Boma 1880-1920. Koloniale hoofdstad of kosmopolitische handelspost?/Capitale coloniale ou comptoir cosmopolite?/Colonial capital city or cosmopolitan trading post?
Boma, situated along the River Congo close to the Atlantic Ocean, was an important centre of the slave trade until approximately 1868. French, British, Portuguese and Dutch trading companies maintained branches there. The first Belgian settler arrived only in 1874. The 1885 Berlin Conference put Boma under the authority of Leopold II, and between 1886 and 1929, Boma would function as a capital city, first of the Congo Free State, then from 1908, of the Belgian Congo. Boma grew from a simple trading post to a modest sized ‘city'. However, it would never attain the stature of a monumental capital. The population of Boma was heterogeneous. Europeans of various nationalities lived next to inhabitants from very diverse regions of Central and West Africa. Nevertheless, this cosmopolitan society was distinguished by a clear hierarchy of whites over blacks.
