Committee for the Exploration of the Upper Congo
The Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo ( French Comité d'études du Haut-Congo, CEHC ) was a consortium founded on November 25, 1878 , which was merged into the International Congo Society ( French Association internationale du Congo, AIC ).
history
At the conference called by the Belgian King, Leopold II , business representatives from Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands were present, who founded the Committee for the Study of the Upper Congo, whose aims were primarily scientific and humanitarian. A joint fund was set up, to which Leopold contributed a large part with 260,000 francs and which was supposed to finance Henry Morton Stanley's expeditions for five years. The chairmanship of the committee was given to Colonel Maximilian Strauch, a confidante of Leopold.
After an investor from the Netherlands went bankrupt, Leopold took the chance and bought the shares of the remaining shareholders in order to dissolve the committee. In fact, he continued to use the name for three years.
literature
- Martin Ewans: European Atrocity, African Catastrophe. Leopold II, the Congo Free State and its Aftermath. London u. a. 2002, pp. 55-61.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ruth Weiss / Hans Mayer: Africa to the Europeans. From the Berlin Congo Conference in 1884 to the Africa of the new colonization. Wuppertal 1984, p. 24.
- ↑ Adam Hochschild : Shadows over the Congo. The story of one of the great, almost forgotten crimes of humanity. Stuttgart 2012, p. 93.
- ↑ Adam Hochschild : Shadows over the Congo. The story of one of the great, almost forgotten crimes of humanity. Stuttgart 2012, p. 94.