Leduc-Grimaldi , M. 2022. ‘Without the railway, the State cannot thrive” (Stanley June 1885) the Railroad at the threschold of the Belgian Move in Congo’. Trains and tracks in Africa. A Dialogue on Infrastructures and Mobilities in Africa. Book of abstracts. RMCA / Europalia. (PR)

Conference abstract

While the Congo Free State was on the verge of becoming the King of the Belgians‘ property, the early stage of prefiguring and financing its infrastructure preoccupied the various actors at play in the metropolis, and Leopold II activated his unofficial international network, with the financing of a railway in mind. From the beginning of the project in 1878, Stanley had considered the construction of a railroad an absolute necessity. Leopold II left the possibility of its construction in doubt. In 1885, after Stanley had left the Congo for more than a year, Leopold II, who had become the master of the Congo, could not finance such a project alone, and turned to Stanley to find the necessary funds and industrial-financial partners. The Stanley archives show to what extent Stanley and his relations were involved in a financial project that he considered indispensable for the survival of the Congo Free State, but how the king did not endorse it, for fear of losing control over the state.