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Association Internationale Africaine
The International African Association (in full, "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa"; in French ''Association Internationale Africaine,'' and in full ''Association Internationale pour l'Exploration et la Civilisation de l'Afrique Centrale)'' was a front organization established by the guests at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876, an event hosted by King Leopold II of Belgium. The Association was used by King Leopold ostensibly to further his purportedly altruistic and humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa, the area that was to become Leopold's privately controlled Congo Free State. King Leopold volunteered space in Brussels for the International African Association's headquarters, and there were to be national committees of the association set up in all the participating countries, as well as an international committee. Leopold was elected by acclamation as the international committee's first chairman, but said t ...
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Flag Of The Congo Free State
A flag is a piece of textile, fabric (most often rectangular) with distinctive colours and design. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design employed, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is challenging (such as the Maritime flag, maritime environment, where Flag semaphore, semaphore is used). Many flags fall into groups of similar designs called flag families. The study of flags is known as "vexillology" from the Latin , meaning "flag" or "banner". National flags are patriotic symbols with widely varied interpretations that often include strong military associations because of their original and ongoing use for that purpose. Flags are also used in messaging, advertising, or for decorative purposes. Some military units are called "flags" after their use of flags. A ''flag'' (Arabic: ) is equival ...
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Heart Of Darkness
''Heart of Darkness'' is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgium, Belgian company in the African interior. The novel is widely regarded as a critique of Scramble for Africa, European colonial rule in Africa, whilst also examining the themes of power dynamics and morality. Although Conrad does not name the river on which most of the narrative takes place, at the time of writing, the Congo Free State—the location of the large and economically important Congo River—was a private colony of Belgium's Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II. Marlow is given an assignment to find Kurtz (Heart of Darkness), Kurtz, an ivory trader working on a trading station far up the river, who has "gone native" and is the object of Marlow's expedition. Central to Conrad's work is the idea that there is little difference between "civilised people" and "savages". ''H ...
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Ottoman Tunisia
Ottoman Tunisia, also known as the Regency of Tunis, refers to a territory of Ottoman Empire that existed from the 16th to 19th century in what is largely modern-day Tunisia. During the period of Ottoman Rule, Tunis was administratively integrated into the Ottoman Empire as the Eyalet of Tunis. The Ottoman presence in the Maghreb began with the conquest of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair and ''beylerbey'' Aruj (Oruç Reis). In 1534, the Ottoman navy under the command of Kapudan Pasha Hayreddin Barbarossa, himself the younger brother of Aruj, attacked and successfully captured Tunis, which was then a territory of the Hafsids. However, less than a year later, Emperor Charles V sent a large, multinational invasion force to wrest control of Tunis, which attacked from across the Strait of Sicily and overwhelmed the city's Ottoman defenders. Following the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574, the Ottoman Empire would hold Tunis for over three cen ...
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French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II led to the formation of the Vichy France, Vichy government. The French Third Republic was a parliamentary republic. The early days of the French Third Republic were dominated by political disruption caused by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, which the French Third Republic continued to wage after the fall of Emperor Napoleon III in 1870. Social upheaval and the Paris Commune preceded the final defeat. The German Empire, proclaimed by the invaders in Palace of Versailles, annexed the French regions of Alsace (keeping the ) and Lorraine (the northeastern part, i.e. present-day Moselle (department), department of Moselle). The early governments of the French Third Republic considered French Third Restoration, re-establi ...
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Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for separating the New World of the Americas (North America and South America) from the Old World of Afro-Eurasia (Africa, Asia, and Europe). Through its separation of Afro-Eurasia from the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean has played a central role in the development of human society, globalization, and the histories of many nations. While the Norse colonization of North America, Norse were the first known humans to cross the Atlantic, it was the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 that proved to be the most consequential. Columbus's expedition ushered in an Age of Discovery, age of exploration and colonization of the Americas by European powers, most notably Portuguese Empire, Portugal, Spanish Empire, Sp ...
