Colonial Control: The Berlin Conference and African Colonization

2. Forms of Imperial Control

3. Forms of Imperialism • Direct military intervention total control of the country • Protectorate - own govt. but “guided” by mother country • Sphere of influence - imperialist hold exclusive economic interests • But overall aim was to gain the most at the least expense

4. Forms of Colonial Control

5. Berlin Conference

6. The Division of Africa • Diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) were discovered in South Africa. • Berlin Conference (1884-85): • 14 European nations agreed to lay down rules for the division of Africa. • No African ruler was invited to this conference. • Demand of Raw Materials: Africa was rich in mineral resources like copper and tin in the Congo and gold and diamonds in South Africa. • Cash crop plantations for peanuts, palm oil, cocoa, and rubber were also developed.

7. Berlin Conference 1884 • GOALS: to promote the three c’s • Commerce • Christianity • Civilization • Ensure Free trade • Ensure free navigation on Niger River • Agree to rules to divide up Africa

8. Also, there was the question of how to divvy up Africa in an orderly manner… • Of course, no one asked the native Africans. • Over time, “warring” tribes would be placed together • Straight lines in Africa and the Middle East clearly indicate “imperial” meddling.

9. The Berlin Conference laid down certain rules-- A European power with holdings on the coast had prior rights Occupation must include administrators or troops Each power must give notice to the others of what territories it considered its own THE REAL SCRAMBLE BEGAN!

10. African Colonization • 1884 Berlin Conference: European powers meet and agree on how to divide Africa into colonies. • Only Liberia and Ethiopia remain independent.

11. Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 Another point of view? 

12. England, France, and Germany take the most territory. • France takes most of the Sahel.

13. Belgian Colonies in Africa

14. The Congo "I do not want to risk...losing a fine chance to secure for ourselves a slice of this magnificent African cake.”--Leopold II Belgian Congo

15. BELGIANS IN AFRICA • 1908 • Belgium gained control of Congo (Congo Free State) from King Leopold II • Leopold was infamous for the cruelty of his rule in the Congo • Congo Free State (today’s Democratic Republic of Congo) • 80 times the size of Belgium • Source of uranium

16. KING LEOPOLD II OF BELGIUM (1835-1909) • Took over land in central Africa • Berlin Conference (1885) • Leopold’s control over Congo Free State recognized by major powers • Belgian Congo (1908) • Leopold criticized for the cruelty of his rule in the Congo • Leopold forced to sell Congo Free State to Belgian government • Renamed Belgian Congo • Created European race for African colonies – “Scramble for Africa” • Diamonds, foodstuffs, gold, ivory, rubber

17. The Congo Free State: Leopold’s False Promises • European countries recognized Leopold’s claim to the territory in 1885 because of: • Stanley’s treaties for Leopold • Leopold’s assurances that he would end slavery • Leopold’s promise that the Congo would remain a free trade area. • The colony “belonged” to Leopold personally.

18. Thus the territory of today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, some two million square kilometers, was made essentially the property of Léopold II (because of the terror regime established, it would eventually become a Belgian colony). • It was primarily because of this point that Joseph Conrad sarcastically referred to the conference as "the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs” in Heart of Darkness.

19. Leopold waged a skillful public relations campaign to promote his “Congo Free State” as an effort to stop the Arabs from running a slave trade in Africa. This, of course, was a ruse. Slave raids such as this one carried out by the kingdom of Dahomey in return for European muskets and money provided Leopold II with his “humanitarian” excuse for going into the Congo.

20. The Congo Free State :“The Profit Imperative” • Leopold drove slave traders out and portrayed it as humanitarian act. • Reality: he did it to gain control of region. • Leopold paid his ‘agents’ in the Congo a percentage of profits, encouraging them to make the trade more and more profitable. • Also authorized the use of as much force as was deemed necessary.

21. Role of Stanley in Congo • Leopold sent the famous explorer of Africa, Henry Morton Stanley, to negotiate treaties with the natives. • Native chiefs were offered trinkets or cloth if they would place an X on a document in foreign tongue.

22. The Congo Sparks Interest • Stanley set out to explore Africa and trace the Congo. • King Leopold II of Belgium commissioned Stanley to help him obtain land in the Congo. • Signing these treaties with local chiefs gave Leopold II control over these lands.

23. Role of Stanley in Congo • Stanley began to sign treaties with over 450 native chiefs from the Congo • As a result, Leopold gained rule of these lands given up by the chiefs • In 1885, after the Berlin Conference, Leopold was given personal rule over the newly declared Congo Free State • Leopold had what he wanted because other European powers recognized his hold over Congo

24. Role of Stanley in Congo • Henry Stanley was also hired to find Dr. Livingstone and he became famous with his saying, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” • This new fame encouraged King Leopold of Belgium to hire Stanley • Stanley surveyed the basin of the Upper Congo River and traced the course of the Congo River • To control land in the Congo, Leopold founded the International Association of the Congo

25. Chiefs of Ngombi & Mafela, in return for "one piece of cloth per month to each of the undersigned chiefs, besides present of cloth in hand," they promised to "freely of their own accord, for themselves and their heirs and successors for ever...give up to the said Association the sovereignty and all sovereign and governing rights to all their territories...and to assist by labour or otherwise, any works, improvements or expeditions which the said Association shall cause at any time to be carried out in any part of these territories....All roads and waterways running through this country, the right of collecting tolls on the same, and all game, fishing, mining and forest rights, are to be the absolute property of the said Association.” --Treaty handing over land to Leopold II

26. Harvesting Rubber

27. The Congo Free State :“The Profit Imperative” • Colony not profitable in first few years. • Soon the idea of free trade was abandoned; natives could only trade with Leopold’s representatives, with 50% of profits going to Leopold himself. • Profit required cheap labor (gathering rubber is very labor intensive).

