Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90 Explained

The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889-1890 was held from 18 November 1889 to 2 July 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the prohibition of slave trade and slavery in Africa. The convention favoured colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument.[1] The event and its origins were shaped primarily by a narrow national interest. Governments paid lip-service to humanitarian goals in order to legitimize their imperial aims.[2]

Background

King Leopold and the Congo Free State

See main article: Congo Free State. Leopold II, the power-thirsty[3] King of the Belgians, had always regretted the restrictions of power imposed on him by his position as a constitutional monarch.[4] He therefore embarked on the project of carving out an absolute monarchy of his own in Africa, which led to the creation of the Congo Free State. Leopold was able to seize the region by convincing other European states at the Berlin Conference on Africa that he was involved in humanitarian and philanthropic work and would not tax trade.[5] Via the International Association of the Congo, he was able to lay claim to most of the Congo Basin. The Congo Free State operated as a separate nation from Belgium, in a personal union with its King. It was privately controlled by Leopold II, although he never personally visited the state.[6]

Notes and References

  1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322980336_The_humanitarian_Action_of_Leopold_II_in_Congo_Free_State_The_Antislavery-Conference_of_Brussels_1889-1890 Chatelet, Luc. (1988). The humanitarian Action of Leopold II in Congo Free State. The Antislavery-Conference of Brussels (1889-1890). Afrika Focus. 4. 10.21825/af.v4i1-2.6489.
  2. Book: Mulligan, William. A Global History of Anti-slavery Politics in the Nineteenth Century. 2013. The Anti-slave Trade Campaign in Europe, 1888–90. Mulligan. William. Bric. Maurice. Palgrave Macmillan. London. 978-1-137-03260-7.
  3. Léopold II s’était lancé dans l’entreprise coloniale pour assouvir sa soif de pouvoir et donner une importance stratégique à son pays.. Leopold II had embarked on the colonial enterprise in order to quench his thirst for power and to give strategic importance to his country.. L'Afrique centrale ex-belge. Jean. Pirotte. 2013. Histoire, monde et cultures religieuses. 25. 107–132. fr.
  4. Das Herz der Finsternis. Jörg-Uwe. Albig. 2014. Geo Epoche. Das Magazin für Geschichte. 66. 96–113. de.
  5. Book: Gifford, Paul . France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule . Yale University Press . 1971 . 9780300012897 . New Haven . 221–260.
  6. 23240858. Daniel. Laqua. The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s. The International History Review. 2011. 33. 4. 705–726.
  7. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1892/mar/03/the-imperial-british-east-africa-company#S4V0001P0_18920303_HOC_78 THE IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY. HC Deb 03 March 1892 vol 1 cc1836-83
  8. https://archive.org/details/newafricaessayon00desciala/page/142/mode/2up?q=Brussels+act New Africa; an essay on government civilization in new countries, and on the foundation, organization and administration of the Congo Free State, GREAT BRITAIN'S APPEAL TO BELGIUM. THE BRUSSELS CONFERENCE, Page 142.
  9. Hochschild, A. (1998). King Leopold's ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston, Houghton Mifflin. To the king's great satisfaction, Brussels was chosen as the location, for eight months of intermittent meetings starting in November 1889, for an Anti-Slavery Conference of the major powers. The king happily entertained the delegates, in whose meeting room at the Belgian Foreign Ministry aforked slave-yoke was on display.
  10. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 6. Baron Auguste Lambermont (1819-1905), The Anti-Slavery Conference and the Relaxing Relationship with Leopold II
  11. Web site: L’esclavage au Maroc au temps du protectorat . François-Paul Blanc . 2010 .
  12. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 6. Baron Auguste Lambermont (1819-1905), The Anti-Slavery Conference and the Relaxing Relationship with Leopold II
  13. https://archive.org/details/newafricaessayon00desciala/page/144/mode/2up?q=Brussels+act New Africa; an essay on government civilization in new countries, and on the foundation, organization and administration of the Congo Free State, GREAT BRITAIN'S APPEAL TO BELGIUM. THE BRUSSELS CONFERENCE, Page 144.
  14. https://archive.org/details/conventionrevisi00greaiala/mode/1up?ref=ol Convention revising the General Act of Berlin, 26 February 1885, and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels, 2 July 1890: signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye on 10 September 1919
  15. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/slavery-convention UN Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926
  16. https://bibliotheque-numerique.diplomatie.gouv.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5613948k/f1.item.texteImage.zoom Conférence internationale de Bruxelles: 18 novembre 1889-2 juillet 1890, protocoles et acte final/Ministère des affaires étrangères France. Ministère des affaires étrangères (1588-2007). Auteur du texte
  17. https://www.mo.be/wereldblog/de-koning-kinshasa-die-nooit-congo-was-slot MO - De koning in Kinshasa die nooit in Congo was [Slot<nowiki>]]

    Lavigerie's crusade against slavery

    During the Scramble for Africa in the mid-1880s, despite the humanitarian promises of the Berlin Colonial Conference, the colonial powers' primary concerns were territorial and economic. This was to change in 1888. In major speeches in Paris and London, Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, who had launched a crusade against slavery, denounced the horrors of the Arab slave trade, in particular the Zanzibar slave trade. He urged immediate action in the form of an international militia of volunteers to combat the slave trade in East Africa.

    Leopold II followed Lavigerie's preaching tour intently. He was particularly concerned by the plans to send out a private international militia. After all, this could mean the conquest of his Congo. Such an army corps, he felt, could only be justified if it was under the leadership of the Congolese government. Leopold also feared that Lavigerie, who in his previous speeches had accused Tippu Tip of slave trading, might harm the Arab policy of his Congo Free State.

