In the 1880s, Europeans descended on Africa and grabbed vast swaths of the continent, using documents, not guns, as their weapon of choice. Rogue Empires follows a paper trail of questionable contracts to discover the confidence men whose actions touched off the Scramble for Africa. Many of them were would-be kings who sought to establish their own autonomous empires across the African continent―often at odds with traditional European governments which competed for control.
From 1882 to 1885, independent European businessmen and firms (many of doubtful legitimacy) produced hundreds of deeds purporting to buy political rights from indigenous African leaders whose understanding of these agreements was usually deemed irrelevant. A system of privately governed empires, some spanning hundreds of thousands of square miles, promptly sprang up in the heart of Africa. Steven Press traces the notion of empire by purchase to an unlikely place: the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, where the English adventurer James Brooke bought his own kingdom in the 1840s. Brooke’s example inspired imitators in Africa, as speculators exploited a loophole in international law in order to assert sovereignty and legal ownership of lands which they then plundered for profit.
The success of these experiments in governance attracted notice in European capitals. Press shows how the whole dubious enterprise came to a head at the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, when King Leopold of Belgium and the German Chancellor Bismarck embraced rogue empires as legal precedents for new colonial agendas in the Congo, Namibia, and Cameroon.
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Steven Press

Harvard University, Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

Cambridge, Mass, London, United States, 2017

United States, United States of America

1st edition, First Edition, FR, 2017

Apr 10, 2017

2017-04-10

lg2677967

producers:
Adobe PDF Library 11.0

Memory of the World Librarian: Slowrotation

Source title: Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe's Scramble for Africa

Указ.: 359-371
Библиогр. в примеч.

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Rogue Empires takes a new look at the origins and consequences of a key moment in European History: the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885. Drawing on archival research conducted in ten countries and three languages, the book argues that the flood of rogue empires in Africa came about due to a short-lived European obsession with events happening far away, in Southeast Asia. European investors there had recently promoted an idea of buying empires through "private" purchases of sovereignty: full control over a place's resources and people, with neither monitoring by third parties, nor any accountability to a nation, nor, in most cases, the awareness of affected indigenous peoples. Once this idea made its way back around the world to European capitals, it inspired a number of important figures, notably German chancellor Otto von Bismarck and British Prime Minister William Gladstone, to support a string of copycat ventures in Sub-Saharan Africa.-- Provided by publisher

Cover 1
Title Page 4
Copyright 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
Introduction 12
1. The Man Who Bought a Country 22
2. The Emergence of an Idea 63
3. King Leopold’s Borneo 95
4. Bismarck’s Borneo 142
5. The Berlin Conference 177
Epilogue: Afterlives 230
Notes 264
Acknowledgments 368
Index 370
Cover
1
Title Page
4
Copyright
5
Dedication
6
Contents
8
Introduction 12
1. The Man Who Bought a Country 22
2.
The Emergence of an Idea 63
3.
King Leopold’s Borneo 95
4.
Bismarck’s Borneo 142
5.
The Berlin Conference 177
Epilogue: Afterlives
230
Notes 264
Acknowledgments 368
Index 370

In the 1880s Europeans grabbed vast swaths of the African continent, using documents, not guns, as their weapon of choice. Steven Press follows a paper trail of questionable contracts to discover the confidence men who exploited a loophole in international law to assert sovereignty over lands, and whose actions touched off the Scramble for Africa.

The man who bought a country -- The emergence of an idea -- King Leopold's Borneo -- Bismarck's Borneo -- Epilogue: "A great act of folly

2022-03-08