Congo Free State

historical country
Inception	1 July 1885
Native label	État indépendant du Congo
Found by	Leopold II of Belgium
Official language	French
Continent	Africa
Capital	Vivi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Boma
Coordinate location	5°51′17″S 13°3′24″E
Government ein basic form	absolute monarchy
Office held by head of state	Sovereign of the Congo Free State
State ein head	Leopold II of Belgium
Currency	Congolese franc, Belgian franc
Own by	Leopold II of Belgium
Replaced by	Belgian Congo
Dey replace	International Association of the Congo, Tippu Tip's state
Date dem dissolve, abolish anaa demolish	2 April 1908
Has works in the collection	National Museum of World Cultures

De Congo Free State, dem san know am as de Independent State of the Congo (French: État indépendant du Congo), be de largest state den absolute monarchy for Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. Na ebe privately owned by den sam personal union with King Leopold II.^[1]^[2] Na eno dey part of, nor na e dey belong to am, de Kingdom of Belgium, wey be de constitutional monarch. Leopold be able to seize de region wey na he dey convince sam European states for de Berlin Conference for Africa wey na he involve ein body for humanitarian den philanthropic work den no dey tax trade.^[3] Via de International Association of de Congo, he fit lay claim to most of de Congo Basin. For 29 May 1885, after de closure of de Berlin Conference, de king cam talk say he plan make he name ein possessions "the Congo Free State", sam appellation wey dem no yet use for de Berlin Conference den wey dem officially replace "International Association of de Congo" For 1 August 1885.^[4]^[5]^[6] De Congo Free State operate as separate nation from Belgium, for sam personal union plus ein King. Na de Free State be privately controlled by Leopold II, although he neva personally visit de state.^[7]

References[edit | edit source]

↑ 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* (insyd Dutch). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

Sources[edit | edit source]

Ascherson, Neal (1999). The King Incorporated: Leopold the Second and the Congo (new ed.). London: Granta. ISBN 1-86207-290-6.
Forbath, Peter (1977). The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-122490-4.
Gann, Lewis H.; Duignan, Peter (1979). The Rulers of Belgian Africa, 1884–1914. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-63181-3.
Hochschild, Adam (2006). King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. ISBN 978-1-74329-160-3.
Pakenham, Thomas (1991). The Scramble for Africa. Abacus. ISBN 0-349-10449-2.
Siefkes, Christian (2022). Edible People: The Historical Consumption of Slaves and Foreigners and the Cannibalistic Trade in Human Flesh. New York: Berghahn. ISBN 978-1-80073-613-9.
Slade, Ruth M. (1962). King Leopold's Congo: Aspects of the Development of Race Relations in the Congo Independent State. OCLC 655811695.
Van Reybrouck, David (2014). Congo: The Epic History of a People. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-756290-9.

Primary sources[edit | edit source]

Bourne, Henry Richard Fox (1903). Civilisation in Congoland: A Story of International Wrong-Doing. P. S. King & Son.
Burrows, Guy; Canisius, Edgar (1903). The Curse of Central Africa. London: R. A. Everett.
Hinde, Sidney Langford (1897). The Fall of the Congo Arabs. London: Methuen.

You fi read further[edit | edit source]

Alexander, Nathan G. (2016). "E. D. Morel (1873–1924), the Congo Reform Association, and the History of Human Rights". Britain and the World 9 (2): 213–235.
De Roo, Bas (2017). "Taxation in the Congo Free State, an Exceptional Case?" Economic History of Developing Regions 32 (2): 97–126.
Grant, Kevin (2005). A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884–1926. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94901-7.
Morel, E. D. [Edmund Dene] (1968). E. D. Morel's History of the Congo Reform Movement. Edited by Wm. Roger Louis and Jean Stengers. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ó Síocháin, Séamas (2008). Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary. Dublin: Lilliput Press.
Petringa, Maria (2006) Brazza: A Life for Africa. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4259-1198-0.
Rodney, Walter (1974). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press. ISBN 0-88258-013-2.
Roes, Aldwin (2010). "Towards a History of Mass Violence in the Etat Indépendant du Congo, 1885-1908" (PDF). South African Historical Journal. 62 (4): 634–670. doi:10.1080/02582473.2010.519937. S2CID 144843155.
Stanard, Matthew G. (2012). Selling the Congo: A History of European Pro-Empire Propaganda and the Making of Belgian Imperialism. University of Nebraska Press.
Vandersmissen, Jan (2011). "The King's Most Eloquent Campaigner... Emile de Laveleye, Leopold II and the Creation of the Congo Free State". Belgisch tijdschrift voor nieuwste geschiedenis, pp. 7–57.
Vanthemsche, Guy (2012). Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19421-1.
Wesseling, Henk L.; Pomerans, Arnold J. (1996). Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-275-95137-5.

Additional primary sources[edit | edit source]

Bulletin officiel / État indépendant du Congo (insyd French), Brussels, 1885–1907, OCLC 7625261 – via Académie royale des sciences d'outre-mer; also via HathiTrust.
Casement, Roger. Report of the British Consul, Roger Casement, on the Administration of the Congo Free State. Reprinted in full in Ó Síocháin, Séamas and Michael O'Sullivan, eds. (2004). The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement's Congo Report and 1903 Diary. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-900621-99-1.
The Congo Report of Commission of Inquiry (1906). New York.
Johnston, Harry (1908). George Grenfell and the Congo. 2 vols. London.
The reports of the Congo Reform Association, particularly the Memorial on the Present Phase of the Congo Question (1912). London.
Stanley, Henry Morton (1885). The Congo and the Founding of the Congo Free State. London.

External links[edit | edit source]

Antwerp is a colonial city, by Bas De Roo
Heart of Darkness, the novel
The Crime of the Congo, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at Google Books
A Journal of a Tour in the Congo Free State, 1905, by Marcus Dorman, from Project Gutenberg
Catalogue of the Edmund Morel papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
Cana, Frank Richardson (1911). "Congo Free State". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 917–928.
Cana, Frank Richardson (1922). "Belgian Congo". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.). pp. 428–429.
Archive Congo Free State, Royal Museum of Central Africa

[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] Gifford, Paul (1971). France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 221–260. ISBN 9780300012897.

[4] 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.

[5] 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.

[6] Crowe, S.E. (1942). The Berlin West African Conference, 1884–1885. London: Longmans Green.

[7] "De koning in Kinshasa die nooit in Congo was [Slot]". MO* (insyd Dutch). Retrieved 19 February 2024.

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