The wealth of Africa - British Museum · or used cartridges on big game, ... brass head of a Yoruba...

The wealth of AfricaCongo Free State

Presentation

Supported by

The CarAf Centre

www.britishmuseum.org

Was the Congo Free State well named?

Front cover image: Bronze medal with a European woman supporting an African woman in broken chains, Belgium, 1905, British Museum

The Legacy of The congo free STaTe

What is this cap made of?

Source 1: Kuba cap, Congo, 1911British Museum



Is there anything surprising about this african hat?





Beads





cowries

Beads





a Belgian bullet casing

cowries

Beads


Where WaS The congo free STaTe?

The Congo Free State was awarded to a company headed by King Leopold II of Belgium by the European Great Powers at the Berlin Conference in 1885.

Uniquely, this huge area was given not to a nation to rule, but effectively to an individual – Leopold.

20th

19th

Century AD

1885 – Congo Free State declared

1884–85 – Berlin Conference.Leopold’s claims to Congo recognised

1876 – Brussels Conference. Leopold proposes protectorate over Congo

1878 – Stanley instructed to explore Congo

1896 – Crown Domain created as Leopold’s private estate

1905 – Congo Commission admits abuses

1908 – Belgian takes over running of Belgian Congo

Where WaS The congo free STaTe?

The Congo Free State was awarded to a company headed by King Leopold II of Belgium by the European Great Powers at the Berlin Conference in 1885.

Uniquely, this huge area was given not to a nation to rule, but effectively to an individual – Leopold.

What were the dangers of giving this huge area to a private company?

Source 2: Coin showing King Leopold II of the Belgians

British Museum

20th

19th

Century AD

1885 – Congo Free State declared

1884–85 – Berlin Conference.Leopold’s claims to Congo recognised

1876 – Brussels Conference. Leopold proposes protectorate over Congo

1878 – Stanley instructed to explore Congo

1896 – Crown Domain created as Leopold’s private estate

1905 – Congo Commission admits abuses

1908 – Belgian takes over running of Belgian Congo

The BenefITS of KIng LeopoLd’S ruLe

Source 3 At every important point there is a well-appointed hospital. There are churches, schools and laboratories and well-constructed Government buildings. Vast tracts of equatorial forest have been cleared, and the land has been planted in rubber, cocoa, coffee and other trees and vines, as well as with garden vegetables.

Report of a traveller to Congo, quoted in Hunicke 1909: 605

how great were the benefits of Leopold’s rule? Source 4: Native Hospital at Boma,

Dorman 1905: 18

Source 5: Coin of Congo Free StateBritish Museum

Source 6: Cataracts Railway, Dorman 1905: 44

Who BenefITed from LeopoLd’S ruLe?

Source 7The Congo profits were used to fund a grandiose policy of public works and urban improvement – in Belgium. The face of Brussels was to be transformed, and large tracts of urban land were acquired for the purpose. On completion, the buildings immediately became the property of the Belgian state. In all, the Belgian nation received property worth more than £2,400,000 from the Congo.

Reader 1998: 537–538

Source 8Morel calculated that Leopold had made a personal profit of £2,000,000 in six years. Each share in the Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber Company had risen from its original £4 6s 6d to £35 in the same interval.

Ascherson 1999: 241

Who benefited from Leopold’s rule in the congo free State?

Source 9: Rubber (top) and ivory (below) exports from Congo

Gondola 2002: 66–67

rubber

year Value (1,000 Belgian francs)

1888 260

1890 556

1895 2,882

1900 39,874

1905 43,755

Ivory


1888 1,096

1889 2,270

1890 4,669

1891 2,835

1892 3,730

Who BenefITed from LeopoLd’S ruLe?

Source 7The Congo profits were used to fund a grandiose policy of public works and urban improvement – in Belgium. The face of Brussels was to be transformed, and large tracts of urban land were acquired for the purpose. On completion, the buildings immediately became the property of the Belgian state. In all, the Belgian nation received property worth more than £2,400,000 from the Congo.

Reader 1998: 537–538

Source 8Morel calculated that Leopold had made a personal profit of £2,000,000 in six years. Each share in the Anglo-Belgian India-Rubber Company had risen from its original £4 6s 6d to £35 in the same interval.

Ascherson 1999: 241

Who benefited from Leopold’s rule in the congo free State?

So what was the problem?

Source 9: Rubber (top) and ivory (below) exports from Congo

Gondola 2002: 66–67

rubber


1888 260

1890 556

1895 2,882

1900 39,874

1905 43,755

Ivory


1888 1,096

1889 2,270

1890 4,669

1891 2,835

1892 3,730

rumourS aBouT The congo free STaTe

Source 10Whereas with most colonies, imports tended to exceed exports in the early years, due to the need to invest in infrastructure, administration and other areas which did not generate quick profits, in the Congo exports exceeded imports by a wide margin almost from the outset.

Shipping clerk Edmund Morel, quoted in Ewans 2002: 164

Source 11They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force... They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale.

Conrad 1902: 21

What was going on in the congo free State?

Source 12: Stifled by coils of rubber

Linley Sambourne, in Punch 1906

The TruTh aBouT The congo free STaTe

Source 13The history of the transformation of Congo Free State from a liability to a highly profitable enterprise can be summed up in two words: red rubber.

Gondola 2002: 66

Source 14Under the system, districts were ‘taxed’ for quotas of food, porterage, ivory, rubber and other commodities. The administrators were constantly urged to expand production to the maximum, and it was made clear to them that promotion would be dependent on the amounts of produce they succeeded in obtaining.

Ewans 2002: 161

Source 15If they failed to bring the required amount of rubber, native troops, many of them cannibals, were sent into the village to spread terror, if necessary by killing some of the men; but in order to prevent a waste of cartridges, they were ordered to bring one right hand for every cartridge used. If they missed, or used cartridges on big game, they cut off the hands of living people to make up the number.

Russell 1934: 453

how did Leopold make a profit from the congo free State?

Source 14: Twain 1905: 40


Why is this cap decorated with a Belgian cartridge?



Source 17In March 1908, the deal was officially settled. The Belgian Government received full sovereignty over Congo in return for taking on 110 million francs worth of debts that Leopold had incurred... The Belgian government also agreed to pay more than 45 million francs to complete some of the king’s projects in Belgium. They were to pay Leopold another 50 million francs, to be extracted from Congo, as a ‘mark of gratitude for his sacrifices made for Congo.’

Gondola 2002: 75

Source 18In the lake district things are pretty bad... Whole villages and districts I knew well and visited as flourishing communities in 1887 are today without a human being; others are reduced to a handful of sick or harassed creatures who say of the government: ‘Are the white men never going home; is this to last forever?’

Casement 1903

Source 19In 1963, I remarked that the Belgians had avoided any real assessment of the Congolese past, and that Leopold II was still honoured as a national hero for his ‘civilising mission’. It never occurred to me this would remain the case more than 30 years later.

Ascherson 1999: 10

Who benefited in the long run? Source 20: Kuba cap, Congo, 1911British Museum

Why does source 19 criticise the Belgian people?

commemoraTIng The congo free STaTe

What details can you see in this medal?

Source 21: Medal commemorating the 20th anniversary of the founding

of the Congo Free State, 1905British Museum



congo, naked and defenceless





Belgium supporting her







Shield of Leopold II









Broken shackles





What point is this medal making?

how far would a person from congo agree with this message?




Broken shackles



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The wealth of Africa - British Museum · or used cartridges on big game, ... brass head of a Yoruba...

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