Content deleted Content added
→Belgian rule: what the Belgians got out of it |
→Belgian rule: extra |
||
Line 20:
The Enclave had an area of about {{convert|15000|sqmi|km2}}, a population of about 250,000 and had its capital at the town of [[Lado, South Sudan|Lado]]. Described variously as "a small muddy triangle along the Nile, ... a chain of desolate mudforts"<ref>Pakenham, p. 451.</ref> and "shaped like a leg of mutton".<ref>Pakenham, p. 525.</ref>
In 1896, Leopold assembled "an expedition which was without doubt the greatest that nineteenth century Africa had ever seen" under [[Francis Dhanis|Baron Dhanis]], whose official plan was to occupy the Enclave but Leopold's 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.<ref name=s277/>
By 1899, the British Government was claiming the Congo State had not fullilled its obligations of the Anglo-Congolese Treaty and therefore had no right to claim the Bahr-el-Ghazal. At the same time the Convention was signed the Congo State forces had occupied Redjaf, and by a tacit under- standing the State was permitted to re- main in occupation of the Lado Enclave. "The Bahr-el-Ghazal has never ceased to be British, and any extension of the sphere of influence of the Congo State beyond the limits of the Lado Enclave, with out the express sanction of the British Government. is a wholly unjustifiable, and indeed, filibustering proceeding.<ref>"The Foreign Situation", ''The Advertiser (Adelaide)'', 11 November 1899, p. 9.</ref>
| |||