DBWI: Congo Free State Happened

One of the most interesting European "plans" for Africa in the 19th Century was the International Africa Association, started up by Leopold II of Belgium, of all people, and bringing in wealthy men throughout Europe, with the apparent goal of bringing industry and education to the Congo and helping the population to establish an independent country, avoiding the fate of most of the continent. They even hired American explorer Henry Morton Stanley to explore the region and begin making contacts and treaties with the inhabitant nations.

Of course, their work failed to materialize -- Germany, with a recent design on colonies, claimed the Congo for herself at the Berlin Conference, and the Congo Free State never came to be.

But what if it had? Suppose Germany decided to let Leopold go through with his project (maybe they use the opportunity to frustrate Britain by pushing to break up Zanzibar or something)? How would the Congo and the world be different?

OOC: Admittedly, this is a follow up to a recent thread; also, that a similar thread was done before, but I wanted something that responded specifically to Leopold's advertised designs...
 
Earlier violence giving way to either intervention from a foreign power, or until it stabilizes itself in a government.
The former is most likely (one might laugh if Germany instated a German puppet-king in the Congo's government.
 
Earlier violence giving way to either intervention from a foreign power, or until it stabilizes itself in a government.

Funny... how do you see the violence breaking out?

one might laugh if Germany instated a German puppet-king in the Congo's government

Would that be so different from the puppets Germany put in places like the Luba and Lunda protectorates?
 
It would certainly have been nice if there were a stable democratic country based on the multiethnic liberal model of Belgium in that part of the world, particularly if it took an area as large and rich as the Deutches Kongo before Tripartition.
At the very least you would avoid the prolonged wars between Angola, Congo and Swahililand for control of the mineral wealth, and at best, the positive example of such a state would help spread democracy in a region plagued by civil war and military dictatorships.
Another question: how would such a country deal with the spread of ISV (the immunosuppressive virus)? Perhaps better institutions could contain it, but maybe more travel would spread it more?
 
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