Colonization of the Congo Colonization of the Congo refers to the period of Henry Morton Stanley ' s first exploration of the Congo ( 1876 ) until its annexation as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium ( 1885 ) . Early European exploration . The Congo River was the last part of the African continent to yield to European explorers . One by one the other great mysteries had been investigated : the coasts by Prince Henry the Navigator ' s Portuguese sailors in the 15th century ; the Blue Nile by James Bruce in 1773 ; the remote upper Niger by Mungo Park in 1796 ; the vast Sahara by competitors Laing , Callié , and Clapperton in the 1820s ; the fever - ridden mangroves of the lower Niger by the Lander Brothers in 1830 ; southern Africa and the Zambezi by Livingstone and John Clafton in the 1850s ; the upper Nile by Burton , Speke , and Baker in a succession of expeditions between 1857 and 1868 . Though the Congo had been one of the first to be attempted , it remained a mystery . Since the 15th century , European explorers had sailed into the broad Congo estuary , planning to fight their way up the falls and rapids that begin only 100 miles ( 160 km ) inland , and then travel up the river to its unknown source . All failed . The rapids and falls , had they known it , extended for 220 miles ( 350 km ) inland , and the terrain close by the river was impassable , and remains so to this day . Repeated attempts to travel overland were repulsed with heavy casualties , accidents , conflicts with natives , and , above all , disease saw large and well - equipped expeditions got no further than 40 miles ( 60 km ) or so past the western - most rapid , the legendary Cauldron of Hell . Stanley ' s exploration . It was not until 1867 that the Congo was explored by Europeans , and even then it was not from the sea , but from the other side of the African continent . Setting out from Zanzibar , Henry Morton Stanley , a British - born American journalist and explorer aimed to find the famous Dr . Livingstone . Livingstone had not been heard from in several years and was , in fact , exploring the upper reaches of a great navigable inland river called the Lualaba , which Livingstone hoped was connected to the Nile , but which turned out to be the upper Congo . After leaving Livingstone , Stanley sailed for 1000 miles ( 1600 km ) down the Lualaba ( Upper Congo ) to the large lake he named Stanley Pool ( now called Pool Malebo ) . Then , rather than perish in the impenetrable country of the cascades , Stanley took a wide detour overland to come within striking distance of the Portuguese trading station at Boma on the Congo estuary . Prelude to conquest . When Stanley returned to Europe in 1878 , he had not only found Dr . Livingstone ( an event remembered to this day ) , resolved the last great mystery of African exploration , and ruined his health : he had also opened the heart of tropical Africa up to the outside world . This was to be his most enduring legacy . Stanley was lionised across Europe . He wrote articles , appeared at public meetings , lobbied the rich and powerful tirelessly ; and always his theme was the boundless opportunity for commercial exploitation of the lands he had discovered or , in his own words , to " pour the civilisation of Europe into the barbarism of Africa " . " There are 40 , 000 , 000 naked people " on the other side of the rapids , Stanley wrote , " and the cotton - spinners of Manchester are waiting to clothe them . . . Birmingham ' s factories are glowing with the red metal that shall presently be made into ironwork in every fashion and shape for them . . . and the ministers of Christ are zealous to bring them , the poor benighted heathen , into the Christian fold . " Europe , however , was less than keen on the idea : the great European scramble for Africa had not yet begun . Outside of the Cape of Good Hope and the Mediterranean coast , Europe had no African colonies of any significance . The focus of the great powers was still firmly on the lands that had made Europe ' s fortune : the Americas , the East Indies , India , China , and Australasia . There seemed no economic sense to investing energy in Africa when the returns from other colonies were likely to be both richer and more immediate . Nor was there a strong humanitarian interest in the continent now that the American slave trade had been extinguished . Stanley was applauded , admired , decorated — and ignored . It is at this point that King Leopold of Belgium took a part . In Peter Forbath ' s words , Leopold was : As a constitutional monarch , Leopold was charged with the usual constitutional duties of opening parliaments , greeting diplomats , and attending state funerals . He had no power to decide policy . But for over 20 years he had been agitating for Belgium to take its place among the great colonial powers of Europe . Leopold noted , " Our frontiers can never be extended into Europe . " However , he added , " since history teaches that colonies are useful , that they play a great part in that which makes up the power and prosperity of states , let us strive to get one in our turn . " At various times , he launched unsuccessful schemes to buy an Argentine province , to buy Borneo from the Dutch , rent the Philippines from Spain , or establish colonies in China , Vietnam , Japan , or the Pacific islands . When the 1860s explorers focused attention on Africa , Leopold schemed to colonise Mozambique on the east coast , Senegal on the west coast , and the Congo in the centre . None of these schemes came anywhere near fruition : the government of Belgium resolutely resisted all Leopold ' s suggestions , seeing the acquisition of a colony as a good way to spend large amounts of money for little or no return . Leopold ' s eventual response was extraordinary in its hubris and simplicity . If the government of Belgium would not take a colony , then he would simply do it himself , acting