International Association of the Congo

This article is about the specific polity International Association of the Congo and therefore only includes events related to its territory and not to its possessions or colonies. If you are interested in the possession, this is the link to the article about the nation which includes all possessions as well as all the different incarnations of the nation.

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here:All Statistics

Was an association founded on 17 November 1879 by Leopold II of Belgium to further his interests in the Congo. It systematically conquered territories in the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Establishment

January 1885: At the start of the colonial era (1884), the Lunda heartland was divided between Portuguese Angola, King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State and the British in North-Western Rhodesia, which became Angola, DR Congo and Zambia respectively.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

Disestablishment

August 1885: Via the International Association of the Congo, king Leopold II of Belgium was able to lay claim to most of the Congo basin. On 29 May 1885, after the closure of the Berlin Conference, the king announced that he planned to name his possessions "the Congo Free State", an appellation which was not yet used at the Berlin Conference and which officially replaced "International Association of the Congo" on 1 August 1886.