1944 BELGIAN CONGO Belgium KING LEOPOLD III w ELEPHANT Old 50 Francs Coin i99676

Description

Item:
i99676
Authentic Medal / Plaque of:
Belgian Congo
under King Albert I - King of Belgium: 23 December 1909 - 17 February 1934
1944
Silver 50 Francs 34mm (17.47 grams) 0.500 Silver (0.2813 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 27, LA# BCM-20 | Engraver: Armand Bonnetain
1944, Elephant walking right.
BANQUE DU CONGO BELGE * 50 FR * BANK VAN BELGISCH CONGO, Inscription within and around.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Albert I
(8 April 1875 - 17 February 1934) was King of the Belgians from 23 December 1909 until his death in 1934. He ruled during an eventful period in the history of Belgium, which included the period of World War I (1914–1918), when 90 percent of Belgium was overrun, occupied, and ruled by the German Empire. Other crucial issues included the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, the ruling of the Belgian Congo as an overseas possession of the Kingdom of Belgium along with the League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi, the reconstruction of Belgium following the war, and the first five years of the Great Depression (1929–1934). King Albert died in a mountaineering accident in eastern Belgium in 1934, at the age of 58, and he was succeeded by his son Leopold III (
r
. 1934–1951). He is popularly referred to as the "Knight King" (
roi-chevalier
or
koning-ridder
) or "Soldier King" (
roi-soldat
or
koning-soldaat
) in Belgium in reference to his role during World War I.
The
Belgian Congo
was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present-day name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964.
Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of Belgium attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexplored Congo Basin. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold's establishing a colony himself. With support from a number of Western countries, Leopold achieved international recognition for a personal colony, the Congo Free State, in 1885. By the turn of the century, however, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by creating the Belgian Congo in 1908.
Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (
trinité coloniale
) of state, missionary and private-company interests. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialised. On many occasions, the interests of the government and of private enterprise became closely linked, and the state helped companies to break strikes and to remove other barriers raised by the indigenous population. The colony was divided into hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions, and run uniformly according to a set "native policy" (
politique indigène
). This contrasted the practice of British and French colonial policy, which generally favoured systems of indirect rule, retaining traditional leaders in positions of authority under colonial oversight.
During the 1940s and 1950s the Belgian Congo experienced extensive urbanisation, and the colonial administration began various development programmes aimed at making the territory into a "model colony". One result saw the development of a new middle-class of Europeanised African "
évolués
" in the cities. By the 1950s the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony.
In 1960, as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, becoming the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville under Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Poor relations between political factions within the Congo, the continued involvement of Belgium in Congolese affairs, and the intervention by major parties (mainly the United States and the Soviet Union) during the Cold War led to a five-year-long period of war and political instability, known as the Congo Crisis, from 1960 to 1965. This ended with the seizure of power by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in November 1965.
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