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United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until 1927, when it evolved into the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the Irish Free State gained a degree of independence in 1922. It was commonly known as Great Britain, Britain or England. Economic history of the United Kingdom, Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century. The Great Famine (Ireland), Great Irish Famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to Societal collapse, demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Land Acts (Ireland), Irish land reform. The 19th century was an era of Industrial Revolution, and growth of trade and finance, in which Britain largely dominate ...
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Kongo Empire
The Kingdom of Kongo ( or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' ) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. At its greatest extent it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by the ''Manikongo'', the Portuguese version of the Kongo title ''Mwene Kongo'', meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", and its sphere of influence extended to neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Kingdom of Loango, Loango, Kingdom of Ndongo, Ndongo, and Kingdom of Matamba, Matamba, the latter two located in what became Angola. From to 1862, it was an independent state. From 1862 to 1914, it functioned intermittently as a vassal state of the Kingdom of Portugal. In 1914, following the Portuguese suppression ...
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Kingdom Of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was a Portuguese monarchy, monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also known as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves after 1415, and as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves between 1815 and 1822. The name is also often applied to the Portuguese Empire, the realm's overseas colonies. The nucleus of the Portuguese state was the County of Portugal, established in the 9th century as part of the ''Reconquista'', by Vímara Peres, a vassal of the Kingdom of Asturias, King of Asturias. The county became part of the Kingdom of León in 1097, and the Counts of Portugal established themselves as rulers of an independent kingdom in the 12th century, following the battle of São Mamede. The kingdom was ruled by the Portuguese House of Burgundy, Afonsine Dynasty until the 1383–85 Crisis, after which the monarchy passed to the Hous ...
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Brazzaville
Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting the financial and administrative centre of the country, it is located on the north side of the Congo River, opposite Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The population of the capital is estimated to exceed 2.1 million residents, comprising more than a third of the national populace. Some 40% are employed in non-agricultural professions. During World War II, Brazzaville served as the de facto capital of Free France between 1940 and 1942. In 2013, Brazzaville was designated a City of Music (UNESCO), City of Music by UNESCO; since then it has also been a member of the Creative Cities Network. Toponymy The prefix "Brazza" comes from the surname of the Italian count Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who wo ...
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French Flag
The national flag of France () is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. The design was adopted after the French Revolution, whose revolutionaries were influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands. While not the first tricolour, it became one of the most influential flags in history. The tricolour scheme was later adopted by many other nations in Europe and elsewhere, and, according to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has historically stood "in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past". Before the tricolour was adopted the royal government used many flags, the best known being a blue shield and gold fleurs-de-lis (the Royal Arms of France) on a white background, or state flag. Early in the French Revolution, the Paris militia, which played a prominent role in the storming of the Bastille, wore a cockade of blue and red, the city's traditional colours ...
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Congo Basin
The Congo Basin () is the sedimentary basin of the Congo River. The Congo Basin is located in Central Africa, in a region known as west equatorial Africa. The Congo Basin region is sometimes known simply as the Congo. It contains some of the largest tropical rainforests in the world and is an important source of water used in agriculture and energy generation. The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the largest rainforest in Africa and second only to the Amazon rainforest in size, with 300 million hectares compared to the 800 million hectares in the Amazon. Because of its size and diversity the basin's forest is important for mitigating climate change in its role as a carbon sink. However, deforestation and degradation of the ecology by the impacts of climate change may increase stress on the forest ecosystem, in turn making the hydrology of the basin more variable. A 2012 study found that the variability in precipitation caused by climate change will negatively affect economic a ...
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Pierre Savorgnan De Brazza
Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (born Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà; 26 January 1852 – 14 September 1905) was an Italian-French explorer. With his family's financial help, he explored the Ogooué region of Central Africa, and later with the backing of the Société de Géographie de Paris, he reached far into the interior along the right bank of the Congo River. He has often been depicted as a man of friendly manner, great charm and peaceful approach towards the Africans he met and worked with on his journeys. Under French colonial rule, the capital of the Republic of the Congo was named Brazzaville after him and the name was retained by the post-colonial rulers. Early years Born in Rome, Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà was the seventh of thirteen children. His father, Ascanio Savorgnan di Brazzà, was a nobleman and well known artist, from a family with ancient Friulian origins and many French connections. His mother, Giacinta Simonetti, from an old Roman ...
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