24 [No. 99 HISTORY 1911 1912 Arrangements for suppression of Government share in monopolies of Abir and Société Anversoise , and dissociation from Kasai Company. Freedom of trade extended to whole of Colony ( July 1 ) . From January 31 liquor traffic suppressed through out the Colony. Neutrality of Colony violated by Germany ; colonial forces take part in war.

1913 1914 (1 ) THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN ASSOCIATION The evolution of the Belgian Congo from its original conception as a commercial undertaking to a recognized status among the great African Powers is the work of Leopold II , King of the Belgians. While the discoveries of Burton, Livingstone, Cameron, Rohlfs, du Chaillu , and other great African travellers aroused the interest of many different classes of individuals in Western Europe, the political potentialities of the territories lying within the basin of the Congo were as yet unrevealed to the average European, whether manu facturer, trader, or philanthropist. King Leopold II, however, who had succeeded to the Belgian throne in 1865, beheld a different vision ; and, though it is improbable that he foresaw exactly the train of events which was to lead to the creation of the Congo Free State, he grasped the political advantages attaching to the systematic encouragement of African exploration. Stanley had barely started on the journey which was to take him from one coast of the continent to the other when King Leopold resolved to utilize the generally aroused European interest in Central Africa in the creation of an African State under his own rule. On September 12, 1876, therefore, he summoned an inter national conference of geographical experts to Brussels. From this assembly sprang the International African