Leopold.
There were a few obstructionists in the Belgian Parliament who, impelled by an habitual attitude of opposition to all that the dominant political party proposed, offered considerable criticism. They disregarded the similar expedients adopted by Prussia, Holland, and Great Britain in reference respectively to Neuchatel, Luxembourg, and Hanover. But the spirit of the Belgian people favoured the King’s suggestion, and his Majesty’s Ministers stood firmly by him. When the vote was called on April 28, 1885, the Chamber passed the following resolution with but one dissentient:
His Majesty, Leopold II., King of the Belgians, is authorised to be the chief of the State founded in Africa by the International Association of the Congo. The union between Belgium and the new State of the Congo shall be exclusively personal.
The Senate two days later having passed a similar resolution, the King addressed the following acknowledgment to his Ministers:
Gentlemen:—The Chambers, by voting almost unanimously the resolution that you submitted to them, have shown themselves convinced that at the same time that I was pursuing, in the general interest, the international African work, I had it at heart to serve the country, to contribute to the augmentation of its wealth, and to increase its reputation in the world. I have asked you to thank, in my name, the Chambers for the mark of high confidence which they have given me. I also beg of you to accept for yourselves the expression of my very sincere gratitude. Believe me, gentlemen, your very affectionate
Leopold.
Leopold II., King of the Belgians, had now become Sovereign of the Congo Free State, a territory with a population estimated as five times larger than the Belgium which he had ruled since 1865. Many foreign bodies, philanthropic, scientific, and commercial, sent their congratulations; the Lord Mayor of London visited the King in state, and offered him the felicitations of the British metropolis, and all the Powers concerned in the Conventional Basin of the Congo expressed their satisfaction with this happy consummation of his Majesty’s enlightened undertaking in Mid-Africa.
What, by the Berlin Conference had been sanctioned, now assumed permanent form, organisation, and well-defined onward movement. There were still difficulties ahead, some of them with the State’s neighbours, France and Portugal. Their early exactions may be regarded as symptomatic of that febrific goading which has now become the mania of lesser bodies elsewhere. Subsequent conventions with France and Portugal somewhat assured the Congo State that its onward march would not be obstructed by these Powers. On the other hand, the exalted views and edifying principles so generally prevalent at the Berlin Conference soon became stale and innocuous in the official mind of the other Powers who had subscribed to precepts which, from subsequent indifference or self-interest, were disregarded. Not the least among the pledges of the Powers of the Berlin Conference was that designed to regulate the importation of alcohol. Consistent with the Christianising aims of its Sovereign, the Congo Free State has fulfilled this pledge in a manner to put its neighbours to shame for the large percentage of revenue they derive from a debasing liquor traffic.
So if the young State started upon its progressive course in 1885-87, having paid a heavy price to France and to Portugal for freedom to develop under the government of the strong personality of its magnanimous Sovereign, it was perhaps because such a course would secure the Congo State to the Belgian nation in accordance with the preconceived purpose of its King. By the Congo-French Convention the basin of the Kwilu and the left bank of the Congo, from Stanley Pool as far north-eastward as its explorations had attained, were assigned to France. On the other hand, it insured to the Congo Free State what constitutes its outlet to the sea, the possession of the district of the Cataracts, and the towns of Boma and Banana at the mouth of the Congo. The Congo-Portuguese Convention assigned to Portugal territory south of the Congo as far as Noki, and along the parallel of Noki to its intersection by the river Kwango, which from that point was designated as the boundary in a southerly direction. The territorial assignments of these conventions were subsequently modified, and Germany and Great Britain have since acquired the large areas of the Congo Basin lying east of Lake Tanganyika and its parallel north and south.