ABSTRACT
From its creation in 1908 until 1960, the Belgian colonial state reflected the two key attributes of developmental states, namely state capacity and some relative autonomy, contrary to most colonies in Africa and most postcolonial states. These traits helped it to build physical infrastructure that attracted massive FDI and began the industrialization process in the early 1920s. At the same time, all French, Portuguese, and British colonies remained predominantly agricultural. By the late 1950s, the Belgian Congo was more industrialized and even more developed economically than most colonies in Africa because it also had the most physical infrastructure. Although the Belgian Congo was a colony of extraction like most colonies, it had better institutions than the CFS and most postcolonial states, and certainly, it had better institutions than all colonies of extraction. It protected private foreign assets, it had an industrial system based on minimal state, and it established an independent central bank. Although it extracted taxes from Africans like other colonies, it also spent a large portion of these taxes to public goods such as healthcare. In the 1950s, the Belgian Congo was the only colony to have a welfare system that was being developed in Europe.
