FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE
[Sidenote: The Great Nations Agree.]
On the 15th day of November, 1884, the International Conference,
convened by Prince Bismarck to regulate what that statesman termed
“the African question,” held its first meeting. It took place in
Berlin, Prince Bismarck presiding. In briefly outlining the object
of the Conference, the distinguished president exhibited in no small
degree that condensation and lucidity for which his utterances were
remarkable.
The Imperial Government [said Prince Bismarck] has been guided
by the conviction that all the Governments invited here share
the desire to associate the natives of Africa with civilisation,
by opening up the interior of that continent to commerce,
by furnishing the natives with the means of instruction, by
encouraging missions and enterprises so that useful knowledge
may be disseminated, and by paving the way to the suppression of
slavery, and especially of the slave trade among the blacks, the
gradual abolition of which was declared to be, as far back as the
Vienna Congress in 1814, the sacred duty of all the Powers. The
interest which all the civilised nations take in the material
development of Africa assures their co-operation in the task of
regulating the commercial relations with that part of the world.
The course followed for a number of years in the relations of
the Western Powers with the countries of Eastern Asia having up
to this moment given the best results by restraining commercial
rivalry within the limits of legitimate competition, the Government
of His Majesty the German Emperor has considered it possible to
recommend to the Powers to apply to Africa, in the form appropriate
to that continent, the same regimen, founded on the equality of the
rights and the solidarity of the interests of all the commercial
nations.
Proceeding, Prince Bismarck declared that the main object of the
Conference was the opening up to all the world of Central Africa.
He rejoiced that France was in perfect accord with Germany in this
matter. The first thing to be considered in this matter was, he
thought, how best to establish freedom of trade at the mouth and
in the basin of the Congo. On that subject the German Government
had formulated a plan, drawn as a declaration, designed to assure
freedom of trade in that region, with equal rights for all
nations,—monopolies and preferential duties for none.
Prince Bismarck was followed by the British representative, Sir
Edward Malet. No other Power in the world, said Sir Edward, had done
so much on behalf of the objects that the German Government affected
to have at heart as Great Britain; and he went on to point out that
the warm support of his country and Government might be relied upon
for proposals which had always formed part of their policy. He hoped
that the attention of the Conference would not be devoted entirely
to commerce, and that the welfare of native races would receive
attention. Freedom of trade should be restricted to legitimate
articles of trade, or the natives would lose more than they gained.
He apprehended that the chief difficulty of the Conference would
be, not to secure its unanimous adherence to general principles,
but to provide means for carrying those principles into effect. It
was certainly desirable to establish the validity of effective new
occupations on the coasts of Africa.
The Portuguese representative claimed for his country the honour of
having introduced the elements of civilisation into Africa, and saw
in an increase of commerce in that part of the world the assurance
of peace and respect for the rights of humanity. The American
representative contented himself by calling attention to the part his
country had taken in the opening of Central Africa, and referred with
pride to the achievements of Stanley, congratulating his countrymen
on being first to recognise the good work accomplished by that great
philanthropist, the King of the Belgians. The practical business,
however, of the sitting, was the question, “What territories
constitute the basin of the Congo and its affluents?” This being a
matter less easily disposed of, it was referred to a Commission of
eight experts selected by the eight Powers chiefly interested in its
solution.
The Commission of eight reported to the Conference at its third
sitting as follows:
The Basin of the Congo is delimited by the crests of the contiguous
basins, to wit, the basins in particular of the Niari, the Ogowe,
the Schari, and the Nile, on the north; by the Lake Tanganyika, on
the east; by the crests of the basins of the Zambesi and the Loge,
on the south. It comprises consequently all the territories drained
by the Congo and its affluents, including Lake Tanganyika and its
eastern tributaries.
This report seems as explicit as it well could be, and after
much discussion and some slight modifications it was adopted.
Baron Lambermont (Belgium) presented a report upon the best means
of safeguarding the welfare of the native races, treating with
remarkable ability of slavery, the importation of alcohol into the
Congo country, and other dangers that threaten uncivilised races
at their first contact with civilisation. Count Van der Straeten
Ponthoz (Belgium) spoke even more vigorously to the same effect,
and between them these two Belgian subjects of King Leopold showed
themselves more solicitous for the welfare of the Congo native than
the representative of any other nationality present.
The International Conference held its tenth and last sitting
on the 26th of February, 1885. As on the occasion of its first
sitting, Prince Bismarck presided. The drafting of the final act
of the Conference was ably performed by Baron Lambermont. The
representatives of the Powers assembled at Berlin signed conventions
with the International Association, acknowledging it as a friendly
and sovereign State whose flag—a golden five-pointed star on a blue
banner—they agreed henceforth to recognise.
[Illustration: View of the Port of Leopoldville (Stanley Pool).]
