THE FOUNDING OF THE CONGO INDEPENDENT STATE 25 
nation like ours should endeavor to assure outlets for all 
its workmen, — thinkers, capitalists, and laborers. These 
patriotic considerations have dominated my life. They 
decided the creation of the African work.” “I was firmly 
convinced,” wrote George Grenfell, speaking of the period 
from 1884 to 1894, “that if His Majesty sought anything 
beyond the advantage of the Congo people, it was but the 
benefit of his Belgian subjects, whose great need, like the 
Briton’s, is an open market for the products of their labor.” ? 
It was soon noted that the region was rich in ivory and 
rubber; and various sections of the country were parceled 
out ere long to trading companies. The Anglo-Belgian 
Indiarubber Company was the first and the most power- 
ful of these; but it was followed gradually by others, until 
there were some ten ‘concessionnaire” companies in the 
Geld. 
The International Association of the Congo had not been 
recognized by the powers and had therefore no assured ter- 
ritorial existence. A charter from Europe, said Stanley in 
1882, was necessary to make it worth a two-shilling piece. 
Doubtless Leopold would have gladly postponed this issue 
indefinitely while consolidating the new state, but French 
ambitions made it impossible. However, by a fortunate 
combination of circumstances, in spite of the fact that the 
rising Congo State was most seriously threatened by French 
expansion, and that this in turn caused Portugal to reassert 
her claims to the most essential part of the new state, Leo- 
pold was able to get the support of Europe and to over- 
throw his enemies in detail. 
For centuries Portugal had claimed the West Coast of 
Africa at least from lat. 5° 12’ S. to lat. 18° S,, and an in- 
definite amount inland. No country disputed the claim 
below lat. 8° S., but neither had any country explicitly re- 
1 Sir Harry Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo, vol. 1, p. 377.