The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

This Anglo-Portuguese Convention, made on the 26th of February, 1884, had it been carried out, would have killed at one blow the International Association for the Exploration and Civilisation of Central Africa, and all King Leopold’s cherished dreams would have evaporated like mists before the sun.

John Bull Complaisant.

But the good work done by King Leopold was not fated to be so ignominiously extinguished. France and Germany combined to denounce the Convention; and even with the British public it was very unpopular, as hard things being said of it in the British Parliament and press as any uttered in Belgium. King Leopold appealed to the British Government to suspend the ratification of the Convention, urging the despatch of a British mission to the West Coast to examine the validity of the treaties made between his Majesty’s representatives and native chiefs in that part of the Congo country which the Convention proposed to acknowledge as Portuguese territory. The British Government granted the King’s request, and despatched General Sir Frederic Goldsmid to the Congo. The result was a complete triumph for King Leopold, General Goldsmid reporting to his Government that the treaties were in perfect order and that the allegations of the Portuguese were baseless. That was the end of the Anglo-Portuguese Convention.

Though the Anglo-Portuguese Convention was dead, and nothing remained to fear from it, the incident served to emphasise the great and growing necessity for endowing the Congo region with a clearer and more definite political status than it yet possessed. There were not wanting other, and happier, incidents pointing the same moral. On April 22, 1884, the United States officially recognised the flag of the International Association as that of a friendly Government, in which course it was soon after followed by France, though the latter country made it a condition of its acknowledgment that the Association would never alienate any of its territory without France having the right of pre-emption. Germany, entering upon joint action with France for the first time since the war of 1870, concurred in recognising the International Association as an independent and friendly State; and on the very day that she gave her adherence to it, she invited, through Prince Bismarck, all the Powers interested in the future of Africa to confer in Berlin with the object of regulating African affairs. The invitation was accepted by fourteen nations, whose representatives met under circumstances to be presently described, and gave reality to the grand idea, conceived long before by Henry Morton Stanley and Leopold II., King of the Belgians, of a Congo Free State.

CHAPTER III
FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE

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.