A Concrete State: Constructing materials and building ambitions in the (Belgian) Congo

On the 18th of October 1908, the Belgian parliament voted in favour of the Belgian take-over of the Congo Free State from the Belgian king Léopold II, who had privately owned the Congolese territory but was forced to give up ‘his’ colony after the international outcry over the well-known Congo atrocities. With this vote, the Congolese territory officially switched hands, and the Belgian rule over Congo would remain in place until 1960. The advocates of the reprise had held up prospects of great gain by referring to the enormous mineral wealth of the colony, whereas the adversaries acutely rema... Mehr ...