". In H. M. Stanley: Explorateur au service du Roi, edited by Sabine Cornelis, 41-60. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa.
- ^ Crowe, S.E. (1942). The Berlin West African Conference, 1884–1885. London: Longmans Green.
- ^ "De koning in Kinshasa die nooit in Congo was [Slot]". MO* (in Dutch). Retrieved 19 February 2024.
- ^ Britannica:"Congo Free State". Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
- ^ "Massacre in Congo State" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 January 1900. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 November 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
- ^ Vansina, Jan (2010). "Being Colonized. The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880-1960". Madison. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ Hochschild 2006, pp. 225–233.
- ^ John D. Fage, The Cambridge History of Africa: From the earliest times to c. 500 BC Archived 2 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge University Press, 1982, p. 748. ISBN 0-521-22803-4
- ^ Gann & Duignan 1979.