ABSTRACT
The CFS became a colony in November 1908 as the Belgian Congo. Belgium inherited an undisciplined army and a patrimonial administration from King Leopold. The first policy from Brussels was to professionalize the army by providing it some type of expertise, making it committed to state goals, and giving it an exclusive social entity in order to allow state managers to control and manage this instrument of violence. This helped to establish political order and even to defend indirectly national boundaries during the First World War. The colonial state also used a two-level delegation system to establish political order and the rule of law. The first was its professionalized bureaucracy headed by a governor general. This bureaucracy was almost autonomous of politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels. The second level was made of traditional authorities and the Catholic Church intended to enforce the law in rural areas. This two-level delegation reinforced each other and institutionalized a set of political interactions and structures that established political order and the rule of law. These two public goods increased predictability in the Belgian Congo and helped to attract massive inflow of foreign direct investments that increased productive economic activities and sustained economic development.
