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Committee For Studies Of The Upper Congo
The Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, or in French the Comité d'études du Haut-Congo, was formed in 1878 on behalf of Leopold II, King of the Belgians, as part of the Scramble for Africa. At Leopold's request, the committee was formed by a number of bankers and traders in Belgium and abroad, who contributed funds. The King had initially wanted to recruit Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza as an explorer, but he was hired by the French. Henry Morton Stanley was approached instead; in autumn 1878, he agreed to work for the Committee for five years, and in January 1879, he presented to the committee a detailed proposal for further exploring the Congo. The Committee supported this mission, and Stanley secretly left Antwerp on a freighter in June 1879, arriving in July at the mouth of the Congo River. Stanley was given orders to get territorial concessions from local tribal rulers. Goals The committee was founded, ostensibly, with the goals of: * Assess the navigability of the Congo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopold II Of Belgium
Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, Queen Louise, Leopold succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons; the current king of the Belgians, Philippe of Belgium, Philippe, descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I of Belgium, Albert I. He is popularly referred to as the Builder King (, ) in Belgium in reference to the great number of buildings, urban projects and public works he commissioned. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Cong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scramble For Africa
The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, conquest, and colonialism, colonisation of most of Africa by seven Western European powers driven by the Second Industrial Revolution during the late 19th century and early 20th century in the era of "New Imperialism": Belgian colonial empire, Belgium, French colonial empire, France, German colonial empire, Germany, British Empire, United Kingdom, Italian Empire, Italy, Portuguese Empire, Portugal and Spanish Empire, Spain. In 1870, 10% of the continent was formally under European control. By 1914, this figure had risen to almost 90%; the only states retaining sovereignty were Liberia, Ethiopian Empire, Ethiopia, Egba United Government, Egba, Sultanate of Aussa, Aussa, Senusiyya, Mbunda Kingdom, Mbunda, the Dervish State, the Darfur Sultanate, and the Ovambo people#History, Ovambo kingdoms, most of which were later conquered. The 1884 Berlin Conference regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa, and is seen as emblematic of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author, and politician famous for his exploration of Central Africa and search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Besides his discovery of Livingstone, he is mainly known for his search for the sources of the Nile and Congo River, Congo rivers, the work he undertook as an agent of King Leopold II of the Belgians that enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin region, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1897, and served in Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament as a Liberal Unionist member for Lambeth North (UK Parliament constituency), Lambeth North from 1895 to 1900. More than a century after his death, Stanley's legacy remains the subject of enduring controversy. Although he personally had high regard for many of the native African people who accompanied him on his expedi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congo River
The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon River, Amazon and Ganges rivers. It is the world's deepest recorded river, with measured depths of around . The Congo–Lualaba River, Lualaba–Luvua River, Luvua–Luapula River, Luapula–Chambeshi River system has an overall length of , which makes it the world's ninth-List of rivers by length, longest river. The Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, and ''Lualaba'' is the name of the Congo River upstream of Boyoma Falls, extending for . Measured along with the Lualaba, the main tributary, the Congo River has a total length of . It is the only major river to cross the equator twice. The Congo Basin has a total area of about , or 13% of the entire African landmass. Name The name ''Congo/Kongo'' originates from the Kingdom of Ko ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livingstone Falls
Livingstone Falls ( French: ''Chutes Livingstone''; Dutch: ''Livingstonewatervallen''), named for British explorer David Livingstone, are a succession of enormous rapids on the lower course of the Congo River in west equatorial Africa, downstream from Malebo Pool in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: G. Newnes, Vol. One , Vol. Two Description Livingstone Falls consist of a series of rapids dropping in . They start downstream of Malebo Pool and end in Matadi in Bas-Congo. The Congo River has the second largest flow rate in the world after the Amazon, which has no falls or rapids (except near its sources). The lowest rapids of Livingstone Falls, therefore, are the world's largest waterfall in terms of flow rate — provided one accepts these rapids as being a waterfall. An interesting aspect of the Livingstone Falls is the width of the channel. The channel is very narrow: in several stretches the channel width i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International African Association
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Association Of The Congo
The International Association of the Congo (), also known as the International Congo Society, was an association founded on 17 November 1879 by Leopold II of Belgium to further his interests in the Congo. It replaced the Belgian Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo () which was part of the International African Association front organisation created for the exploitation of the Congo. The goals of the International Congo Society was to establish control of the Congo Basin and to exploit its economic resources. The Berlin Conference recognised the society as sovereign over the territories it controlled and on August 1, 1885, i.e. four and half months after the closure of the Berlin Conference, King Leopold's Vice-Administrator General in the Congo, announced that the society and the territories it occupied were henceforth called "the Congo Free State". Ownership and control The official stockholders of the Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo were Dutch and British b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate countries were in a personal union. The Congo Free State was not a part of, nor did it belong to, Belgium. Leopold was able to Colonization of the Congo Basin, 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. 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 "I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congo Reform Association
The Congo Reform Association (CRA) was a political and humanitarian activist group that sought to promote reform of the Congo Free State, a private territory in Central Africa under the absolute sovereignty of King Leopold II. Active from 1904 to 1913, the association formed in opposition to the institutionalised practices of Congo Free State's 'rubber policy', which encouraged the need to minimise expenditure and maximise profit with no political constraints – fostering a system of coercion and terror unparalleled in contemporary colonial Africa. The group carried out a global publicity campaign across the Western world, using a range of strategies including displays of atrocity photographs; public seminars; mass rallies; celebrity endorsements; and extensive press coverage to lobby the Great Powers into pressuring reform in the Congo. The association partially achieved its aims in 1908 with the Belgian government's annexation of the Congo Free State and continued to pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90
The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889–1890 was held from 18 November 1889 to 2 July 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the prohibition of slave trade and slavery in Africa. The convention favoured Colonialism, colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument. The event and its origins were shaped primarily by a narrow national interest. Governments paid lip-service to humanitarian goals in order to legitimize their Imperialism, imperial aims. Background King Leopold and the Congo Free State Leopold II of Belgium, Leopold II, the power-thirsty King of the Belgians, had always regretted the restrictions of power imposed on him by his position as a constitutional monarchy, constitutional monarch. He therefore embarked on the project of carving out an absolute monarchy of his own in Africa, which led to the creation of the Congo Free State. Leopold was able to Colonization of the Congo basin, seize the region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brussels Conference Act Of 1890
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country. It is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, and is separate from the Flemish Region (Flanders), within which it forms an enclave, and the Walloon Region (Wallonia), located less than to the south. Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been a major centre for international politics and home to numerous international organisations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is the '' de facto'' capital of the European Union, as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, including it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
