Brussels Conference, 1876.
A conference of the Powers held at Brussels in 1876, at which an International Association was formed for the purpose of exploring and civilizing Central Africa. This association was the germ of the Congo Free State.
Brussels Convention.
A convention signed by the sugar-producing countries in 1902, by which the contracting parties undertook that in the event of any sugar-producing country declining to abolish bounties, they would prohibit the importation of sugar from such country, or impose countervailing duties.
Brussels, Union of.
An agreement, signed in 1517 by certain Catholic noblemen of the Netherlands, to unite for the purpose of expelling the Spanish garrison, while at the same time maintaining the Catholic religion, and the sovereignty of the king.
Buccaneers.
An association of sea-rovers formed about 1525, to harry the Spanish possessions in South America, and prey upon their commerce. They were of various nationalities, but chiefly English and French, and their most famous leaders were Montbars, known as the Exterminator, and Henry Morgan, afterwards Sir Henry, and Deputy-Governor of Jamaica. Under the latter leader they crossed the Isthmus and sacked the city of Panama in 1671, and for years they paralyzed the Spanish trade, both in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific. They ceased to exist as an association early in the eighteenth century, but some of them continued a career of indiscriminate piracy for many years longer. They were called by the French Flibustiers.
Bucharest, Treaty of.
A treaty, signed by Russia and Turkey in 1812, after the war which began in 1806, and ended in the defeat of the Turks by Kutusoff in the later year. Turkey by this treaty surrendered all her territory north of the Pruth.