Inland Congo Colonies?

hey, all. a thought just occurred to me: what if a number of different European powers carved out colonies along the Congo River (its the deepest river in the world, and therefore could conceivably allow ships to sail far into the continent and establish colonies in the jungles). obviously, an impediment to this would be that whichever country holds the mouth could control the entire river by preventing anyone else from entering or leaving, but i'd like to explore the possibilities of this.

thoughts?
 
hey, all. a thought just occurred to me: what if a number of different European powers carved out colonies along the Congo River (its the deepest river in the world, and therefore could conceivably allow ships to sail far into the continent and establish colonies in the jungles). obviously, an impediment to this would be that whichever country holds the mouth could control the entire river by preventing anyone else from entering or leaving, but i'd like to explore the possibilities of this.

thoughts?

Though parts of the Congo are extremely deep the river in its entirety is very difficult to navigate. North of Boma (Where the river meets the Atlantic) the Livingstone Falls and associated rapids make more than 200 miles of the course completely unnavigable , and it is not until one reaches the Maelbo pool and Kinshasa that clear water is found again. The Stanley falls further upstream create a second hundred mile break in the course. The country between Kinshasa and the Sea is very rough , mountainous , forested , and malarial. During the colonial era it was practically impenetrable , and even once the Belgians began to invest in the area in Earnest it took them 20 years to finish a portage railway linking Leopoldville and Boma

On a side note , claiming land at the mouth of the river would generally entitle the occupier to claim all of the land that drained through it. This was a common practice during the age of Exploration , resulting in Belgium staking claim to the entire Congo basin despite never having explored most of it. Another example would be the French claim to the Louisiana territory (which claimed all lands draining into the Mississippi).
 
wow, i REALLY should have looked more into the Congo River's geography before posting this thread :p

since the Congo is a bust, what does everyone think about the Niger being exploited instead?
 
The other problem with this, of course, is that inland colonies are disadvantageous as it's very easy for the country (or countries) who control the mouth of the river to blockade it, severing the colony's connection to the mother nation, and quite possibly starving it into submission.
 
Top