The Congo–Arab war or Arab war was a colonial war fought between the Congo Free State and Arab-Swahili warlords associated with the Arab slave trade in the eastern regions of the Congo Basin between 1892 and 1894.
110-819: The war was caused by the Free State and the Arabs contending for the control of regional resources. The war ended in January 1894 with a victory of Leopold's Force Publique . Initially, the Free State collaborated with the Arabs. Still, competition struck over the control of ivory and the topic of the humanitarian pledges given by Leopold II , King-Sovereign of the Congo Free State, to the Berlin Conference to end slavery. Leopold II's stance turned confrontational against his once-allies. The war against
220-445: A Belgian Army paratroop drop. This violence immediately led to a military intervention into Congo by Belgium in an ostensible effort to secure the safety of its citizens (the earlier Luluabourg intervention had been against orders). The re-entry of these forces was a clear violation of the national sovereignty of the new nation, as it had not requested Belgian assistance. Soon afterwards, after an extraordinary meeting of ministers of
330-493: A swivel for easy rotation, loaded by inserting a mug-shaped chamber already filled with powder and projectiles. The breech-loading swivel gun had a high rate of fire, and was especially effective in anti-personnel roles. Breech-loading firearms are known from the 16th century. Henry VIII possessed one, which he apparently used as a hunting gun to shoot birds. Meanwhile, in China, an early form of breech-loading musket, known as
440-421: A vassal than a state official, allowed to do as he pleased, within certain boundaries. Furthermore, Tippu Tip did not have absolute authority over the eastern Congo region, but was considered as a primus inter pares . Other major slave traders like Lake Tanganyika 's strongman Rumaliza considered his deal with the Congo Free State treasonous. Rumaliza abolished the Congo Free State flag and swore loyalty to
550-562: A barrel tip-down, remove the plug and reload actions. The later breech-loaders included the Ferguson rifle , which used a screw-in/screw out action to reload, and the Hall rifle , which tipped up at 30 degrees for loading. The better breech loaders, however, used percussion caps , including the Sharps rifle , using a falling block (or sliding block ) action to reload. And then later on came
660-603: A boy; after winning his freedom, he became the leader of the Batetela and Bakusu. Lutete's forces were heading west to Kasaï , picking up weapons from Angola in an attempt to strengthen their position in the Lomani region. After several skirmishes in April–May 1892 with the better equipped Free State forces of Dhanis and Michaux, Lutete decided to make a deal with the Congo Free State. On 19 September, he switched sides and joined
770-484: A colonel whose headquarters was at Stanleyville , grouped F.P. units in Kivu and Orientale Province (PO). It comprised 3 infantry battalions (each of approximately 800 men), seemingly including 6 Battalions at Watsa (under Lieutenant Colonel Merckx in 1960), 2 battalions of Gendarmerie (each of approximately 860 men), a reconnaissance squadron (jeeps, trucks and armoured M8 Greyhound vehicles – approximately 300 men),
880-628: A cyclist company and a battalion headquarters. Lastly, there was the Compagnie d'Artillerie et de Génie (Artillery and Engineers Company) manning Fort de Shinkakasa at the mouth of the Congo River in Boma . The fort contained eight 160mm guns manned by 200 men, plus an equal-sized auxiliary force, which saw little or no service during the war. In 1914, the Force Publique , including
990-563: A cylindrical breech plug secured by a horizontal wedge in 1837. In the 1850s and 1860s, Whitworth and Armstrong invented improved breech-loading artillery. The M1867 naval guns produced in Imperial Russia at the Obukhov State Plant used Krupp technology. A breech action is the loading sequence of a breech loading naval gun or small arm . The earliest breech actions were either three-shot break-open actions or
1100-543: A few years later. The carbine was used extensively by the Forest Rangers, an irregular force led by Gustavus von Tempsky that specialized in bush warfare and reconnaissance. Von Tempsky liked the short carbine, which could be loaded while lying down. The waterproofed cartridge was easier to keep dry in the New Zealand bush. Museums in New Zealand hold a small number of these carbines in good condition. During
