The story of the Congo Free State

by Henry Wellington Wack

I

In examining this question from the standpoint of international law, we must first ask if the chiefs of savage tribes can, generally, make treaties, conventions, cessions of territories; in other words, if the tribes which they represent are considered as states, having the capacity to make international treaties, which would be respected as such by all civilised or non-civilised nations.

From the fifteenth century till early in the nineteenth century, the rules of international law were regarded as being to some extent an exclusive privilege of Christian peoples, for the establishment of regular relations between them. With regard to pagan peoples, they were not considered as participating in the political community which international law established between Christians; and it was only by Article VII. of the treaty of Paris of the 30th of March, 1856, that the Sublime Porte was admitted “to participate in the advantages of the European concert.”

We can easily understand that Christian nations could not admit to participation in the advantages of international law the people of nations who did not recognise this law as binding upon themselves, and who did not practise its precepts. Publicists and moralists teach that in their relations with pagan and savage populations, Christian sovereigns should always conduct themselves honestly, and observe the rules of justice, equity, and Christian morality.

It would be too long to enter here into the details of the discussions which the authors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had on the subject of the conduct of European nations in regard to the Indians. We shall limit ourselves to saying that the relations of the states of Europe with other nations had no fixed rules, that they varied much, according to the power and importance of the foreign nations, according to the communications more or less numerous which Europeans had with them, and according to the manners and customs practised by them.[66]

Thanks to the progress of humanitarian ideas, of a better practice of Christian morality, and the greater influence of principles of international justice, feeble people, almost savage, although not possessed of the benefits of civilisation, are no longer considered in our days, as destined to serve as a mine for civilised nations to “work.” All those having a human face, turned towards the heavens, are considered as members of the great human family, children of the common Father, animated by the same Divine breath, having the same destiny to accomplish, and meriting the respect due to human dignity.

These ideas have prevailed with jurisconsults and publicists, have permeated their doctrines, and happily have guided their practices. Savage tribes, although living in very imperfect communities, as well as their territories, are no longer regarded to-day as things without a master, and belonging to the first occupier, that is, to the first comer stronger than themselves. Want of civilisation can no longer serve as a pretext to civilised nations to put them under subjection, or to control them by violence.

The law of nations is a science still imperfectly moulded or stereotyped, and especially is it a science which ought not to be, and cannot be, formulated a priori. Its fundamental principle is, no doubt, philosophy, but it has its positive base in the facts of history and authoritative doctrine.

What are the conditions to enable a state to exist, as such, and to qualify it to treat?

“A certain number of men and families, who, being united, in a country, and having fixed their abode there, associate and submit themselves to a common chief, with the intention of providing for the safety of all, form a state,” says Klüber,[67] and to the same effect says G. F. Von Marten.[68]