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

often considered a precursor of Belgian interest in central Africa and therefore the
Congo. It is of interest here because it represented yet another significant failed colonial
effort by Belgium and Leopold I.
Rio Nunez was different from a colonial perspective because its roots were not
directly with the imperial and colonial interests of Leopold, instead it was a commercial
opportunity by ambitious merchants in Belgium. Unlike the effort at Santo Tomas, it
began its effort and became somewhat successful, at least initially, without any royal or
governmental help.
There never were any colonists at Rio Nunez; in fact, it is hard to even argue
that there was a colony. There were entrepreneurs, perhaps never any more than a
dozen individuals at any given time, excluding ship’s crew, who attempted to take
advantage of the European desire for peanut oil and Belgium’s desire to export its
industrial output.
What this colonial adventure had in common with other efforts was the need for
capital which invariably resulted in requests for financial aid and protection from the
government, preferably through Leopold. Rio Nunez was also distinguishable in that
there were two transfers to the Belgian government of land that included sovereignty
and yet Belgium, more specifically Leopold, did not or was not able to take advantage
of those two opportunities. Rio Nunez is a story of Belgian commercial adventurers
and the tiny Belgian navy.
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