Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/230

 202

CONGO

F R EE

river itself, so there shall be collected on these roads, railways, and canals only tolls calculated on the cost of construction, maintenance, and management, and on the profits due to the promoters ”; while as regards the tariff of these tolls, strangers and natives of the respective territories were to be treated “on a footing of perfect equality.” The International Association not having possessed, at the date of the assembling of the Conference, any recognized status, was not formally represented at Berlin, but the flag of the Association having, before the close of the Conference, been recognized as that of a sovereign state by all the Powers, with the exception of Turkey, the Association formally adhered to the General Act. Thus early in 1885 King Leopold had secured the recognition of the Association as an independent state, but its limits were as yet not clearly defined. On the 5th of February, as the result of prolonged negotiations, France conceded the right of the Association to the course of the Lower Congo below Manyanga, and accepted the Chiloango river and the water-parting of the waters of the Niadi Kwilu and the Congo, as far as beyond the meridian of Manyanga, as the boundary between her possessions and those of the Association on the lower river. From Manyanga the frontier was to follow the Congo up to Stanley Pool, the median line of Stanley Pool, and the Congo again “up to a point to be settled above the river Agreements Licona-Xkundja, ” from which point a line was Ihnits

to be drawn to the 17th degree of longitude east of Greenwich, following as closely as possible the water-parting of the Licona-Nkundja basin. The identity of the Licona-Nkundja subsequently gave rise to considerable discussions with France, and eventually a protocol, signed at Brussels on the 29th of April 1887, continued the boundary along the Congo to its confluence with the Mobangi, whence it followed the thalweg of that river to its intersection with the 4th parallel of north latitude, below which parallel it was agreed that the northern boundary of the Congo Free State should in no case descend. In accepting this frontier King Leopold had to sacrifice all claims to the valley of the Niadi Kwilu, in which he had founded fourteen stations, and to the right bank of the Mobangi. With Portugal the Association concluded an agreement on the 14th of February 1885, by which the northern bank of the Congo was recognized as belonging to the Association, while Portugal retained the southern bank of the river as far as Nokki. North of the Congo Portugal retained the small enclave of Kabinda, while south of the river the frontier left the Congo at Nokki and followed the parallel of that place to the Kwango river. In April 1885 the Belgian Chamber authorized King Leopold “to be the chief of the state founded in Africa by the International Association of the Congo,” and declared that “the union between Belgium and the new State of the Congo shall be exclusively personal.” This act of the Belgian Legislature regularized the position of King Leopold, who at once began the work of organizing an administration for the new state. In a circular - letter addressed to the Powers on the 1st of August 1885, His Majesty declared the neutrality of the “ Independent State of the Congo,” and set out the boundaries which were then claimed for the new state, but it was not until fifteen years later that the frontiers of the Free State were finally settled. At the date of the issue of the circular the agreements with France and Portugal had partially defined the Free State boundaries on the lower river, and the 30th degree of longitude east of Greenwich was recognized as the limit of its extension eastwards. The following is a list of the agreements subsequently

STATE

made with reference to the boundaries of the State (see also Africa, Recent History) :— 1. 22nd November 1885, with France.—Protocol for delimitation of the Manyanga region. 2. 29 th April 1887, with France.—Protocol for delimitation of the Mohangi region. 3. 25th May 1891, with Portugal.—Treaty for delimitation of the Lunda region, and Convention of even date for the settlement of frontiers on Lower Congo. 4. 24th March 1894, with Portugal.—Declaration approving delimitation of Lunda region. 5. 12th May 1894, with Great Britain.—Agreement as to Nile valley and boundaries with British Central Africa. 6. 14th August 1894, with France—Agreement as to Mbomu river, and Congo and Nile basins. 7. 5th February 1895, with France.—Agreement as to Stanley Pool. The net result of the above agreements is to leave the Congo Free State with France, Portugal, and Great Britain as her neighbours on the north, with Great Britain and Germany as her neighbours on the east, and with Great Britain and Portugal on her southern frontier. The external history of the young state is traced in these agreements. The main object of King Leopold’s ambition was to obtain an outlet on the Nile, and for the history of the incidents connected with the two important agreements made in 1894 with Great Britain and France reference must be made to the article Africa. The sacrifices made by the king to attain his object were great, and involved a heavy strain on the finances of the state, reacting on its internal policy. The avowed object of the Free State was to develop the resources of the territory with the aid of the natives, but it early became apparent that the Arab slave traders, who had established themselves in the country between Lake Tanganyika and Stanley Falls and on the upper river, offered an insuperable bar to the realization of this programme. The scanty resources at the disposal of the state imposed a policy of restraint on the officers who were brought into relations with the Arabs on the upper river, of whom Tippu Tib was the chief. In 1886 the Arabs had destroyed the state station at Stanley Falls, and it was apparent that a struggle for supremacy was inevitable. But the Free State was at that time ill prepared for a trial of strength, and at Mr Stanley’s suggestion the bold course was taken of appointing Tippu Tip governor of Stanley Falls, as the representative of King Leopold. This was in 1887, and for five years the modus vivendi thus established continued in operation. During those years fortified camps were established by the Belgians on the Sankuru, the Lomami, and the Aruwimi, and the Arabs were quick to see that each year’s delay increased the strength of the forces against which they would have to contend. In 1891 the imposition of an export duty on ivory excited much ill-will, and when it became known that, in his march towards the Nile, van Kerckhoven had defeated an Arab force, the Arabs on the Upper Congo determined to precipitate the conflict. In May 1892 the murder of M. Hodister, the representative of a Belgian trading company, and of ten other Belgians on the Upper Lomami, marked the beginning of the Arab war. When the news reached the lower river a Belgian expedition under the command of Commandant (afterwards Baron) Dhanis was making its way towards Katanga. This expedition was diverted to the east, and, after a campaign extending over several months, during which several battles were fought and the Arab strongholds of Nyangwe and Kasongo were captured, the Arab power was broken and many of the leading Arabs were killed. The political and commercial results of the victory of the Free State troops are thus described by Captain Hinde, who was Baron Dhanis’s second in command :—“ The political