Congo Free State

Congo Free State, French État Indépendant du Congo, former state in Africa that occupied almost all of the Congo River basin, coextensive with the modern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was created in the 1880s as the private holding of a group of European investors headed by Leopold II, king of the Belgians. The king’s attention was drawn to the region during Henry (later Sir Henry) Morton Stanley’s exploration of the Congo River in 1874–77. In November of 1877 Leopold formed the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo (Comité d’Études du Haut Congo, later renamed Association Internationale du Congo) to open up the African interior to European trade along the Congo River. Between 1879 and 1882, under the committee’s auspices, Stanley established stations on the upper Congo and opened negotiations with local rulers. By 1884 the Association Internationale du Congo had signed treaties with 450 independent African entities and, on that basis, asserted its right to govern all the territory concerned as an independent state. At the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884–85, its name became the Congo Free State, and European powers recognized Leopold as its sovereign.

Leopold extended his military control over the interior in the early 1890s. The Arab slave traders of the Lualaba River region succumbed in 1890, when their leader Tippu Tib left for Zanzibar. Katanga, rich in copper and other minerals, fell in 1891 after Leopold’s troops shot the ruler, Msiri. Later rebellions were repressed. Transportation links to the interior were established with the construction (1890–98) of a railway to bypass the Congo River rapids below Stanley (now Malebo) Pool; the upper course of the river and its tributaries were all navigable by steamboat.

The regime, under Leopold’s unrestrained personal control, became notorious for its treatment of the Congolese. Forced labour was used to gather wild rubber, palm oil, and ivory. Beatings and lashings were used to force villages to meet their rubber-gathering quotas, as was the taking of hostages: one method employed by Leopold’s agents was kidnapping the families of Congolese men, who were then coerced into trying to meet work quotas (often unattainable) in order to secure the release of their families. Rebellious actions by the Congolese elicited swift and harsh responses from Leopold’s private army, the Force Publique (a band of African soldiers led by European officers), who burned the villages and slaughtered the families of rebels. Force Publique troops were also known for cutting off the hands of the Congolese, including children. This mutilation not only served as a punishment and a method to further terrorize the Congolese into submission, but it also provided a measure (the collection of severed hands) by which the soldiers could prove to their commanding officers that they were actively crushing rebellious activity. Brutality was widespread in mines and on plantations. The population of the entire state is said to have declined from some 20 million to 8 million.

The truth about Leopold’s brutal regime eventually spread, largely owing to the efforts of the Congo Reform Association, an organization founded by British citizens in the early 20th century. Finally, indignation among people in Britain and other parts of Europe grew so great that Leopold was forced to transfer his authority in the Congo to the Belgian government. In 1908 the Congo Free State was abolished and replaced by the Belgian Congo, a colony controlled by the Belgian parliament.