Leopold's Rule
Leopold no longer needed the façade of the Association, and replaced it with an appointed cabinet of Belgians who would do his bidding. To the temporary new capital of Boma, he sent a Governor-General and a chief of police. The vast Congo basin was split up into 14 administrative districts, each district into zones, each zone into sectors, and each sector into posts. From the District Commissioners down to post level, every appointed head was European.
Three main problems presented themselves over the next few years.
- Beyond Stanley's eight trading stations, the Free State was unmapped jungle, and offered no commercial return.
- Cecil Rhodes, then Prime Minister of the British Cape Colony (part of modern South Africa) was expanding his British South Africa Company's charter lands from the south and threatening to occupy Katanga (southern Congo) by exploiting the 'Principle of Effectivity' loophole in the Berlin Treaty, supported by Harry Johnston, British Commissioner for Central Africa who was London's representative in the region.
- The slaving gangs of Zanzibar trader Tippu Tip had established a strong presence in the north and east of the country and the area to the east of it (modern Uganda), and had effectively established an independent slave state.
Read more about this topic: Congo Free State
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