22 Facts About Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960.

Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" of state, missionary and private-company interests.

In 1960, as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Belgian Congo achieved independence, becoming the Republic of the Congo under Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu.

The state included the entire area of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Belgian Congo, and existed from 1885 until 1908, when the government of Belgium reluctantly annexed the area.

On 18 October 1908, the Belgian Parliament voted in favour of annexing the Congo as a Belgian colony.

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Article 3 of the new Colonial Charter of 18 October 1908 stated that: "Nobody can be forced to work on behalf of and for the profit of companies or privates", but this was not enforced, and the Belgian Congo government continued to impose forced labour on the natives, albeit by less obvious methods.

Transition from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo was a turning point, but it was marked by a considerable continuity.

Opening up the Congo and its natural and mineral riches for the Belgian economy remained an important motive for colonial expansion, but other priorities, such as healthcare and basic education, gradually gained in importance.

The territories were further subdivided into numerous "chiefdoms", at the head of which the Belgian Congo administration appointed "traditional chiefs" (chefs coutumiers).

Belgians living in the Congo had no say in the government and the Congolese did not either.

Belgian Congo had used dynamite to crush rocks when paving his way through the lower-Congo region.

The Belgian Congo-owned Union Miniere du Haut-Katanga, which would come to dominate copper mining, used a direct rail line to the sea at Beira.

Palm-oil production in the Belgian Congo increased from 2, 500 tons in 1914 to 9, 000 tons in 1921, and to 230, 000 tons in 1957.

The National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo, established in 1934, with its large experimental fields and laboratories in Yangambe, played an important role in crop selection and in the popularization of agronomic research and know-how.

The Belgian Congo became one of the major exporters of uranium to the US during World War II, particularly from the Shinkolobwe mine.

The Belgian Congo was one of the few African colonies in which local languages were taught at primary school.

The Belgian Congo had 3, 000 health care facilities, of which 380 were hospitals.

All Europeans and Congolese in the Belgian Congo received vaccinations for polio, measles and yellow fever.

Belgium had ratified article 73 of the United Nations Charter, which advocated self-determination, and both superpowers put pressure on Belgium to reform its Congo policy; the Belgian government tried to resist what it described as 'interference' with its colonial policy.

Foreign observers, such as the international correspondent of The Manchester Guardian or a Time journalist, remarked that Belgian Congo paternalism "seemed to work", and contrasted Belgium's seemingly loyal and enthusiastic colonial subjects with the restless French and British colonies.

The nationalist movement—to which the Belgian authorities, to some degree, turned a blind eye—promoted territorial nationalism, wherein the Belgian Congo would become one politically united state after independence.

In 1959, King Baudouin made another visit to the Belgian Congo, finding a great contrast with his visit of four years before.