in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen . In 1876 Leopold II sponsored an international geographical conference in Brussels , inviting delegates from scientific societies all over Europe to discuss philanthropic and scientific matters such as the best way to coordinate map making , to prevent the re - emergence of the west coast slave trade , and to investigate ways of sending medical aid to Africa . The conference was a sham : at its close , Leopold proposed that they set up an international benevolent committee to carry on , and modestly agreed to accept the chairman ' s role . For the look of things , he held one more meeting the following year , but from that time on , the Association Internationale Africaine was simply a front for Leopold ' s ambition . He created a baffling series of subsidiary shell organisations , culminating in the cunningly named Association Internationale du Congo , which had a single shareholder : Leopold himself . Soon after Stanley returned from the Congo , Leopold tried to recruit him . Stanley , still hopeful for British backing , brushed him off . However , Leopold persisted and eventually Stanley gave in . Leopold , it seemed , was the only European willing to finance Stanley ' s dream : the building of a railway over the Crystal Mountains from the sea to Stanley Pool , from which river steamers could reach 1000 miles ( 1600 km ) into the heart of Africa . Stanley , much more familiar with the rigours of the African climate and the complexities of local politics than Leopold , persuaded his patron that the first step should be the construction of a wagon trail and a series of forts . Leopold agreed and in deepest secrecy , Stanley signed a five - year contract at a salary of £1000 a year , and set off to Zanzibar under an assumed name . To avoid discovery , materials and workers were shipped in by various roundabout routes , and communications between Stanley and Leopold were entrusted to Colonel Maximilian Strauch . It was only at this point that Stanley was informed of the magnitude of Leopold ' s ambition : Stanley was not merely to construct a series of trading stations , he was to secretly carve out an entire nation . The instructions were direct and to the point : " It is a question of creating a new State , as big as possible , and of running it . It is clearly understood that in this project there is no question of granting the slightest political power to the negros . That would be absurd . " Apparently finding nothing reprehensible about Leopold ' s ambitions , Stanley set about his task with a will . For all his social shortcomings in European society , he was undoubtedly the right man for the job . Within three years , his capacity for hard work , his skill at playing one social group off against another , his ruthless use of modern weaponry to kill opponents , and above all his relentless determination opened the route to the Upper Congo . In later years , Stanley would write that the most vexing part of his duties was not the work itself , nor negotiating with the natives , but keeping order amongst the ill - assorted collection of white men he had brought with him as overseers , who squabbled constantly over small matters of rank or status . " Almost all of them " , he wrote , " clamoured for expenses of all kinds , which included . . . wine , tobacco , cigars , clothes , shoes , board and lodging , and certain nameless extravagances " ( by which he meant attractive slaves to warm their beds ) . Exhausted , Stanley returned to Europe , only to be sent straight back by Leopold , who promised him an outstanding assistant : ' Chinese ' Gordon ( who did not in fact take up Leopold ' s offer but chose instead to go to meet his fate at Khartoum ) . " It is indispensable " , instructed Leopold , " that you should purchase for the " Comité d ' Études " ( i . e . , Leopold himself ) as much land as you can obtain " . Having established a beachhead on the lower Congo , in 1883 Stanley set out upriver to extend Leopold ' s domain , employing his usual methods : negotiations with local chiefs buying sovereignty in exchange for bolts of cloth and trinkets ; playing one tribe off another ; and if need be , simply shooting an obstructive chief and negotiating with his cowed successor instead . However , as he approached Stanley Falls at the junction between the Congo proper and the Lualaba ( close to the general vicinity of Central Africa where he had found Livingstone six years before ) , it soon became clear that Stanley ' s men were not the only intruders . Tippu Tip , the last and greatest of the Zanzibari slave traders of the 19th century , was well - known to Stanley , as was the social chaos and devastation that slave - hunting brought . It had only been through Tippu Tip ' s help that Stanley had found Livingstone ( who himself had survived years on the Lualaba by virtue of Tippu Tip ' s friendship ) . Now , Stanley discovered , Tippu Tip ' s men had reached still further west in search of fresh populations to enslave . Four years before , the Zanzibaris had thought the Congo deadly and impassable , and warned Stanley not to attempt to go there , but when Tippiu Tip learned in Zanzibar that Stanley had survived , he was quick to act . Villages throughout the region had been burned and depopulated . Tippu Tip had raided 118 villages , killed 4 , 000 Africans , and , when Stanley reached his camp , had 2 , 300 slaves , mostly young women and children , in chains ready to transport half - way across the continent to the markets of Zanzibar . Having found the new ruler of the upper Congo , Stanley calmly negotiated an agreement to allow him to build his final river station just below Stanley Falls ( which prevented vessels sailing further upstream ) . At the end of his physical resources , Stanley returned home , to be replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Francis de Winton , formerly of the Belgian Army .