Belgian Congo - Wikipedia. Belgian Congo. Congo Belge (French)Belgisch- Congo (Dutch)Colony of Belgium. Motto. Travail et Progr. King Leopold II of the Belgians persuaded the government to support colonial expansion around the then- largely unexplored Congo Basin. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold's creating a colony on his own account.
With support from a number of Western countries, Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony, the Congo Free State, in 1. By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did in 1. Belgian Congo. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the . The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialised. 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. The country was split into nesting, hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set .
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 Congo had a high degree of racial segregation. The large numbers of white immigrants who moved to the Congo after the end of World War II came from across the social spectrum, but were always treated as superior to black people. During the 1. 94. Congo had extensive urbanisation, and the colonial administration began various development programmes aimed at making the territory into a . One of the results was the development of a new middle class of Europeanised African .
By the 1. 95. 0s the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony. In 1. 96. 0, as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro- independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, becoming the Republic of Congo- L. 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 1. This ended with the seizure of power by Joseph- D.
The rainforest, swamps and accompanying malaria and other tropical diseases, such as sleeping sickness, made it a difficult environment for European exploration and exploitation. In 1. 87. 6, King Leopold II of the Belgians organized the International African Association with the cooperation of the leading African explorers and the support of several European governments for the promotion of African exploration and colonization. After Henry Morton Stanley had explored the region in a journey that ended in 1. Leopold courted the explorer and hired him to help his interests in the region. The Belgian civil government showed little interest in its monarch's dreams of empire- building.
Ambitious and stubborn, Leopold decided to pursue the matter on his own account. European rivalry in Central Africa led to diplomatic tensions, in particular with regard to the largely unclaimed Congo River basin. In November 1. 88. Otto von Bismarck convened a 1. Berlin Conference) to find a peaceful resolution to the Congo crisis.
Source: Division de l'Administration du Territoire 1994. Les cultures au KATANGA se r Les informations sur les ressources mini NOCES D’OR, DE DIAMANT ET DE BRILLANT DU 3 DECEMBRE 2006. Au nom du Conseil communal, je vous souhaite Democratic Republic of the Congo Google Satellite Maps; Congo (Kinshasa) Cities,Towns, Airports, Maps, Images; Congo (Kinshasa) Geological Archive. A 17h00 2000 Maka Sidib
India is heavily dependent on agriculture—which accounts for 50 per cent of the country’s employment—and it is. The Belgian Congo (French: Congo Belge, Dutch: Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa between 19 in what is now the Democratic Republic of. Rulers Index E Eagleburger, Lawrence (Sidney) (b. 1, 1930, Milwaukee, Wis. June 4, 2011, Charlottesville, Va.), U.S.
Voici les grands titres des quotidiens TOGO-PRESSE (Togo) et la NATION (B How civilisation was brought to Katanga - a once most inacessible region in Africa - now called Shaba - a province of the Democratic Republic of the.
Though the Berlin Conference did not formally approve the territorial claims of the European powers in Central Africa, it did agree on a set of rules to ensure a conflict- free partitioning of the region. The rules recognised (inter alia) the Congo basin as a free- trade zone. But Leopold II emerged triumphant from the Berlin Conference. The lack of accurate records makes it difficult to quantify the number of deaths caused by the ruthless exploitation and the lack of immunity to new diseases introduced by contact with European colonists.
There is, of course, no way of ascertaining the population of the Congo before the twentieth century, and estimates like 2. Most of the interior of the Congo was literally unexplored if not inaccessible. In 1. 90. 4, Leopold II was forced to allow an international parliamentary commission of inquiry entry to the Congo Free State. By 1. 90. 8, public pressure and diplomatic maneuvers led to the end of Leopold II's personal rule and to the annexation of the Congo as a colony of Belgium, known as the Belgian Congo. Belgian rule. This was after King Leopold II had given up any hope to maintain a substantial part of the Congo Free State as separate crown property.
The government of the Belgian Congo was arranged by the 1. Colonial Charter. Both resided in Brussels.
The Belgian parliament exercised legislative authority over the Belgian Congo. The highest- ranking representative of the colonial administration in the Congo was the Governor- General.
