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

countries generally preferred dealing with royalty as opposed to ministers. It is here that
Leopold was most at home, among his fellow monarchs.
Leopold, and to a certain extent Queen Victoria of England, looked upon the
status of the constitutional monarch as a leader with hereditary duties and
responsibilities much in the manner of eighteenth century monarchs. It seems fairly
certain that in the area of foreign affairs, and especially colonies, Leopold felt it was his
duty to lead an often reluctant Parliament and people to meet their destiny. In his
opening remarks to the Parliament in 1845, 82 Leopold exhorted the Parliament and the
people to revitalize the national spirit and show the greatness of the Belgian nation
through colonial enterprises.
It appears that the nature of the union party government 83 in terms of Belgian
colonial expansion was not positive, but it did not seem to know how to handle
Leopold’s continuous pressure on the colonial question. There was a certain blurring of
responsibility on the issue of colonial activities. It was often impossible to discern
whether it was the chambers, the king, or business interests that were behind the various
colonial ventures, especially Santo Tomas in Guatemala and Santa Catarina in Brazil. It
also seems that much of this confusion and obfuscation was intentional on the part of
Leopold and some of his ministers. 84
82
Moniteur Commercial, 1845.
83
The coalition did not have a real name but was often referred to as the “union of opposites.” It
began to disintegrate after 1842.
84
There was a certain secretive side to Leopold and some of his ministers. It can be seen in the
orders, whether written or otherwise, to Captain Victor Pirson to Texas, Major Scévola Guillaumont to
Guatemala and Nicaragua, Major Charles Van Lede to Brazil, Captain J. Van Haverbeke to Rio Nunez
and perhaps even Abraham Cohen in Rio Nunez.
45