BELGIAN MILITARY FORCES IN THE CONGO: Volume 1: The Force Publique, 1885-1960

1-234581

This first volume of Belgian Military Forces in the Congo is illustrated throughout with photographs and includes specially-commissioned color artworks of the weapons, soldiers, and aircraft of the Force Publique -- established by King Leopold II to secure the Congo Free State and to protect a vast geographical swath of Central Africa that had become his own personal possession following the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885.

Indeed, it is possible to trace the origins of rebellion in the Congo Crisis (1960-1967) back to the Batetela Rebellions that took place in the Congo Free State in the 1890s and early 1900s, and to link them with a succession of anti-Belgian popular uprisings that took place in the Congo up to the time of the Congo's independence. Moreover, a revolt by NCOs of the Force Publique was one of the sparks that plunged the Congo into crisis in early July 1960. The history of the Force Publique is extended into a study of war in the Sudan, East Africa, and in Ethiopia.