From 1. 88. 6 until 1. Governor- general and his administration were posted in Boma, near the Congo River estuary.
From 1. 92. 6, the colonial capital moved to L. Initially, the Belgian Congo was administratively divided into four provinces: L. An administrative reform in 1. Each province was in turn divided into a few districts (2. Congo) and each district into a handful of territories (some 1. The territories were further subdivided into numerous . The territories administered by one territorial administrator and a handful of assistants were often larger than a few Belgian provinces taken together (the whole Belgian Congo was nearly 8.
Belgium). The territorial administrator was expected to inspect his territory and to file detailed annual reports with the provincial administration. In terms of jurisdiction, two systems co- existed: a system of European courts and one of indigenous courts (tribunaux indig. These indigenous courts were presided over by the traditional chiefs, but had only limited powers and remained under the firm control of the colonial administration. In 1. 93. 6 it was recorded that there were 7. Congo from Belgium. Belgians living in the Congo had no say in the government and the Congolese did not either.
No political activity was permitted in the Congo whatsoever. It was only in the 1. He had used dynamite to crush rocks when paving his way through the lower- Congo region. The brutal exploitation and arbitrary use of violence, in which some of the concessionary companies had excelled, were curbed. Article 3 of the new Colonial Charter of 1.
October 1. 90. 8 established that: . But forced labour, in differing forms and degrees, would not disappear entirely until the end of the colonial period.
The last Governor- general of the Congo Free State, Baron Wahis, remained in office in the Belgian Congo, and the majority of Leopold II. During World War One, an initial stand- off between the Force Publique and the German colonial army in German East- Africa (Tanganyika) turned into open warfare with a joint Anglo- Belgian invasion of German colonial territory in 1. East African Campaign. By 1. 91. 6 the Belgian commander of the Force Publique, Lieutenant- General. Charles Tombeur, had assembled an army of 1. Reybrouck indicated that during the war no less than 2.
Kigali was taken by May 6, 1. Tabora on September 1. During World War II the Belgian Congo served as a crucial source of income for the Belgian government in exile in London after the occupation by the Nazis. After the occupation of Belgium by the Germans in May 1. Congo declared itself loyal to the Belgian government in exile in London. The Belgian Congo supported the war on the Allied side in the Battle of Britain with 2.
RAF (squadron 3. 49) and in the Royal South African Air Force (3. Squadron). The Force Publique again participated in the Allied campaigns in Africa. Belgian Congolese forces (with Belgian officers) notably fought against the Italian colonial army in Ethiopia, and were victorious in Asosa, Borta. A Congolese unit also served in the Far Eastern Theatre with the British army in the Burma Campaign.
Economic policy. One important tool was the construction of railways to open up the mineral and agricultural areas. New resources were exploited, especially copper mining in Katanga province. The Belgian- owned Union mini. World War I increased demand for copper, and production soared from 9.
Smelters operated at Lubumbashi. Before the war the copper was sold to Germany; but the British purchased all the wartime output, with the revenues going to the Belgian government in exile. Diamond- and gold- mining also expanded during the war. The British firm of Lever Bros. New rail and steamship lines opened to handle the expanded export traffic. To obtain the necessary capital, the colonial state gave the private companies, to a large extent, a free hand.
This allowed, in particular, the Belgian Soci. Huge profits were generated and for a large part siphoned off to Europe in the form of dividends.
In many cases, this amounted to forced labour, as in many villages minimum quotas of . In this way, tens of thousands of workers were transferred from the interior to the sparsely populated copper belt in the south (Katanga) to work in the mines. In agriculture, too, the colonial state forced a drastic rationalisation of production. In this way, an extensive plantation economy was developed. Palm oil production in the Congo increased from 2,5. Cotton production increased from 2. In 1. 92. 6 alone, the Union Mini.
In some areas, as in the Katanga mining region, employment declined by 7. In the country as a whole, the exploitation of forced labour was diminished and many such labourers returned to their villages. In order to improve conditions in the countryside, but also to combat the disastrous effects of erosion and soil exhaustion brought about by the mandatory cultivation scheme, the colonial government developed the so- called .