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Summoned by Otto von Bismarck to talk about new set of rules for European colonial expansion in Africa.
2 Important principles were established:
- 1st a country's claims to a territory could be based only on effective occupation.
- 2nd all newly acquired areas must remain open to free international trade—> this meant that colonisation became very expensive (because no one could impose trade barriers, transit charges or import and export duties). -
The Congo Independent State under the personal government of King Leopold lasted from 1885 to 1908.
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- The state had been declared proprietor of all vacant land, which would henceforth constitute its domain.
- Allowed for appropriation of land where rubber and ivory was found!
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Lucky timing as the state was going bankrupt.
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Leopold dies and leaves to his son Albert I who adopted a more discreet and less self-willed stance when it came to Congo.
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1960-1965 known as the First Republic led by Kasavubu.
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1965-1997 Mobutu was in power.