Entangled Colonialisms between Belgium, Congo and the Amazon: The Perspective of Brazilian Diplomats in Brussels (1895-1911)

Abstract

Abstract:Mention the period of high imperialism (1885-1914) and historians think of the Scramble for Africa. Yet, at the same time across the Atlantic, another scramble was reaching its pinnacle: the one for the Amazon. The partition of Africa has eclipsed the latter in historiography, thus also obliterating the connections that existed between both. This is not exceptional. Daniel Hedinger and Nadin Heé argue that many transimperial connections remain obscured due to the scholarly tendency of "nationalizing" imperial histories. What often gets lost are marginalized and in-between imperial histories. This article investigates one such case establishing connections between the African and the Amazonian scramble: the Brazilian diplomatic position on the Belgian colonization of Congo in relation to the Belgian colonial-commercial involvement in the Amazon, more specifically, in the Acre Crisis (1899-1903). I argue that Brazilian diplomatic actors in Brussels and Rio de Janeiro entangled different forms of colonialism across the Atlantic. These entanglements are important to analyze in order to understand how they shaped and altered the notion of colonial related terminology.