1210-542: A fort on the Lomami River , where the Force Publique attacked him and eventually was forced to retreat. Dhanis used this battle as a pretext for advancing against the Arabs in force. He allowed his army to travel with all of their wives, slaves, and servants, who did all of the army's cooking and cleaning and acted as a supply train. In addition, he did not allow his men to harm local non-combatants, earning him
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#17327731852911320-629: A large scale offensive on German East Africa. The allied powers , the British Empire and Belgium, launched a coordinated attack on the German colony; by 1916 the Belgian commander of the Force Publique , Lieutenant-General Charles Tombeur , had assembled an army of 15,000 men supported by local bearers and advanced to Kigali . Kigali was taken by 6 May 1916. The German army stationed in Urundi
1430-491: A pole. Relations were further strained when Rashid refused to assist in the investigation of Hodister's death. Ngongo Lutete also led actions in the east at this time. The Force Publique, under Francis Dhanis , was sent to Katanga to resupply the Lofoi trading post, establishing new outposts on his path. During this mission, the Force Publique crossed paths with Ngongo Lutete's soldiers. Lutete had been captured by Tippu Tip as
1540-406: A previously fired weapon with a fouled barrel. Gun turrets and emplacements for breechloaders can be smaller since crews don't need to retract the gun for loading into the muzzle end. Unloading a breechloader is much easier as well, as the ammunition can be unloaded from the breech end and is often doable by hand; unloading muzzle loaders requires drilling into the projectile to drag it out through
1650-656: A ready-to load reusable cartridge. Patrick Ferguson , a British Army officer, developed in 1772 the Ferguson rifle , a breech-loading flintlock firearm. Roughly two hundred of the rifles were manufactured and used in the Battle of Brandywine , during the American Revolutionary War , but shortly after they were retired and replaced with the standard Brown Bess musket . In turn the American army, after getting some experience with muzzle-loaded rifles in
1760-543: A revolver using rimfire cartridges. The first centrefire cartridge was introduced in 1855 by Pottet, with both Berdan and Boxer priming . In 1842, the Norwegian Armed Forces adopted the breech-loading caplock, the Kammerlader , one of the first instances in which a modern army widely adopted a breech-loading rifle as its main infantry firearm. The Dreyse Zündnadelgewehr ( Dreyse needle gun )
1870-408: A small aviation element including 2 De Havilland DH.104 Doves . Between 1945 and 1960, Belgium continued to organise the Force Publique as an entity cut off from the people that it policed, with recruits serving in tribally mixed units and no more than a quarter of each company coming from the province in which they served. Tightly disciplined and drilled, the Force Publique impressed visitors to
1980-488: A transport company, a military police company (approximately 100 men), a heavy mortar platoon, a combat engineer company and a training centre at Lokandu. Vanderstraeten reported the dispositions of the Force Publique in July 1960 as: Total strength of the Force Publique immediately prior to independence was 22,403 Congolese regular soldiers and NCOs, 599 European NCOs, and 444 European officers. The last 15 commanders of
2090-411: A weapon specifically as breech-loading is mostly limited to non-repeating firearms, including single-shots , derringers , double-barreled shotguns , double-barreled rifles , combination guns , and volley guns . Breech-loading provides the advantage of reduced reloading time because it is far quicker to load the projectile and propellant into the chamber of a gun or cannon than to reach all
2200-657: The Albertville fortress on Lake Tanganyika 's shores, and tried to end the slave trade in the region. Rumaliza's troops surrounded Albertville on 5 April and besieged the outpost for 9 months. Eventually, Rumaliza's forces had to retreat because of the arrival of the Long-Duvivier-Demol Anti-Slavery expedition, a relief column sent from Brussels at captain Alphonse Jacques's aide. On 28 January 1893, Congo Free State forces reached
