EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

immigrants by de Briey, the continued commercial negotiations with the United States
and Mexico, and perhaps most importantly the unfolding effort in Guatemala resulted in
de Briey’s cancellation, on November 24, 1843, 196 any official interest in Jones’s
offer. 197 The attempt to create a colony in the Republic of Texas was different than that
in Santo Tomas in Guatemala, if for no other reason than there were never any
colonists. 198
As previously stated, the Belgian attempt to place a colony in the Republic of
Texas must be viewed from three perspectives; commercial ties with Mexico, the
impact a colony would elicit from the United States and Britain, and the existing
contemporary Belgian colony in Guatemala. These were different than the perspectives
to be taken into consideration when viewing Santo Tomas.
Noticeably absent from almost all aspects of the colonial attempt in the
Republic of Texas was Leopold. If the assumption is made, as I think it can be, that the
Belgian constitution envisioned a more distant relationship, at least in foreign affairs,
between the king and the cabinet and the chambers, then in this case. Leopold seems to
have been aware of the opportunities available in Texas but remained mostly in the
background. We know that the initial inquiry came as a result of a meeting between
Leopold and Ambassador Lewis Cass of the United States . This led to Hamilton
196 De Briey stated rather bluntly “The result of all these considerations is that the Government of
Belgium has no interest in favoring the emigration of Belgian families to Texas, whether it be to produce
more ample resources to them or to obey the instincts of the few rare ones who crave for adventurous
undertakings.”, Report against the Project of Colonization to Texas, 2 May 1843, AMAE 2013 and BL.
197 The offer was to have expired on December 1, 1842 as indicated in the letter by Jones.
Belgium had allowed it be signed prior to that date by a power of attorney to Joseph Waples, appointed
by the Texas government for Victor Pirson.
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