Belgium stamp – Page 2 – The-Philatelist

As recently as World War I, Belgium was still actively trying to add to its colonies in central Africa. Just 40 years later, there was pressure everywhere to just leave. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

A stamp with a gorilla on it from a European colony in Africa. In todays world we are on dangerous ground. I considered not doing the stamp. At least the gorilla is native to the territory. I will report the intentions of the Belgian colonial administration and why it failed in it’s stated and real objectives. This I believe will show a large contribution to why the post independence countries were such failures.

Todays stamp is issue A29, a 10 Centimes stamp issued by the Belgian administration of the United Nation Trust Territory of Ruanda-Urundi in 1959. It was part of a 14 stamp issue in various denominations showing examples of the local wildlife. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

During World War I Belgium sent an invasion force into the area from neighboring Belgian Congo. The area was then part of German East Africa. The attack was successful and the wars end saw Belgium occupying the territory. Post war the League of Nations recognized Belgium’s administration of the area but put forth conditions that Belgium was to ready the area for independence by investing in education and economic development. The Belgians had invaded under the old profit model where the economic output of the area is first used to make remittances back to Belgium with only a fraction remaining in the area to fund progress in the colony. The Belgians stated their goals this way so as to justify an extended time of the area as a profitable colony. “The real work is to change the African in his essence, to transform his soul, to do that one must love him and enjoy daily contact with him. He must be cured of his thoughtlessness, he must accustom himself to living in society, he must overcome his inertia.” Not sure any amount of time or money could achieve all that.

The money to accomplish it was miniscule. The education system was mainly just charity through the Belgian Catholic Church. The economic output was mainly coffee plantations of the type that rarely survive independence. At the time of independence the two new countries had less than 100 native college graduates between them. There were Royal lines in the two countries that predated colonial times and still ruled aspects of the administration of natives. These were not popular and were from a minority tribe. It was still Belgium’s intention to turn the countries fully over to them.

The Crown Prince in Burundi tried a stunt to give the Royal line more legitimacy. He returned early from his Belgian education with no degree but marketing himself as a labor leader who was going to rid the place of the Belgians. His party did well in the Belgian organized elections. The Prince and now soon to be Prime Minister was then assassinated. The heads of the rival party were blamed and quickly executed. The show trials purported to show the Belgian Colonial Governor Jean-Paul Harroy was behind it. This got rid of the rival party and surely sped up Belgium’s departure.

The unproven accusations greatly damaged the reputation of Governor Harroy. He had been somewhat a star with a PhD in Colonial Sciences. Something I am sure that is not much studied anymore. His thesis on African soil erosion resulting from colonial agricultural methods was quite influential worldwide and part of the decolonization movement. In any case Harroy returned to Belguim to become a University Professor and both Royal lines were overthrown within a few years.

There was a well known movie called “Hotel Rwanda” that showed scared locals and westerners marooned there desperately trying to get the Belgians to intervene during one of Rwanda’s many troubled periods 30 years post independence. They didn’t of course, by then they knew that their original mission was impossible and the Africans were themselves the ones to end their troubles.

The Mountain Gorilla is native to that part of Africa. They are critically endangered with only about 880 remaining. This is a small improvement over a low of 410 estimated in 1981. There is a black market trade in gorilla babies stolen to be sold as pets or for Asian zoos. This also usually results in the death of an adult who will fight to the death for the baby.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

The nineteenth century European small country Kings are fun and invariably German. The German city states they were from were being absorbed at the same time new states were popping up seeking legitimacy. In Belgium’s case, the fact that it and the same Royal house was around 100 years later proves legitimacy is what they got. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp remembers the first Belgian King Leopold I by using his official portrait painted by Belgian portrait painter Lievin de Winne. The stamp engraving was done by Jean De Bast who himself was later honored with a stamp we covered here. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/26/belgium-honors-a-stamp-engraver/. He always treated the Royals well and todays stamp is no exception.

Todays stamp is issue A67, a 60 Centimes stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium on July 1st, 1930. It was a three stamp issue on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Belgian independence from the Netherlands. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or in this case used.

Leopold was born Royal in Coburg Germany in a small German state in modern day Bavaria. When his home was overrun by Napoleon he traveled to Paris to seek an appointment in Napoleon’s Court. Unsatisfied with an offer of an adjunct position, Leopold was off to Russia to fight France as a part of the Czar’s Army. His service was distinguished and he was made a Lieutenant General by the age of 25 in 1815. Post war he moved to London and obtained British citizenship. There he married Princess Charlotte who would have been Queen of Great Britain had she lived. Leopold would then have been Prince Consort. It was not meant to be however as Charlotte died a year later a day after giving birth to a stillborn son. Leopold then had a long relationship with German actress Caroline Bauer. In her late in life memoirs she claims to have had a private religious marriage to Leopold but this is denied by his family.

Greece was breaking off from the Ottoman empire and offered it’s new throne to Leopold. He thought their situation was too precarious and refused. Greece found another German King. Belgium was in a long war to break away from the Netherlands. A series of French royals was considered and rejected but then Leopold was a compromise choice favored by Great Britain. Leopold accepted becoming King Leopold I of newly independent Belgium. There was a last short war with the Netherlands that was beaten off with help from the French. Most Belgians were closer to France ethnically then Dutch. Leopold entered a second marriage to Louise of Orleans, the daughter of French King Louis Philippe. This resulted in four children. Leopold worked very hard to avoid European wars of the time by staying neutral. The economy however was not in good shape since ties with the Netherlands were cut.

Leopold managed to survive the insurrections of 1848. A group of Émigré alleged Belgians crossed from France to overturn the monarchy but Belgian troops managed to capture and disarm them. The political conflicts at the time were between conservative Catholics and secular liberals. As a Lutheran, liberals saw Leopold as one of them but he tried to keep an aura of being above politics. This worked as the liberals won most of the elections of the period.

Queen Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1850 at age 38. Her children were the Royal line. During this period Leopold fathered two sons via a mistress. At his request the sons and the mistress were given minor titles by the German city state of his birth. Leopold’s close connection to the British royal line is shown by the fact that both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince consort Albert were Leopold’s niece and nephew in different but close lines. Leopold died in 1865 and was succeeded as King of the Belgians by his son who served as Leopold II.

Well my drink is empty and I find the close interconnection of European Royals to almost like a prototype of modern Euro integration. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.