2310-473: The American Civil War , at least nineteen types of breech-loaders were fielded. The Sharps used a successful dropping block design. The Greene used rotating bolt-action, and was fed from the breech. The Spencer , which used lever-actuated bolt-action, was fed from a seven-round detachable tube magazine . The Henry and Volcanic used rimfire metallic cartridges fed from a tube magazine under
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#17327731852912420-656: The Aruwimi and the Lualaba rivers. Additionally, Tippu Tip was to redirect his ivory trade through the Congo Free State, to the Atlantic Ocean ports and he was to assist King Leopold II ‘s forces in their expeditions to the Upper Nile , to help further expand his territories. Soon after this deal, it became apparent that Tippu Tip was not inclined to accept Congo Free State authority and considered himself more of
2530-519: The Basoko and Lusambo camps, but were much better armed and had six cannons and a machine gun. In the previous years (1886-1891), the Society of Missionaries of Africa founded Catholic missions at the north and south ends of Lake Tanganyika . Léopold Louis Joubert , a French soldier and armed auxiliary, was dispatched by Archbishop Charles Lavigerie 's Society of Missionaries of Africa to protect
2640-722: The Belgian Congo with its smart appearance, but a culture of separateness, encouraged by its Belgian officers, led to brutal and unrestrained behaviour when the external restraints of colonial administration were lifted in 1960. The infamous chicote was abolished in only 1955. The Belgian Government made no effort to train Congolese commissioned officers until the very end of the Colonial period, and there were only about 20 African officer cadets at military schools in Belgium on
2750-603: The Che Dian Chong , was known to have been created in the second half of the 16th century for the Ming dynasty's arsenals . Like all early breech-loading fireams, gas leakage was a limitation and danger present in the weapon's mechanism. More breech-loading firearms were made in the early 18th century. One such gun known to have belonged to Philip V of Spain , and was manufactured circa 1715, probably in Madrid . It came with
2860-838: The Congo Free State as his private colony , ordered the Belgian Secretary of the Interior to create a military for the Free State. Soon afterwards, in early 1886, Captain Léon Roger (of the Belgian Army 's Regiment of Carabiniers ) was sent to the Congo with orders to establish the force. A few months later, on 17 August, he was promoted to "Commandant of the Force Publique". A number of other Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers were also dispatched to
2970-524: The Congo Free State . Both Leopold II and Barghash bin Said agreed. On February 24, 1887, Tippu Tip accepted. Tippu Tip agreed to submit to Congo Free State's authority and to allow a Congo Free State Resident by his side to help him govern this territory in a system of indirect rule which was patterned after those employed by other European colonial powers in Africa and Asia . The territory borders were
3080-723: The FP mobile units consisted of 6 battalions of infantry (the V battalion at Stanleyville , the VI battalion at Watsa , the VIII battalion at Luluabourg, the XI battalion at Rumangabo , the XII battalion at Elizabethville , and the XIII battalion at Léopoldville ), 3 reconnaissance units, military police units, a brigade under training at Camp Hardy, still under construction at Thysville , 4 coastal defence guns, and
3190-465: The FP to African soldiers in a mess hall at the main base outside Léopoldville, in which he stated that Independence would not bring any change in their status or role. Lieutenant General Émile Janssens 's intention may only have been to stress the need for continued discipline and obedience to orders, but the impact on the soldiers, unsettled by the demands of maintaining order during Independence celebrations and fearful that they would be excluded from
3300-407: The Force Publique eventually grew to over 600 men each. Their constituent units, known as detachments, were so widely scattered that the force had no real military value. Rather the bulk of these sub-units consisted of small garrisons in fixed locations, with local policing functions. It was intended that each administrative company form a Compagnie Marche of 150 men. Each Marche or field company
