The Congo State
Or, the Growth of Civilisation in Central Africa

This 1898 publication documents the controversial colonial history of the Congo Free State during the reign of King Leopold II.

Demetrius Charles Boulger (Author)

9781108050692, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 June 2012

436 pages, 59 b/w illus. 1 map
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.64 kg

Written by the historian and biographer Demetrius C. Boulger (1853–1928), this history of early Belgian rule in the Congo was first published in 1898. The book documents nineteenth-century colonial activity after King Leopold II (1835–1909) assumed private control of the Congo Free State following the Berlin Conference in 1884. Exposed by the Casement Report of 1904, Leopold's controversial administration of the territory has become infamous for its exploitation of the local people and natural resources. Boulger's pro-Leopold account describes the Congolese population and environment, the presence and decline of the slave trade in the area, interaction with other European colonial powers, and the introduction of technologies such as the railway and telegraph. Including more than fifty illustrations, this book offers a fascinating insight into nineteenth-century colonial zeal.

1. The conception of the Congo state
2. The first Belgian expeditions
3. The founding of the state
4. The Congo and its affluents
5. The slave trade and its horrors
6. The earlier campaigns
7. The operations on the Lomani
8. The second Brussels Conference and the king's will
9. The Arab campaign
10. The later diplomatic arrangement
11. The extinction of the slave trade
12. The advance to the Nile
13. The Congo Public Force
14. The Batetela mutinies
15. The state administration
16. The revenue and the trade of the state
17. Railways and telegraphs of the Congo
18. The peoples of the Congo state
19. The state and its neighbours
20. Belgium and the Congo
Appendix
Index of subjects.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]