EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...
EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...
EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
similar tropical areas <strong>of</strong> America and Africa, were rel<strong>at</strong>ed to the mosquito-borne<br />
diseases indigenous to both areas, which were neither depicted on a map nor mentioned<br />
in any brochures <strong>of</strong> either company. It does not seem to have occurred to anyone th<strong>at</strong> if<br />
this was a tropical paradise (Illustr<strong>at</strong>ions 4.1 and 4.2) 229 there must be a reason why had<br />
no one had taken advantage <strong>of</strong> it before.<br />
<strong>The</strong> story <strong>of</strong> how the disastrous British colony was sold as an opportunity for<br />
significant potential to the Belgians is long and complic<strong>at</strong>ed. It was envisioned by its<br />
original stockholders around the possibility <strong>of</strong> a quick financial return on very little<br />
investment, and, <strong>at</strong> least from Leopold’s perspective, a potential colonial base from<br />
which to raise Belgium to the level <strong>of</strong> other European imperial powers. 230 If there was<br />
any n<strong>at</strong>ion th<strong>at</strong> could be trusted in the realm <strong>of</strong> colonialism it was surely Britain, or so<br />
the Belgian entrepreneurs thought.<br />
<strong>The</strong> actual process whereby the Belgian company substituted itself for the East<br />
Coast <strong>of</strong> Central America Commercial and Agricultural Company in eastern Gu<strong>at</strong>emala,<br />
referred to as Verapaz, is complic<strong>at</strong>ed. Initially, the transfer revolved around Count<br />
Henri Charles Obert, a stockholder in the British company, and his connections to like-<br />
minded entrepreneurs in Brussels. Obert was able to assemble a group <strong>of</strong> Belgian<br />
failed settlement on the Mosquito Coast <strong>of</strong> Nicaragua and the Gu<strong>at</strong>emala settlement <strong>at</strong> Abbottsville did<br />
not improve the credibility <strong>of</strong> the enterprise.<br />
229 <strong>The</strong>se two illustr<strong>at</strong>ions in the company’s public<strong>at</strong>ion, give somewh<strong>at</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
an unrealistic represent<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> wh<strong>at</strong> life in Santo Tomas actually looked like.<br />
La Compagnie Belge De Colonis<strong>at</strong>ion, Amérique Centrale Colonis<strong>at</strong>ion Du District<br />
De Santo-Thomas De Gu<strong>at</strong>emala, Par La Communauté De L'union, Fondée Par La<br />
Compagnie Belge De Colonis<strong>at</strong>ion (Paris: Rignoux, 1844), preface.<br />
230 <strong>The</strong> two standard historical, but d<strong>at</strong>ed, works in French on the colony <strong>of</strong> Santo Tomas are<br />
Nicolas Leysbeth, Historique de la coloniz<strong>at</strong>ion Belge Santo-Tomas Gu<strong>at</strong>emala (Bruxelles: Nouvelle<br />
113