At the Conference of Berlin in 1884-1885, Belgium was granted sovereignty over a large region of central Africa, and King Léopold II immediately set out to turn his new possession into profits. The Congo Free State was established in the lower Congo River Valley in 1885 and extended upriver into the mineral-rich Katanga Province by 1891. From the beginning, its economy was geared toward the development of agricultural products for export, particularly rubber, and the exploitation of mineral resources. Administered through indirect rule, using local chiefs as intermediaries between the state and the tribes, the Free State quickly earned a reputation for its unusually harsh and exploitative ways, using mercenaries from other regions of Africa to help extend their dominion and crush resistance.
The most lucrative resource in the Free State during its brief existence was rubber. After declaring all uncultivated lands state property, the government imposed a tax on the indigenous population, which they paid by extracting latex from wild lianas. Permitting their agents to use as much force as they felt necessary to deliver the tax and other goods, the Free State became associated with forced labor and coercion. The activity of Arab slavers in eastern Congo was diminished in the mid-1890s.
By shortly after the turn of the century, the Congo had become the world's largest exporter of rubber, but the repression resulted in a significant international outcry, led by Protestant missionaries eager to ply the Congolese waters. In 1908, the Belgian Parliament voted to annex the Free State, renaming it Belgian Congo.
Provenance unknown, but the item was accessioned in about 1908 (accn. no. 39847).
Cite as: L'État Indépendant du Congo, American Philosophical Society.
Recatalogued by rsc, 2002.
