Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90
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
[edit]King Leopold and the Congo Free State
[edit]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.[3] 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]
Lavigerie's crusade against slavery
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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.[1]
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.[1]
Leading up to the conference
[edit]Lavigerie's preaching tour did not only "breath[e] new life into the antislavery movement",[7]: 707 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.[1][8]
The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference also indirectly adied the long ongoing British campaign against slave trade and slavery in the Ottoman Empire. In anticipation of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference, which was due to take place in November 1889, the British diplomatic campaign on the Porte had a breakthrough. The British Foreign Office pointed out to the Porte that the Ottoman Empire was due to be met with criticism for their lack of enforcement of the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 at the upcoming Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference, unless they acted took action before then, but that serious anti-slavery action would win the Ottoman Empire the European opinion.[9] The British diplomatic pressure finally gave results when Sultan Abdul Hamid II introduced the Kanunname of 1889 on 30 December 1889, the first law code (in contrast to previous nominal decrees) that formally banned slave trade in the Ottoman Empire.[10]
The conference
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Britain, after consultation with the German government, requested Belgium to convene an international conference on the slave trade.[11] 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.[12] Lambermont was appointed president of the conference.[13] 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.[14]
The Act
[edit]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.[1]
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.[1]
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.[1]
Import duties
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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.[1]
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.[15] 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.[1]
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.[1][16]
Consequences
[edit]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.[14]
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,[17] extended prohibition by securing "the complete suppression of slavery in all its forms and of the slave trade by land and sea",[18] paving the way for the UN Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926.[14]
Participants
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See also
[edit]- 1926 Slavery Convention
- Belgian Anti-Slavery Society
- Congo–Arab War
- Atrocities in the Congo Free State
- Temporary Slavery Commission, 1924
- Committee of Experts on Slavery, 1932
- Advisory Committee of Experts on Slavery, 1933
- Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery, 1950
External links
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- 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
- General Act of Brussels (United States government version) on wikisource
- Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a General act, signed at Brussels, 2 July 1890.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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.
- ^ Mulligan, William (2013). "The Anti-slave Trade Campaign in Europe, 1888–90". In Mulligan, William; Bric, Maurice (eds.). A Global History of Anti-slavery Politics in the Nineteenth Century. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-03260-7.
- ^ a b Pirotte, Jean (2013). "L'Afrique centrale ex-belge". Histoire, monde et cultures religieuses (in French). 25: 107–132.
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.] - ^ Albig, Jörg-Uwe (2014). "Das Herz der Finsternis". Geo Epoche. Das Magazin für Geschichte (in German). 66: 96–113.
- ^ Gifford, Paul (1971). France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 221–260. ISBN 9780300012897.
- ^ MO - De koning in Kinshasa die nooit in Congo was [Slot] Archived 28 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Laqua, Daniel (2011). "The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s". The International History Review. 33 (4): 705–726. JSTOR 23240858.
- ^ THE IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY. HC Deb 03 March 1892 vol 1 cc1836-83 Cardinal Lavigerie, in a series of very powerful addresses delivered in Brussels, had arrested the attention of philanthropists to this matter. He proposed that it might be dealt with by the institution of a Volunteer Army and by the absolute prevention of the importation of arms. Those matters were submitted to Her Majesty's Government; and whilst they did not consider that either of those two plans was capable of adoption, or at all events of execution, it was chiefly at the instigation of Her Majesty's Government and the German Government that the Belgian King convoked the Brussels Conference, which led to the signature of the Brussels Act in 1890.
- ^ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 143
- ^ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 144
- ^ 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. The change which has occurred in the political condition of the African Coast, to-day calls for common action on the part of the Powers responsible for the control of that Coast. That action should tend to close all foreign slave-markets and should also result in putting down slave hunting in the interior. The great work undertaken by the King of the Belgians, in the constitution of the Congo State, and the lively interest taken by His Majesty in all questions affecting the welfare of the African races, lead Her Majesty's Government to hope that Belgium will be disposed to take the initiative in inviting the Powers to meet in Conference at Brussels, in order to consider the best means of attaining the gradual suppression of the slave-trade on the Continent of Africa and the immediate closing of all the outside markets which the slave-trade daily continues to supply.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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 IIBetween 16 November 1889 and 2 July 1890, the last major phase of African work for Baron Lambermont took place in neutral Brussels: an international anti-slavery conference. He was elected president.
- ^ a b c François-Paul Blanc (2010). "L'esclavage au Maroc au temps du protectorat".
- ^ 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 In May 1890, Lambermont proposed at the Conference the abolition of Article 4 of the Berlin Act, which allowed for a 10% tax on the value of incoming goods. Moreover, a ban or tax on alcohol was also being considered because it was closely linked to the slave trade. The handy baron pointed to the new costs that the decisions of the Anti-Slavery Conference entailed for the EIC to get the proposal into good graces, but the Netherlands in particular balked.
- ^ 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. In place of this absolute prohibition was substituted with the immediate consent of all the Powers except one, which finally also gave its assent the permission to levy moderate import duties, exclusive of any differential regime. These duties were to be uniform throughout the Congo and could not exceed a maximum of ten per cent of the value of the imported goods.
- ^ 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
- ^ UN Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926
- ^ 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