3410-491: The Force Publique into two branches. The troupes campées was tasked with guarding the border and protecting the colony from external aggression, while the troupes en service territoriale was responsible for maintaining internal security. Battalions from the latter were assigned to every provincial capital, while companies were stationed at each district headquarters. After Belgium had surrendered to Nazi Germany on 28 May 1940, Governor-General Pierre Ryckmans decided that
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3520-472: The Force Publique suffered from institutional problems. During the early years of the force, mutinies of black soldiers occurred several times. By the early 1890s, much of the eastern portion of the Free State was under the control of Arab ivory and slave traders (though the Government was able to re-establish control over the east by the mid-1890s). Organizational problems were also quite prevalent during
3630-562: The Force Publique was described as an "exceptionally brutal army". One major purpose of the Force was to enforce the rubber quotas and other forms of forced labour. Armed with modern weapons and the chicote —a bull whip made of hippopotamus hide—soldiers of the FP often took and mistreated hostages. Reports from foreign missionaries and consular officials detail a number of instances where Congolese men and women were flogged or raped by soldiers of
3740-472: The Force Publique were: On 5 July 1960, five days after the country gained independence from Belgium, the Force Publique garrison in Léopoldville mutinied against its white officers (who had remained in complete command) and attacked numerous European and Congolese targets. The immediate incident sparking the mutiny was reported to have been a tactless speech made by the Belgian general commanding
3850-544: The Force Publique – other native leaders like Pania Mutomba before him and Lupungu, chief of the Songe at Kabinda shortly thereafter, had also joined the Force Publique. By October 1892, Sefu was leading a force of 10,000 men, some 500 Zanzibari officers and the remaining were Congolese. The Force Publique army led by Francis Dhanis, consisted of a few dozen Belgian officers and several thousand African auxiliaries. Open warfare broke out in late November 1892, when Sefu set up
3960-548: The Luama River , west of Lake Tanganyika . It was a tactical stalemate, but Sefu was killed, and the remaining resistance soon disintegrated. By 24 December 1893, Dhanis obtained reinforcements and was ready to advance again. Rumaliza had also received assistance. Dhanis sent one column under Gillain to prevent Rumaliza's retreat, and another under De Wouters to advance on Rumaliza's fort near Bena Kalunga. A group of fresh forces coming to Rumaliza's aid from German East Africa
4070-526: The Sudan to Cairo . Between 1942 and 1943, an expeditionary force of 13,000 was sent to Nigeria. Nine thousand of these troops served in Egypt and Palestine . They returned to the Belgian Congo at the end of 1944 without having seen active service. The Force Publique also sent the 10th Belgian Congo Casualty Clearing Station to the battle zone. Between 1941 and 1945, some 350 Congolese and 20 Belgians, under
4180-765: The Zanzibar sultan 's red flag. Leopold II was heavily criticized in European public opinion for his dealings with Tippu Tip. In Belgium, the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society , founded in 1888 , mainly by Roman Catholic intellectuals led by Count Hippolyte d'Ursel , aimed to abolish the East African slave trade . Free State authorities stringently adhered to the provisions of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 which prohibited
4290-523: The 1890s, the Force Publique defeated the African and Arab slavers in the course of the Congo Arab war (1892–1894), which resulted in tens of thousands of casualties. As time went on, the Force Publique began to increasingly recruit and to rely on Belgian officers and native Congolese soldiers, so that the white and black foreign mercenaries had been mostly phased out by 1908. Under Leopold II
4400-554: The Arabs' lost ground. His troops then advanced towards the Lualaba River and erected forts south of Kasongo to threaten the Free State's control over the city. Rumaliza's force clashed with Dhanis' column on 15 October 1893, causing the death of two European leaders and 50 of their soldiers. On 19 October 1893, Rumaliza attacked a position one day's march from Kasongo . Dhanis concentrated his forces and defeated Rumaliza. The war's last major battle occurred on 20 October 1893, on