    After meeting Leopold, however, Lavigerie renounced an international volunteer corps. An anti-slavery expedition was now to be organised by an exclusively national anti-slavery association in consultation with the colonial authorities concerned. In his Brussels speech, although Lavigerie pointed sharply to the rampant slave trade in Congo Free State, he attributed this to a lack of resources.

    Leading up to the conference

    Lavigerie's preaching tour did not only "breath[e] new life into the antislavery movement",[6] but also the Anti-Slavery Conference was a result. European colonisation of East and Central Africa posed a number of problems, especially with the Arabo-Swahili power. A clear example was the Arabo-Swahili rebellion that led to the blockade of the east coast of Africa by Germany and Britain.[7]

    The conference

    Britain, after consultation with the German government, requested Belgium to convene an international conference on the slave trade.[8] Belgium had been specially chosen to allay Portuguese and French suspicions. On 18 November 1889, delegates of 17 countries met in Brussels for eight intermittent months. The conference meetings took place at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[9] Lambermont was appointed president of the conference.[10] The provisions of the General Act to combat the slave trade in the African interior actually amounted to a plan for more colonialism. This was based on the reasoning that anything that contributed to the expansion of European influence should limit the scope of action of the slave traders.[11]

    The Act

    See main article: Brussels Conference Act of 1890. The General Act of the Brussels Conference stipulated that the organisation of legal, religious and military services in African colonies and protectorates was the best means of combating the slave trade. An important item on the agenda was also the regulation of arms imports. The arms trade not only strengthened the power of the Arabo-Swahilis, but guns and ammunition were also the usual means of exchange to obtain slaves and vice versa.

    To effectively combat the slave trade at sea, there had to be extensive control of shipping. Earlier in the fight against the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, England had concluded maritime treaties with a variety of nations. This allowed the English navy to examine foreign ships for transporting slaves. England sought a global agreement at the conference that would allow the right of investigation. France, however, had always opposed that right because it made England's superior maritime the police navy, The Act represented a compromise between the two positions.

    Finally, the slave trade could only be completely abolished if the demand for new slaves disappeared. Thus, to eradicate the Eastern slave trade once and for all, slavery had to be abolished in the destination countries themselves. However, the conference did not go that far: only the importation of slaves was addressed. Influenced by the conference, the Ottoman Empire passed a new law that banned the import, transit and export of slaves, but left the institution of slavery untouched. Fugitive and illegally imported slaves had to be issued letters of release.

    Import duties

    Import duties were Leopold's primary concern. The Berlin Act had banned the levying of import duties in the Congo Basin for a period of 20 years. Now he wanted to undo this after only five years.

    In a prior correspondence with England, Leopold had requested that all countries that had to incur expenses in the fight against the slave trade be allowed to levy a moderate import duty; there was no objection to this. Leopold therefore wanted this to be included in the conference programme, but Lambermont believed caution was needed. On 10 May Lambermont submitted the proposal to the conference. He requested the abolition of Article 4 of the Berlin Act and asked that the countries of the conventional Congo basin be allowed to levy an import duty of up to 10 per cent ad valorem, a ban or tax on alcohol was also considered, as it was closely linked to the slave trade.[12] The development of public services to support trade required new revenues. Moreover, the countries, which were on the front line against the slave trade, had to be somewhat accommodated. After all, their humanitarian task cost a lot of money.

    Initially, the Netherlands and the United States opposed the proposal. but after long arduous negotiations and great diplomatic skill on the part of Leopold II, both sides came to an agreement, Leopold II struck home and on 2 July, the general act and declaration of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference could finally be signed.[13]

    Consequences

    Briefly, the conference led to the negotiation of the first treaty abolishing the Arab slave trade, the Brussels Convention, which was adopted in 1890 and entered into force on 2 April 1892.

    On 10 September 1919, the Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1919 to revise the General Act of Berlin of 1885 and the General Act and Declaration of Brussels of 1890,[14] extended prohibition by securing "the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea",[15] paving the way for the UN Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926.

    Participants

    State Participants
    His Excellency Count, German Minister in Brussels.
    Dr. Arendt, Consul General of Germany in Antwerp.
    His Excellency Count, Austro-Hungarian minister in Brussels.
    M. le Baron Lambermont, Minister of State.
    Mr Emile Banning, Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    His Excellency M., Spanish Minister in Brussels.
    Mfg Schack De Brockdorff, Consul General of Denmark in Antwerp.
    His Excellency Edwin H. Terrell, Minister of the United States of America in Brussels.
    His Excellency M. Bolrée, French Minister in Brussels.
    M., Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris.
    His Excellency Lord Vivian, British Minister at Brussels.
    Sir John Kirk, GCMG
    His Excellency Baron De Reinzis, Italian Minister in Brussels.
    His Excellency Baron, Dutch Minister in Brussels.
    His Excellency M., Portuguese Minister in Brussels.
    His Excellency Prince, Russian Minister in Brussels.
    His Excellency M. De Martens, Permanent Member of the Council of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
    His Excellency, Minister of Sweden and Norway in Brussels.
    Mr. Pirmez, Minister of State, President of the Supreme Council of the Independent State of Congo.
    Mr. Van Eetvelde, General Administrator of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo.
    His Excellency Caratiieodory Efendi, Ottoman minister in Brussels.
    His Excellency General Nazare Aga, Minister of Persia at Brussels.
    [16]

    See also

    External links

    References