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

CHAPTER 3
TEXAS
Two different and distinctive concepts of what the overseas expansion of
Belgium should encompass surfaced within the driving forces behind Belgian colonial
efforts. Leopold seems to have had a more imperialistic view of the need for colonies
and empire. To Leopold, colonies were a representation or extension of the nation state.
In this regard, he was ahead of his time by two or three decades. The reluctant cabinet
and chambers, on the other hand, seem to have held a more mundane view that
consisted of the economic and demographic benefits of colonies—if there was any
benefit at all.
The difference between the colony at Santo Tomas and the colonial inquiry into
the Republic of Texas may illustrate these two different concepts. Both were attempts to
create a colony in North America. They were roughly contemporary in their initial
aspects and contacts. Santo Tomas lasted for fifteen years because it was a real colony
with real colonists and, as it turned out, had real problems. Texas, however, never went
beyond the initial inquiry and preliminary investigative stage. The value of the Texas
attempt lies in the fact that it is a relatively simple and well documented event.
There is some question, when looking at the record, as to whether Leopold was
seeking colonies, empire, or merely outlets for Belgian industry and a growing
population in terms of his interest in the Republic of Texas. There is sufficient
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