Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Edmond-Winnie-Victor Hanssens (25 July 1843 – 28 December 1884) was a Belgian soldier and colonial administrator. He did much to establish the Belgian presence on the Upper Congo River in the last two years of his life.
The Belgian Congo (French: Congo belge, pronounced [kɔ̃ɡo bɛlʒ]; Dutch: Belgisch-Congo) [a] was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).
The letter became famous for coining the term "crimes against humanity". [5] As a result of the impact of Williams' letter, Leopold II annexed the region on November 15, 1908, ending the Congo Free State's independent existence and becoming the Belgian Congo under the direct rule of the Belgian Empire.
Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) – known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State , which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II .
In 1960, the Belgian Congo gained independence from Belgium as the Republic of the Congo (today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo). As the newly independent country fell into civil war during the Congo Crisis, Belgium and the United States cooperated to foil Soviet efforts to turn the Congo into a communist country.
By 1908, public pressure and diplomatic manoeuvres led to the end of Leopold II's absolutist rule; the Belgian Parliament annexed the Congo Free State as a colony of Belgium. It became known thereafter as the Belgian Congo. In addition, a number of major Belgian investment companies pushed the Belgian government to take over the Congo and ...
An international campaign against the Congo Free State began in 1890 and reached its apogee after 1900 under the leadership of the British activist E. D. Morel. On 15 November 1908, [1] under international pressure, the Government of Belgium annexed the Congo Free State to form the Belgian Congo. It ended many of the systems responsible for the ...
The treaty of 28 November 1908 ceding the Congo Free State to Belgium included a clause in which Belgium respected the concessions granted to the American Congo Company and Forminière, two companies in which the Congo Free State had large holdings [8] The American Congo Company became a subsidiary of Forminière. [9]