Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90

Festival at the Brussels Stock Exchange. Ovation for the king during the speech in favour of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890

The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889-1890 was held from November 18, 1889 to July 2, 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the Prohibition of Slave Trade and Slavery in Africa. The convention favoured colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument.

Lavigerie's crusade against slavery

19th-century image of an Arab slave caravan in the Sahara desert.

Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, founder of the Missionaries of Africa

During the Scramble for Africa in the mid-1880s, despite the humanitarian promises of the Berlin Colonial Conference, the colonial powers' primary concerns were territorial and economic. This was to change in 1888. In major speeches in Paris and London, Cardinal Lavigerie, who had launched a crusade against slavery, denounced the horrors of the Arab slave trade. He urged immediate action in the form of an international militia of volunteers to combat the slave trade in East Africa.

Leopold II, recently king of the newly created Congo state, followed Lavigerie's preaching tour intently. he was particularly concerned by the plans to send out a private international militia. After all, this could mean the conquest of his Congo. Such an army corps, he felt, could only be justified if it was under the leadership of the Congolese government. Leopold also feared that Lavigerie, who in his previous speeches had accused Tippu Tip of slave trading, might harm the Arab policy of his Congo Free State.

After meeting Leopold, however, Lavigerie renounced an international volunteer corps. An anti-slavery expedition was now to be organised by an exclusively national anti-slavery association in consultation with the colonial authorities concerned. In his Brussels speech, although Lavigerie pointed sharply to the rampant slave trade in Congo Free State, he attributed this to a lack of resources.

Leading up to the conference

Lavigerie's preaching tour not only gave birth to the anti-slavery movement, but also the Anti-Slavery Conference was a result. European colonisation of East and Central Africa posed a number of problems, especially with Arabo-Swahili power. A clear example was the Arabo-Swahili rebellion that led to the blockade of the east coast of Africa by Germany and Britain.

The conference

Auguste Lambermont led the conference

Even before the blockade was established, however, Britain, after consultation with the German government, had already requested Belgium to convene an international conference on the slave trade. Belgium had been specially chosen to allay Portuguese and French suspicions. On 18 November 1889, 17 countries met in Brussels for the anti-slavery conference. Lambermont was appointed president of the conference. The provisions of the General Act to combat the slave trade in the African interior actually amounted to a plan for more colonialism. This was based on the reasoning that anything that contributed to the expansion of European influence should limit the scope of action of the slave traders.

The Act

Main article: Brussels Conference Act of 1890

The General Act of the Brussels Conference stipulated that the organisation of legal, religious and military services in African colonies and protectorates was the best means of combating the slave trade. An important item on the agenda was also the regulation of arms imports. The arms trade not only strengthened the power of the Arabo-Swahilis, but guns and ammunition were also the usual means of exchange to obtain slaves and vice versa.

To effectively combat the slave trade at sea, there had to be extensive control of shipping. Earlier in the fight against the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, England had concluded maritime treaties with a variety of nations. This allowed the English navy to examine foreign ships for transporting slaves. England sought a global agreement at the conference that would allow the right of investigation. France, however, had always opposed that right because it made England's superior maritime the police navy, The Act represented a compromise between the two positions.

Finally, the slave trade could only be completely abolished if the demand for new slaves disappeared. Thus, to eradicate the Eastern slave trade once and for all, slavery had to be abolished in the destination countries themselves. However, the conference did not go that far: only the importation of slaves was addressed. Influenced by the conference, the Ottoman Empire passed a new law that banned the import, transit and export of slaves, but left the institution of slavery untouched. Fugitive and illegally imported slaves had to be issued letters of release.

Import duties

Leopold II, King of the Belgians hosted the Conference.

Import duties were Leopold's primary concern. The Berlin Act had banned the levying of import duties in the Congo Basin for a period of 20 years. Now he wanted to undo this after only five years.

In a prior correspondence with England, Leopold had requested that all countries that had to incur expenses in the fight against the slave trade be allowed to levy a moderate import duty; there was no objection to this. Leopold therefore wanted this to be included in the conference programme, but Lambermont believed caution was needed. On 10 May, Lambermont submitted the proposal to the conference. He asked that the countries of the conventional Congo basin be allowed to levy an import duty of up to 10 per cent ad valorem. The development of public services to support trade required new revenues. Moreover, the countries, which were on the front line against the slave trade, had to be somewhat accommodated. After all, their humanitarian task cost a lot of money.

Initially, the Netherlands and the United States opposed the proposal. but after long arduous negotiations and great diplomatic skill on the part of Leopold II, both sides came to an agreement, Leopold II struck home and on 2 July, the general act and declaration of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference could finally be signed.

Consequences

Briefly, the conference led to the negotiation of the first treaty abolishing the Arab slave trade, the Brussels Convention, which was adopted in 1890 and entered into force on 2 April 1892. Building on the anti-slavery campaign launched by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie in 1888 - and in line with the general act of the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) - the Brussels conference provided a powerful argument for opening up the African continent to trade and civilization through colonialism.

On 10 September 1919, the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye extended prohibition by ordering "the complete abolition of slavery in all its forms", paving the way for the UN Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926.

Participanten

State	Participants
Germany	His Excellency Count D'Alvensleben, German Minister in Brussels. Dr. Arendt, Consul General of Germany in Antwerp.
Austria-Hungary	His Excellency Count Khevenhûller-Metsch, Austro-Hungarian minister in Brussels.
Belgium	M. le Baron Lambermont, Minister of State. Mr Emile Banning, Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Spain	His Excellency M. Glitierrez De Aguëra, Spanish Minister in Brussels.
Denmark	Mfg Schack De Brockdorff, Consul General of Denmark in Antwerp.
United States	His Excellency Meh Terrell, Minister of the United States of America in Brussels.
France	His Excellency M. Bolrée, French Minister in Brussels. M. Gogordan, Minister Plenipotentiary, Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris.
United Kingdom	His Excellency Lord Vivian, British Minister at Brussels. Sir John KIRK, GCMG
Italy	His Excellency Baron De Reinzis, Italian Minister in Brussels.
Netherlands	His Excellency Baron Gericke De Herwynen, Dutch Minister in Brussels.
Portugal	His Excellency M. De Macedo, Portuguese Minister in Brussels.
Russia	His Excellency Prince Ouroussoff, Russian Minister in Brussels. His Excellency M. De Martens, Permanent Member of the Council of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Sweden–Norway	His Excellency M. De Burenstam, Minister of Sweden and Norway in Brussels.
Congo Free State	Mr. Pirmez, Minister of State, President of the Supreme Council of the Independent State of Congo. Mr. Van Eetvelde, General Administrator of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Independent State of the Congo.
Ottoman Empire	His Excellency Caratiieodory Efendi, Ottoman minister in Brussels.
Qajar Iran	His Excellency General Nazare Aga, Minister of Persia at Brussels.

See also

• Brussels Conference Act of 1890
• 1926 Slavery Convention
• Belgian Anti-Slavery Society
• Congo–Arab War

External links

• The humanitarian Action of Leopold II in Congo Free State. The Antislavery-Conference of Brussels (1889-1890)
• Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889-1890, Thesis at Leiden University by Henri Visser, Brussels 1893.
• Conférence internationale de Bruxelles: 18 novembre 1889-2 juillet 1890, protocoles et acte final/Ministère des affaires étrangères France. Ministère des affaires étrangères (1588-2007). Auteur du texte