ABSTRACT

To the north, in the areas dominated by the Arabs, Leopold was under less pressure, at least insofar as his authority was not challenged by any other European power. Despite the formation of the Force Publique, Leopold remained acutely conscious of his financial and military weakness, and Free State officers were instructed on no account to cross the Lomami and more generally to refrain from activities which might arouse Arab hostility. The Belgians tried and executed the Arab leaders who had been responsible for the murder of the Europeans, and established an administration much on the Arab model, based on the support of the lesser Arab and African chiefs in the region. The spark that caused the conflagration came in the spring of 1892, when the Syndicat Commercial du Katanga sent an agent, Arthur Hodister, on an ivory buying expedition into the heart of Arab territory south of Stanley Falls.