King Leopold's Imperialism and the Origins of the Belgian Colonial Party, 1860–1905

Viaene, Vincent

doi:10.1086/591110

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Until 1884, there was a succession of expeditions and voyages of explorationprimarily Stanley's "civilizing missions" and "scientific expeditions"which set up posts in the Congo Basin. The fieldworkers involved in these missions were mainly of Belgian or European origin (Bederman 1989;Viaene 2008).…”

Section: An Unexpected Encountermentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonial Ideology, Colonial Sciences and Colonial Sociology in Belgium

Poncelet

2020

Am Soc

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At the turn of the twentieth century, Belgian sociology and Belgian colonialism in Congo developed into a small political and academic elite that shared the same ideological stances. Colonialism played a more significant role. Colonization provided a new stage for emerging disciplines such as geography and sociology – which played their part in creating a brand new Belgo-African ethnology. Despite being a work in progress, sociology (which mainly involved jurists and lawyers) found a key place in the new institutional colonial sciences network. A colonial consensus was reached between Catholic and Liberal elites during the colonial crises and polemics that were also theoretical battles. Colonial sociology aspired to become the encyclopedic ethnology of the last African Terra incognita, as well as the government’s modern science of the indigenous people. Missionaries, colonial magistrates and administrators carried out field research. It gradually generates a significant output on the scale of the social sciences of the time. But it was more closely linked to the institutions of colonial power than to academic institutions. As colonial sociology partially freed itself from the colonial context during the 1950s, under the banner of professional ethnology, on the one hand, and the sociology of development on the other, it had to contend with a dramatic decolonization process. Quite rightly considered colonial sociology but not sociology of colonization, its success can, however, not be summed up in a single ideology. Colonial sociology never was an effective instrument of domination or tool for liberation; it has never entirely succeeded in influencing the dominant institutions and ideologies. The discipline has a rather uneven and unstable timeline due to the physical and moral distance between the field and the Belgian metropolis.

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Section: An Unexpected Encountermentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonial Ideology, Colonial Sciences and Colonial Sociology in Belgium

Poncelet

2020

Am Soc

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“…43 Since most Belgians had only limited interest in the colony, one of the main goals of king Leopold II was to convince Belgian industrials to invest in his colonial pro ject and the museum became an important tool of colonial propaganda. 44 A view on the exhibition in the first wing of the building, beautifully designed by the Art Nouveau artist Paul Hankar, already makes clear the colonial gaze primarily concentrated on the Belgian empire. In contrast to the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, the British Museum in London, and the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin, the Congo Museum in Tervuren did not collect items worldwide.…”

Section: Palais Des Colonies (1897-1909)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Museum as Rift Zone – The Construction and Representation of “East” and “Central” Africa in the (Belgian) Congo Museum/Royal Museum for Central Africa

Couttenier¹

2019

Hist. Afr.

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Abstract:This article discusses how the (post)colonial museum in Tervuren helped to create an artificial separation between “East” and “Central” Africa on both sides of Lake Tanganyika, while in reality this was and still is a zone of encounter. The exclusion of the “Arab” was twofold. First, East African objects were not exhibited. Second, “Eastern” material culture that was collected in Central Africa, became represented as imported traces of “barbary,” only highlighting the “civilizing mission” of European colonization.

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“…61 The Socie´te´antiesclavagiste de Belgique supported King Leopold's policies: Vincent Viaene has described it as part of the 'colonial party' which 'warmed the public to Africa, even if its close association with the Catholic hierarchy limited its appeal among liberals and its excessive deference to the Free State alienated some militant Catholics'. 62 If approached in this way, the Brussels Conference of 1889-90 appears less as a diplomatic episode in the history of humanitarianism, but more as a perpetuation of policies associated with the Berlin Conference of 1884-5. Underlining these continuities, invitations to Brussels were initially confined to governments that had been present at Berlin.…”

Section: Anti-slavery and Empirementioning

confidence: 99%

The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s

Laqua¹

2011

The International History Review

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In 1888 Cardinal Lavigerie, the Archbishop of Algiers and Carthage, launched his 'anti-slavery crusade'. Drawing attention to slave raids in Africa and to the East African slave trade, this initiative resulted in the foundation of several new antislavery associations. Many of them maintained close connections to Catholic politics and missionaries, yet also co-operated with two older -and predominantly Protestant -groups in Britain: the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (BFAS) and the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS). By stressing how anti-slavery associations collaborated through international congresses and periodicals, the article traces the emergence of a new anti-slavery internationalism in the 1880s and 1890s. It discusses the transnational context of such activism and highlights the shared language developed by its protagonists. However, the timing of these efforts makes its necessary to consider the relationship between humanitarianism and the 'new imperialism' of this period -a connection that was reflected in diplomatic events such as the Brussels Conference of 1889-90. Anti-slavery discourse fed into notions of a 'civilising mission' which seemed to legitimise imperial expansion. Portrayals that contrasted the actions of Western powers with those of so-called 'Arab' slave-traders (a term which Europeans also applied to African Muslims) were one element of this discourse.

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King Leopold's Imperialism and the Origins of the Belgian Colonial Party, 1860–1905

Cited by 22 publications

References 8 publications

Colonial Ideology, Colonial Sciences and Colonial Sociology in Belgium

Colonial Ideology, Colonial Sciences and Colonial Sociology in Belgium

The Museum as Rift Zone – The Construction and Representation of “East” and “Central” Africa in the (Belgian) Congo Museum/Royal Museum for Central Africa

The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s

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