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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.
Map of the Congo Free State in 1892. Even before his accession to the throne of Belgium in 1865, the future king Leopold II began lobbying leading Belgian politicians to create a colonial empire in the Far East or in Africa, which would expand and enhance Belgian prestige. [2]
Leopold I of Belgium. Mother. Louise of Orléans. Signature. Leopold II[ a] (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise, Leopold ...
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 former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colonization of the Congo Basin refers to the European colonization of the Congo Basin of tropical Africa.It was the last part of the continent to be colonized. By the end of the 19th century, the Basin had been carved up by European colonial powers, into the Congo Free State, the French Congo and the Portuguese Congo (modern Cabinda Province of Angola).
The Congo Free State was a state in Africa created and headed by the former Belgian monarch, Leopold II as a personal union with Belgium.On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International ...
A Map of the route of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1887–1889, Published in 1890. In many areas the courses of rivers are dashed or omitted, reflecting the limited European knowledge of the region at the time. The Districts of the Congo Free State were the primary administrative divisions of the Congo Free State from 1885 to
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago. The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.