| Association Internationale Africaine |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE AFRICAINE | |
| 1876 establishments | |
| central africa | |
| history of africa | |
| new imperialism | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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From 1879 to 1884 famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley returned to the Congo, this time not as a reporter, but as an envoy from Leopold, and under the guise of the Belgian Committee, with the secret mission to organize a Congo state. At the same time, the French marine officer Pierre Savorgnan De Brazza traveled into the western Congo basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville in 1881 . Portugal, which also claimed the area due to old treaties with the native Kongo Empire , made a treaty with Great Britain on February 26 , 1884 to block off the Congo Society's access to the Atlantic . At the same time, various European countries tried to acquired a foothold in Africa. France occupied Tunisia and today's Republic Of The Congo in 1881 and Guinea in 1884. In 1882 , Great Britain occupied the nominally Ottoman Egypt , which in turn ruled over the Sudan and parts of Somalia . In 1870 and 1882, Italy took possession of the first parts of Eritrea , while Germany declared Togo , Cameroon and Southwest Africa to be under its protection in 1884 . The large number of competing interests caused the Association to fracture and disintegrate over each member state's national interests. The Association's break-up eventually forced the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, effectively ending what became known as the Scramble For Africa . Despite the failure of the initial committee, the Belgian Committee that the Association generated continued to sponsor 'humanitarian' missions into the bush. In 1878 the International Congo Society was also formed, having more economic goals, but still closely related to the former society. Leopold secretly bought off the foreign investors in the Congo Society, which was turned to imperialistic goals, with the Association serving primarily as a philanthropic front. By these means, Leopold morphed the organization's "ideology from 'national philanthropic association' to 'private commercial enterprise.' As well as from a 'commercial plan to a political reality: the Congo Free State' (Wesseling 89)" {Link without Title} . The Belgian Committee and the Association are well documented as fronts for shaping Leopold's exploitive and oppressive Congo regime. SEE ALSO |