56_56295 Belgium was born not far from the time of the empire, and on August 25, 1830, the people of Brussels staged an uprising. On 18 November of the same year, the Belgian National Assembly proclaimed Belgium a constitutional monarchy, and a constitution was subsequently formulated. The London Conference of 20 January 1831, with the participation of Great Britain, France and Prussia, recognized Belgium and guaranteed its permanent neutrality. On June 4, 1831, the National Assembly elected Prince Leopold of Saxony-Coburg as king, called Leopold I (reigned 1831~1865). In 1839 Belgium signed a peace treaty with the Netherlands, which recognized Belgium as a state.

The rapid rise of Belgium with its coal and smelting industries cannot be said to be high, but at least it was rapid, and in 1880 Belgium completed the transformation from its own capitalism to imperialism.

But it is obvious that the world has been carved up, Belgium can no longer intervene in any place, the history in the history books Lin Hong has almost forgotten, he knows that the current development direction of the international situation has been completely different from the history in the history books, Lin Hong and the imperial cabinet is more focused on the present and looking forward to the future.

King Leopold II of Belgium, who reigned for almost 15 years, succeeded his father Leopold I as King of Belgium in 1865 (reigned 1865-1909). During his reign, Belgium relied on the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie internally and implemented a policy of free trade, which led to the development of Belgium as an industrial country. But that's not what makes him famous, he is famous because he is a colonial imperialist and has the title of "King of Colonization". Historically, in 1876, he organized the International African Association, in the name of exploring and developing Africa, and occupied a large area of land in the Congo in his personal name, calling it the Congo Free State, and on April 30, 1885, the Belgian Congress officially awarded him the title of Congo Free State monarch. His brutal exploitation and oppression of the local population and the subjection to the world's public opinion. On the condemnation. Lenin ridiculed him as a "businessman, financier, profiteer". In 1908, the Congo was transferred to Belgian administration and became a Belgian colony, namely the Belgian Congo (present-day Republic of Zaire). Of course, now the Congo is French, and Belgium is not so brainless as to provoke the French, but Leopold II also organized the International African Association in 1876 to send a colonial expedition to the Congo in the name of exploring and developing Africa, in a vain attempt to obtain a territory in Africa, but it is a pity that according to the "Cairo Treaty" signed by the great powers at the Cairo Conference in 1870, Africa has been divided between China, Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the Ottomans, which means that Belgium has no place to stay. And once it settles, it means that it is challenging the authority of the above-mentioned countries.

But how could Leopold II, who had the "King of Colonization", be willing? At his behest, Emil Banning, an archivist at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tried his best to advocate that "opening up central Africa would bring commercial and industrial benefits", and put forward a report to the colonization of central Africa, asking him to "establish a colonial stronghold" in Africa under the banner of "science". The reason is that after the Cairo Conference, France nominally gained the power of exploration and development and suzerainty in the Congo, but in fact the empire only established effective colonial bases and rule on the lines of Moanda, Kinshasa and Bandundu when the empire conquered the Congo, and did not actually control large areas of land in the interior. After the French took over, they did not have much strength to develop, after all, the Congo already had a well-established feudal dynasty, but in fact, after the empire bought Cabinda from the Portuguese, and the Moanda-Boma region that is still retained, China and France have blocked the door for foreign colonists to enter the interior of the Congo.

Leopold II was very cunning, he knew that Belgium's strength could not match that of China, Britain, France and other countries, and openly sent an expeditionary force to central Africa, the goal was too obvious, and it was absolutely deadly. Therefore, under the guise of "humanitarianism" such as "scientific investigation" and "abolition of slavery", he sent Henry Morton Steinley to lead an expedition from French Central Africa, as for why the French ignored him, the reason was that the French did not take him seriously at all, and another reason was that the French were not Chinese, and they had a huge population base and could not do everything in Central Africa. As for the Chinese Congo Henry Morton Stanley, although the Chinese Congo can be said to be insignificant compared to other colonies, but because it is located at the mouth of the Congo River, the geographical location is important and conducive to the river trade to the Congo, the empire has arranged a regiment of colonial troops here, equipped with three river gunboats, and tens of thousands of immigrants (mainly Burmese and Ah San), the Chinese Congo is definitely not like the European colonies, although the sparrows are small, the Chinese Congo even has an immigration office.

Leopold II knew that Belgium was playing with fire, but he had his own persistence, and he firmly believed that even if the colonial conflict between Belgium and China and France eventually broke out, the French would give up in order to win over Belgium (France had been trying to form an alliance with the Low Countries in order to deal with the Germans), and as for China, he thought that the Europeans would help solve the threat of the Orientals.

On April 15, 1880, Henry Morton Stanley led an expedition north through the French-controlled Mbandaka.

On 1 May, Henry Morton Stanley and others traveled along the river to Nuevo Unwell, the frontier where the Kingdom of Kongo could influence, and he forced the local chiefs to sign a treaty of protection with Belgium.

Over the next four months, Stanley arrived in Gaimena, Bemba, and Kisangani, forcing the chiefs to sign more than 450 "protective" treaties and establish some 22 trading posts and strongholds, which can be said to have completed the initial compulsory protection of northern Congo (as far as the territory of the present-day Congo is concerned).

In November 1880, Henry Morton Stanley sailed from Zanzibar to Belgium after crossing Central Africa. Officials in the Imperial colonies did not pay much attention to this group, after all, it was a consensus among the colonies to protect the expeditions, whether they were national or not, because they did not threaten military force but rather contributed to the development of the colonies.

At the beginning of December 1880, Henry Morton Stanley returned to Belgium and offered the king more than 400 points of protection, much to the delight of Olibald II. But they were also careful not to be known by the French. In Europe, the spirit of the contract was so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that the great powers would not deny that most of these treaties were forced to be signed by the chieftains, and the authenticity could not be distinguished, and the final result could only be a diplomatic conflict with France