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The Association Internationale Africaine was a faux organization created by King Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium

Leopold II was King of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I of Belgium, he succeeded his father to the throne in 1865 and remained king until his death....
 of Belgium
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
 to further humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa
Central Africa

Central Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
 that was to become the Congo Free State
Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium through a dummy non-governmental organization, the Association Internationale Africaine....
 and subsequently today's Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo , is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest list of African countries in order of geographical area....
.

organization was created at the 1876 Brussels Geographic Conference
Brussels Geographic Conference

The Brussels Geographic Conference was held in Brussels Belgium in 1876 at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium. At the conference were invited nearly forty well-known experts, mainly they were schooled in the geographic sciences or were wealthy philanthropists....
 to which Leopold invited nearly forty well-known experts, mainly they were schooled in the geographic sciences or were wealthy philanthropists
Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable organization....
.






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The Association Internationale Africaine was a faux organization created by King Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium

Leopold II was King of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I of Belgium, he succeeded his father to the throne in 1865 and remained king until his death....
 of Belgium
Belgium

* A small German-speaking Community of Belgium exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the history of Belgium and a complex Communities and regions of Belgium....
 to further humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa
Central Africa

Central Africa is a core region of the African continent often considered to include Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
 that was to become the Congo Free State
Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium through a dummy non-governmental organization, the Association Internationale Africaine....
 and subsequently today's Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo , is a country in central Africa with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest list of African countries in order of geographical area....
.

History

The organization was created at the 1876 Brussels Geographic Conference
Brussels Geographic Conference

The Brussels Geographic Conference was held in Brussels Belgium in 1876 at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium. At the conference were invited nearly forty well-known experts, mainly they were schooled in the geographic sciences or were wealthy philanthropists....
 to which Leopold invited nearly forty well-known experts, mainly they were schooled in the geographic sciences or were wealthy philanthropists
Philanthropist

A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable organization....
. They hailed from a number of European countries. As a result, the Association was originally conceived as a multi-person, scientific, and humanitarian assembly but it quickly became dominated by Leopold and his economic interests in Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
. Originally, the stated goal of the group was to 'discover' the largely unexplored Congo and civilize its natives. The Association was intended to be a joint effort on the parts of all Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an countries present at the Conference, however, each nation formed its own national committee for exploration which would, in theory, share information with the whole of the Association, hence, a cooperative effort. However, national economic interests quickly took precedence over the group's supposedly philanthropic ideals. Each of these committees organized nationalized expeditions into the African interior and there was very little sharing of information, resulting in each nation claiming certain portions of African land for themselves.

From 1879 to 1884 famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley

Sir Henry Morton Stanley , Order of the Bath, born John Rowlands , was a Wales journalist and List of explorers famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone....
 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
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza

Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazz?, best known as Pierre Paul Fran?ois Camille Savorgnan de Brazza , was a Franco-Italian List of explorers, born in Italy and later naturalization French people....
 traveled into the western Congo basin and raised the French flag over the newly founded Brazzaville
Brazzaville

||-||}Brazzaville is the capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo and is located on the Congo River. As of the 2001 census, it has a population of 1,018,541 in the city proper, and about 1.5 million in total when including the suburbs located in the Pool Region....
 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
Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast....
 and today's Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , also known as Congo-Brazzaville or the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda , and the Gulf of Guinea....
 in 1881 and Guinea
Guinea

Guinea, officially Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa formerly known as French Guinea. The country's current population is estimated at 10,211,437 ....
 in 1884. In 1882, Great Britain occupied the nominally Ottoman
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, which in turn ruled over the Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
 and parts of Somalia
Somalia

Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa....
. In 1870 and 1882, Italy took possession of the first parts of Eritrea
Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the Country of Eritrea, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast....
, while Germany declared Togo
Togo

Togo is a narrow country in West Africa bordering Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lom? is located....
, Cameroon
Cameroon

The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....
 and South West Africa
South West Africa

South-West Africa was the name of what is today the Republic of Namibia....
 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
Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 regulated colonialism and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power....
 of 1884-1885, effectively ending what became known as the Scramble for Africa
Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa, was the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and the World War I in 1914....
. 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
International Congo Society

The International Congo Society was an association founded on November 17, 1879 by Leopold II of Belgium to further his interests in the Congo....
 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 an international philanthropic association to that of a private commercial enterprise...[and] the change from a commercial plan to a political reality: the Congo Free State.".

See also

  • Congo Reform Association
    Congo Reform Association

    The Congo Reform Association exposed gross and rampant abuses of labor and by public servants in King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State, leading to the annexation of Congo by Belgium in 1908....