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

as equal to Europeans. Leopold clearly reflected the imperial mindset of mid-nineteenth
century Europe, and more specifically Britain.
It is clear that most of the individuals involved in Santo Tomas came from the
Belgian military. Again, Belgium did not have a long military history because Belgium
as a state did have a long history. Many of the military personnel, including Leopold
himself, had served in a military capacity for the armies of Prussia, the Netherlands,
France, or England. Belgium’s defining status as a neutral power did not envision a
large army or navy. The colonial thrusts of Belgium in this period thus provided an
outlet for a military that was short on military assignments.
The problems of disease and habitation faced by the Belgian colonists during
this period are consistent with the view that advances in medicine were crucial to later
European imperialism. Specifically, the creation of drugs and medicines to counteract
malaria and other tropical diseases were essential in this regard. The comments of both
Doctors Dechange and Fleussu anticipated these problems, but they were ignored.
Another issue that tended to obfuscate the intended purpose of the Santo Tomas
colony consisted of the possibility of a transoceanic canal through Central America, 273
and more specifically Nicaragua. The initial commission for a canal had been granted to
William II of the Netherlands in the 1830s, but he was not able to move forward on it.
Leopold was acutely aware that the control of the first transoceanic canal between the
Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans would put the controlling country in a powerful
273 Schwemmer, "Belgium and the Nicaraguan Canal Project (1841-1845)", 292-310.
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