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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. The violence used by Free State officials ...
The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo ( French: État indépendant du Congo ), was a large state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by King Leopold II, the constitutional monarch of the Kingdom of Belgium. In legal terms, the two separate countries were in a ...
Belgian Congo (dark green) depicted with Belgian Ruanda-Urundi (light green), 1935. This is a list of European colonial administrators responsible for the territory of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
The Colonial Charter on the Belgian annexation of the Congo Free State ( French: Charte coloniale de 1908) was approved by the Belgian Parliament on 18 October 1908. On 15 November 1908, Belgium assumed sovereignty over the territories comprising the Congo Free State, officially making the Belgian Congo a colony of Belgium.
This was used to discharge the debt of the Congo Free State and to pay out its bond holders as well as 45.5 million for Leopold's pet building projects in Belgium and a personal payment of 50 million to him. [6]: 259 The Congo Free State was transformed into a Belgian colony under parliamentary control known as the Belgian Congo. Leopold went ...
The Congo Free State operated as a corporate state, privately controlled by Leopold II through a non-governmental organization, the International African Association. [14] The state included the entire area of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, and existed from 1885 until 1908, when the government of Belgium reluctantly annexed ...
From 1885 the creation of a personal colony by King Leopold II, the Congo Free State caused an international outcry over human rights abuses, and forced the Belgian state to annex the region in 1908, forming the Belgian Congo. In 1909, after his uncle's death, Albert I began his reign, which lasted until 1934.
The Colonial University of Belgium ( French: Université coloniale de Belgique, Dutch: Koloniale Hogeschool van België) was an institute of higher education located in Antwerp. Founded in 1920, the institute was established to prepare students for a careers as colonial functionaries in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi.