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

if not necessarily approved, influence on the royal family. 133 Stockmar, however, may
not have held a reciprocal opinion on Palmerston. 134 Palmerston, who spent his entire
career trying to fend off German influences and could be somewhat xenophobic, found
Stockmar to be an individual of marked even headedness, which he found unusual in a
foreigner. In fact, despite his oath of loyalty to Leopold, Stockmar often advised courses
of action that were detrimental to the aims of Leopold if he thought Leopold’s motives
compromised the integrity of either England or Victoria.
The question is what, if anything, did the unique relationship among these
individuals have on the attempted colonialism of Belgium? Did Leopold try to use his
unique relationship with his niece Victoria through Stockmar and his nephew to his
benefit? Did his experience in the royal court and close association with the British
ruling and political classes’ aid or limit his designs? Lastly, and perhaps most succinctly
what were Leopold’s colonial designs?
Before looking at the individual Belgian attempts at colonization in the
nineteenth century, it is worthwhile to discuss the levels or kinds of colonialism and the
questions surrounding Belgian colonialism that were debated during this time within the
Belgian Foreign office and royal household. It can be argued that the Belgian
government, other then Leopold, at least during this time period, may have been the
only European country to have engaged in colonialism without engaging in imperialism.
In view of this apparent contradiction with my earlier definitions, an explanation is
required. Imperialism was previously defined as the political, economic, and military
133 Ibid., 23 and 47.
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