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Colonization of the Congo refers to the period of Henry Morton Stanley's first exploration of the Congo (1876) until its annexation as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium (1885). ==Early European exploration== The Congo River was the last part of the African continent to yield to European explorers. One by one the other great mysteries had been investigated: * The coasts by Prince Henry the Navigator's Portuguese sailors in the 15th century. * The Blue Nile by James Bruce in 1773. * The remote upper Niger by Mungo Park in 1796. * The vast Sahara by competitors Laing, Caillié, and Clapperton in the 1820s. * The fever-ridden mangroves of the lower Niger by the Lander Brothers in 1830. * Southern Africa and the Zambezi by Livingstone and John Clafton in the 1850s. * The upper Nile by Burton, Speke, and Baker in a succession of expeditions between 1857 and 1868. Though the Congo had been one of the first to be attempted, it remained a mystery. Since the 15th century, European explorers had sailed into the broad Congo estuary, planning to fight their way up the falls and rapids that begin only 100 miles (160 km) inland, and then travel up the river to its unknown source. All failed. The rapids and falls, had they known it, extended for 220 miles (350 km) inland, and the terrain close by the river was impassable, and remains so to this day. Repeated attempts to travel overland were repulsed with heavy casualties, accidents, conflicts with natives, and, above all, disease saw large and well-equipped expeditions got no further than 40 miles (60 km) or so past the western-most rapid, the legendary Cauldron of Hell. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colonization of the Congo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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