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It is a widely cited upper bound. Bring in better reference. If you want to change that, start with the Congo Free State article, and provide sources Tag: Reverted |
Undid revision 1113231061 by Furius (talk)This article is about the Belgian colonial empire, and not Leopold's II's Free State. It is ridiculous that half of the intro deals with what happened before the Belgian Congo and the creation of the colonial empire. That criticism applies to the core of the article as well, given that there is a distinct and detailed article about the Congo Free State. Let's concentrate on the Belgian colonial empire |
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[[Belgium]] controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era principally the [[Belgian Congo]] (modern [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DRC]]) from 1908 to 1960, and [[Ruanda-Urundi]] (modern [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]]) from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concessions [[#Santo Tomás, Guatemala (1843–54)|in Guatemala]] (1843–1854) and [[Belgian concession of Tianjin|in China]] (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the [[Tangier International Zone]] in [[Morocco]].
Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) – known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the [[Congo Free State]], which was the personal property of Belgium's king, [[Leopold II of Belgium|Leopold II]].
==Background in the early 19th century==
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