I am sure I am the interpreter [said the President in announcing
the existence of these treaties to the Conference] of the unanimous
sentiment of the Conference in saluting as a happy event the
communication made to us on the subject of the almost completely
unanimous recognition of the International Association of the
Congo. All of us here render justice to the lofty object of the
work to which His Majesty the King of the Belgians has attached his
name; we all know the efforts and the sacrifices by means of which
he has brought it to the point where it is to-day; we all entertain
the wish that the most complete success may crown an enterprise
that must so usefully promote the views which have directed the
Conference.
Thus the great Bismarck. Sir Edward Malet (Great Britain) said:
The part which Queen Victoria’s Government has taken in the
recognition of the flag of the Association as that of a friendly
Government warrants me in expressing the satisfaction with which we
regard the constitution of this new State, due to the initiative
of His Majesty the King of the Belgians. During long years the
King, dominated by a purely philanthropic idea, has spared
nothing, neither personal effort nor pecuniary sacrifice, which
could contribute to the realisation of his object. Yet the world
at large regarded these efforts with an eye of almost complete
indifference. Here and there his Majesty attracted some sympathy,
but it was somehow rather the sympathy of condolence than that
of encouragement. People said that the enterprise was beyond his
resources, that it was too great for him to achieve success. We
now see that the King was right, and that the idea he pursued was
not utopian. He has brought it to a happy conclusion, not without
difficulties, but the very difficulties have made the success all
the more striking. While rendering to his Majesty this homage by
recognising all the difficulties that he has surmounted, we salute
the new-born State with the greatest cordiality, and we express the
sincere desire to see it flourish and grow under his ægis.
Baron de Courcel (France) said: “The new State owes its origin
to the generous aspirations and the enlightened initiation of a
prince surrounded by the respect of Europe.” Other members of the
Conference were as warm as the representatives of Great Britain and
France in their eulogy of the great work achieved by King Leopold,
and their opinions of his Majesty’s life-work were admirably summed
up by Prince Bismarck in his speech closing the Conference, in the
course of which he referred to the consolidation of the Congo Free
State as a “precious service to the cause of humanity.”
Central Africa had now become in all essential respects a State. It
had been recognised as such by the United States on April 22, 1884,
seven months before the opening, and ten months before the close, of
the Berlin Conference, but now its geographical limits were defined,
its political status fixed, its neutrality assured. The large part
played by Leopold, King of the Belgians, in its creation had received
full and complete acknowledgment from the foremost geographers and
statesmen of the world, who had united in lauding the King, not
only for his wonderful achievement, but for the high humanitarian
motive stimulating his Majesty through all the years of its difficult
accomplishment.
[Sidenote: Hard Work Ahead.]
But let no one suppose that it followed, as a necessary consequence
of all this, that the future government of Central Africa was to
be as plain sailing in smooth water. A new State had been created,
it is true, and it had had as its sponsors the great Powers of the
world, who had recognised Leopold II., King of the Belgians, as its
Sovereign ruler. But it is beyond the ability of States, just as
it is beyond the ability of individuals, to exist without money,
and to be entrusted with the government of a territory nearly a
million square miles in extent—about a fifth the size of Europe, or
a third of the United States—inhabited by twenty millions or so of
semi-barbarous tribes, was no light task. The “African Exploration
Fund” of the Geographical Society of London contributed £250, and the
Belgian Committee collected among their countrymen 500,000 francs—a
generous gift, but utterly inadequate for such a colossal task as
the civilisation of Central Africa. Belgians, _as a people_, were
in no degree liable for the expense of the philanthropic colonial
enterprise entered upon by Leopold, their King, _as an individual_.
The magnitude of that expense will be apparent to anybody who gives
the subject a moment’s thought. The payment of explorers,—men of the
first rank in intellectual attainment, such as Stanley,—the cost
of their equipment (stores, carriers, lake steamers, etc.), the
carving out of routes, establishment of stations, purchases of land
from native chiefs, conciliatory gifts, and so forth, had seriously
depleted the large private fortune of King Leopold.
Though all civilised countries were more or less interested in the
opening up of Central Africa, less than twenty thousand dollars
was subscribed outside Belgium for that object. It had, therefore,
some years before the Berlin Conference, become necessary to raise
money for the continuation of the work. On November 25, 1878, the
_Comité d’Études du Haut-Congo_ was formed in Brussels, with King
Leopold as honorary president and Colonel Strauch as president. The
_Comité_ was really a company, and it had a capital of a million
francs. Thanks no less to its wise direction than to its sufficient
capital, the operations of the _Comité_ were attended with so much
success that it soon usurped the place of the International African
Association as principal agent of the civilising crusade undertaken
by King Leopold. The work of the _Comité_ was consolidated and
greatly accelerated by the General Act of the Berlin Conference,
assuring the Sovereignty of the Congo State to King Leopold, it being
no more than natural that Belgians should have increased confidence
in a State secure under the rule of their own King, and be disposed
to invest their money therein more freely than when the form of
its government was matter of doubt. Though much still remained to
be done, the Congo Free State had now been founded, and that fact
of itself was sufficient to inspire confidence everywhere, but
particularly among the Belgian people, whose King was its founder.
[Illustration: Making a Road (175 Kilometres) for Automobiles
(Kwango).]