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

ackground, demand, or other compelling reason to push it into the colonial arena.
Second, Belgium is for all practical purposes a one-colony empire: its expansion was
exclusive to the Congo, or at least that is the general perception. As stated previously,
all European powers involved in the “Scramble for Africa” in the later part of the
nineteenth century, with the exception of Belgium, had either a long national history of
empire and colonization or at least a nationalistic concept such as “German” or
“Italian.” Before 1830 there was neither a nation of Belgium nor a nationalistic concept
of a people who spoke Belgian or thought of themselves as “Belgian.” 7 Despite a
seeming lack of nationalistic or historical “myths,” Belgium, or more precisely her king,
tried over and over to initiate over fifty colonial endeavors throughout the world,
establishing none. No Belgian colony was established during the reign of Leopold I.
Why? This is especially pertinent in view of the single-minded success of Leopold’s
son, Leopold II, in the Congo. The intent, then, is to look at Leopold I and his colonial
adventures to understand what, if anything, can deepen our understanding of late
nineteenth century colonialism and perhaps, as a side note, gain some insight as to
Leopold II and his “success.”
It is outside the realm of this author’s knowledge, and perhaps that of all but a
handful of Belgian historians, to view the entire thirty-year reign of Leopold I and his
fifty-plus colonial attempts. The intent herein is to look at four colonial attempts during
this period. They are the attempts in the Republic of Texas, Santo Tomas in Guatemala,
7 For a contrary view see Pirenne, Henri Pirenne, Histoire De Belgique, 7 vols. (Bruxelles: H.
Lamertin, 1908), 1: 1-31.
6