II.

First Steps (1876-1884)

European competition over African territory in the 1870s heightened once Belgian king Leopold II got involved. Merchants under French government protection had been advancing up the Sénégal River with an eye toward connecting that river with the Niger by rail. This connection would open a vast market in West Africa’s interior. At the same time, British palm oil merchants were pushing up the Niger River by steamer, and Anglo-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley was journeying down the Congo River. In his journeys, Stanley had discovered that the river’s upper reaches were open to trade. However, it took Leopold to raise the stakes. For 20 years the wealthy ruler had dreamt of creating a Belgian colonial empire. In 1876 he established the International African Association, an organization that had stated scientific and humanitarian goals but was truly a front to further Leopold’s imperial design. Then, in 1879, when Britain ignored Stanley’s offer to open Central Africa and funnel its trade to the mouth of the Congo, Leopold employed Stanley to do just that. By 1880 the explorer was back in the lower Congo, building road and river access to connect the Atlantic Ocean with Stanley Falls, located about 2300 km (about 1400 mi) upstream. Across the river in the early 1880s, French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza was exploring and negotiating treaties for France, forcing Stanley to obtain treaties for Leopold. Their claims appeared to overlap near the mouth of the Congo, a land area claimed by Portugal as well.

Events in North Africa raised tensions further. In 1881, France occupied Tunisia to prevent Italy from gaining land on Algeria’s border. A year later Britain occupied the bankrupt Ottoman possession of Egypt to guarantee repayment of its huge foreign debt. France, which also had a significant financial stake in Egypt and had shared “dual control” of Egypt’s finances with Britain since the mid-1870s, was left without influence. Neither France nor Germany approved of Britain taking over Egypt, but each expressed approval to gain British support for its own colonial actions. It was fast becoming a game of European diplomatic wrangling with African territories as pawns.