28. Belgian soldiers enforcing rubber sap quotas

29. Leopold’s Abuse of the Congo • Agents ‘encouraged’ young men to work by holding their wives and children captive until each man’s quota was met. • Many who resisted were killed on the spot. • Others were beaten with whips made from dried hippo hide with sharp edges. • 20 lashes resulted in unconsciousness • 100 lashes resulted in death.

30. Women kept hostage to force their husbands to go and gather rubber. Rubber was harvested by climbing the rubber tree, tapping into it and letting the sap run all over the slave’s body, where it would congeal. Later he would peel the rubber off his body, taking any body hair with it. Rubber harvesters were given impossible quotas to fill each month. In addition to enduring the hardships of gathering rubber in the jungle, many of them were killed by wild animals. Belgian Congo

31. "The station chief selects the victims....Trembling, haggard, they lie face down on the ground...two of their companions, sometimes four, seize them by the feet and hands, and remove their cotton drawers....Each time that the torturer lifts up the chicotte, a reddish stripe appears on the skin of the pitiful victims, who, however firmly held, gasp in frightful contortions....At the first blows the unhappy victims let out horrible cries which soon become faint groans....In a refinement of evil, some officers, and I've witnessed this, demand that when the sufferer gets up, panting, he must graciously give the military salute.” -- Stanislas Lefranc, Belgian prosecutor Belgian Congo The chicotte, a particularly vicious type of whip made from rhinoceros hide.

32. Punishing “Lazy” Workers

33. Belgian Congo Two victims (l.) who lost their hands, one because his wrists were tied too tightly, the other because company militia cut it off to claim him as killed and get a reward. Below, a father looks at the severed hand and foot of his daughter

34. Mutilated People in the Congo Free State

35. The men in this photo are holding human hands. sun.menloschool.org

36. 5-8 Million Victims! (50% of Popul.) It is blood-curdling to see them (the soldiers) returning with the hands of the slain, and to find the hands of young children amongst the bigger ones evidencing their bravery...The rubber from this district has cost hundreds of lives, and the scenes I have witnessed, while unable to help the oppressed, have been almost enough to make me wish I were dead... This rubber traffic is steeped in blood, and if the natives were to rise and sweep every white person on the Upper Congo into eternity, there would still be left a fearful balance to their credit. -- Belgian Official

37. Leopold’s Abuse of the Congo • Revolt broke out. Leopold sent troops into villages to exterminate the young men. • To make sure bullets weren’t wasted, soldiers were expected to return with the severed right hands of those they killed. • Soldiers who couldn’t meet quotas or spent bullets hunting would cut hands off of living women and children. Between 1895-1908 an estimated 8-10 million people died due to murder, mistreatment and starvation.

38. The “Hand” Tax • Hands cut off as proof of killing or punishment: received payment for hands and “proved” that supervisors were not “wasting” bullets on game hunting

39. Leopold’s men then proceeded to rape the land of its riches, especially ivory and rubber, ruthlessly using forced labor to get the job done. "It was most interesting, lying in the bush, watching the natives quietly at their day's work. Some women ...were making banana flour by pounding up dried bananas. Men we could see building huts and engaged in other work, boys & girls running about, singing.... I opened the game by shooting one chap through the chest. He fell like a stone....Immediately a volley was poured into the village.”"Six shots & four deaths were sufficient to quiet the mocking.”--Henry Stanley

40. The village of Baringa before and after it was burned & converted into a rubber plantation, it being easier to clear a village than a deeply rooted jungle Belgian Congo

41. Belgium’s Stranglehold on the Congo

42. Leopold’s Conscience??

43. Negative press about what the Belgians were doing in the Congo The Belgian King Leopold II says to the USA " I'll give you enough rubber to make you an elastic conscience"  http://www.flickr.com/photos/41766098@N03/3965951238/

44. Joseph Conrad (1857-1914) Marlow’s & Conrad’s 1889-90 journey into “Heart of Darkness”

45. The First Modern Genocide? From 1885-1908 the Congolese population declines by one-half to 10 million due to 1) murder 2) starvation/exhaustion 3) disease 4) low birth rate An estimated 10 million people died during this time

46. Effects of Imperialism on Congolese Continued • They were forced to collect sap from rubber plants by European Companies that King Leopold II issued. • A near 10 million Congolese died from the brutality of Leopold’s rule. • Humanitarians all around the world wanted big changes because of the horrible acts of Leopold. • The Belgium Government took control in 1908, away from the vicious Leopold. • There was slavery throughout Africa and they were beaten and forced to work but that would soon be over because they were going to gain independence from Belgium soon.

47. Public pressure eventually forced Leopold to sell the Congo Free State to the Belgian government. It became The Belgian Congo in 1908 The Belgian Government ended the worst of the atrocities, but still controlled the fate of the African natives “For their own good.” The African natives were never consulted about their future Effect on the Congo: The Human Rights Movement

48. Imperial Power Removed In Congo • In 1908 the Congo was surrendered by King Leopold II to Belgium. • It was renamed the Belgium Congo. • Working conditions were harsh but the Belgium rule improved them significantly. • People began to demand self rule. • The Belgium government agreed to give their political power to the people because they were so confident that they would later regain control. • The Belgium Government was wrong, on June 30,1960, Congo gained their independence. • Joseph Kasavubu and Patrick Lumumba were the new president and prime minister of the Belgium Congo.