ABSTRACT
In 1882, while Stanley was in Africa, the Comite was changed into "L'Association internationale du Congo." Stanley pursued his "explorations" on the Congo, and they resulted in the signature of the treaties in which the native chiefs and rulers handed over their sovereign rights to "L'Association international". The Independent State of the Congo was founded at, but not by, the Conference of Berlin. It is important that the reader should understand this and what it means. The Berlin Act, too, established no kind of international control or government over the Belgian Congo. The object was narrowed and defined: the desire was to share in the riches of the Congo basin and to convert it into a commercial outlet." In 1882 the Comite suddenly changed its name to that of "The International Association of the Congo".
