ABSTRACT
On 7 January 1876, an impatient, ambitious monarch walked around the palace of Laeken, as historian Thomas Pakenham (The Scramble for Africa, 1991, pp. 11–12) writes. One of the great desires of the man who had become King of Belgium in 1865 was a large, profitable colony, something like the Dutch East Indies but without the expensive and time-consuming wars against local rebellious rulers. As a prince, Leopold had sought a colony in the Middle East, China, Borneo and India, but in vain.
