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British desire for a [[Cape to Cairo railway]] led them to negotiate with the Belgians to exchange the area that became the Lado Enclave for a narrow strip of territory in eastern Congo between Lakes [[Lake Albert (Africa)|Albert]] and [[Lake Tanganyika|Tanganyika]]. These negotiations resulted in the 1894 British-Congolese Treaty, signed on 12 May, under which the British leased all of the Nile basin south of the ten° north latitude to [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II of the Belgians]] for the period of his lifetime.<ref>Taylor, p. 53.</ref><ref name=s277>Stenger, p. 277.</ref> This area, called the Lado Enclave, linked the Congo with the navigable Nile.<ref>Pakenham, pp. 525-526.</ref>
The treaty also dictated that the whole of the Bahr-el-Ghazal (with the exception of the Lado Enclave) be ceded to the Congo State during the lifetime of King Leopold "and his successors." The British knew that Belgium would be unable to occupy Lado "for some time".<Emerson, p. 194.</ref>
French concern about Belgium's aspirations in Africa led to the 1894 Franco-Congolese Treaty, signed on 14 August, in which Leopold was forced to renounce all right to occupy north of the 5° 30" north latitude<ref name=i170>Ingham, p. 170.</ref> in exchange for French acceptance of Leopold's ownership of Lado.<ref name=collins>Collins, p. 193.</ref> However, it was not until 1896 that Leopold had the resources to assemble an expedition to the Enclave; "an expedition which was without doubt the greatest that nineteenth century Africa had ever seen", under [[Francis Dhanis|Baron Dhanis]].<ref name=s277/> The official plan was to occupy the Enclave but the ultimate aim was to use Lado as a springboard to capturing [[Khartoum]] to the north and control a strip of Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.<ref name=s277/> Dhanis' expedition mutinied in 1897.
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