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]
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]
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
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]
Britain, after consultation with the German government, requested
Belgium to convene an international conference on the
slave trade.[9] 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.[10]Lambermont was appointed president of the conference.[11] 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.[12]
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 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.[13] 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]
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.[12]
^Gifford, Paul (1971). France and Britain in Africa. Imperial Rivalry and Colonial Rule. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 221–260.
ISBN9780300012897.
^Laqua, Daniel (2011). "The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s". The International History Review. 33 (4): 705–726.
JSTOR23240858.
^THE IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY. HC Deb 03 March 1892 vol 1 cc1836-83Cardinal 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.
^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.