Latest / The History of Belgium: A Small Country with a Giant Colonial Legacy — Fexingo History
The 1885 Tippu Tip Alliance: Belgium's Deal with a Slave Trader
In this milestone 100th episode of The History of Belgium, we explore one of the darkest and most pragmatic chapters of the Congo Free State: King Leopold II's alliance with the powerful Zanzibari slave and ivory trader Tippu Tip. When Belgian agents first arrived in the eastern Congo in the 1880s, they found a territory already dominated by Arab-Swahili networks. Rather than fight a costly war, Leopold's chief agent Henry Morton Stanley negotiated a treaty with Tippu Tip in 1885, appointing him governor of the Stanley Falls District. We examine how this partnership allowed the Free…
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