4510-565: The Belgian Army), mercenaries and former officers from the armies of other European nations, especially those of Scandinavia, Italy and Switzerland. To these men, service in the Congo Free State offered military experience, adventure and—as they saw it—an opportunity to participate in a humanitarian endeavour. From 1885 to 1908 the officer corps consisted of hundreds of Belgians and dozens of Scandinavians, with smaller numbers recruited from other nations. Serving under these European officers
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4620-406: The Belgian base at Kamina . On 23 August they were transferred to Elizabethville , and on 26 August officially turned over to the secessionist State of Katanga . Breechloader A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition from the breech end of the barrel (i.e., from the rearward, open end of the gun's barrel), as opposed to a muzzleloader , in which
4730-662: The Congo, including several Arab slaver captains and some Congolese leaders, e.g. Ngongo Lutete . Initially, Congo Free State's authority was relatively weak in Congo's eastern regions. In early 1887, Henry Morton Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and proposed that Tippu Tip ( nom de guerre — his real name was Hamad bin Muhammad bin Juma bin Rajab el Murjebi) be made governor ( wali ) of the Stanley Falls District in
4840-412: The Force Publique, unrestrained by their officers and NCOs . They burned villages they viewed as recalcitrant. There is evidence, including photographs, that FP soldiers cut off human hands, either as trophies, or to show that bullets had not been wasted, or (by cutting off the limbs of children) to punish parents viewed as not working hard enough in the rubber plantations. During the Free State period,
4950-420: The Free State era. With many Force Publique detachments being stationed in remote areas of the territory, some officers took to using soldiers under their control to further private economic agendas rather than focusing on military concerns. By the end of 1891, the force had 60 officers, 60 non-commissioned officers, and 3,500 black soldiers. Friendly tribes and militias were often used to help exert control over
5060-627: The Italian troops surrendered to General Auguste-Édouard Gilliaert on 7 July 1941, and included nine generals, among them General Pietro Gazzera and Count Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi , 370 officers, and 2,574 NCOs and 1,533 native soldiers. About 2,000 additional native irregulars were sent home. The Force Publique lost about 500 men during the East Africa Campaign, among them 4 Belgians. The Force Publique then helped to establish an overland route from Lagos through Fort Lamy and
5170-471: The Jacques expedition arrived, Joubert's garrison was down to about 200 men, poorly armed with "a most miscellaneous assortment of Chassepots , Remingtons and muzzle-loaders, without suitable cartridges." He also had hardly any medicine left. Captain Jacques asked Joubert to remain on the defensive while his expedition moved north. On 3 January 1892, Captain Alphonse Jacques' anti-slavery expedition founded
5280-669: The Katanga companies, totalled about 17,000 askaris with 178 white officers and 235 white NCOs. The majority served in small static garrisons called poste with primarily a police role. With the outbreak of the First World War , the Katangese units were organised in battalions (Ie, IIe, and IIIme) for military service in Northern Rhodesia and the eastern frontier districts of the Belgian Congo . The Force Publique
5390-616: The Stanley Falls up the river. After some severe fighting and many skirmishes, he cleared the river and its neighbourhood, as far as Nyangwe. During a fortnight's severe fighting, Commandant Ponthier's attacks on the forts of Rumaliza failed, and Ponthier was killed in action. After the fall of Nyangwe and Kasongo, Rumaliza , the Arab leader of Ujiji, brought a large army from the Lake Tanganyika region to Kabambare to retake
5500-566: The Swahili-Arab economic and political power was presented as a Christian anti-slavery crusade. In 1886, while Tippu Tip was in Zanzibar, a dispute arose between Tippu Tip's fort at Stanley Falls (modern-day Boyoma Falls) and a smaller, nearby Congo Free State fort led by Walter Deane and Lieutenant Dubois. Tip's men at the Stanley Falls fort alleged that Deane had stolen an enslaved woman from an Arab officer, but Deane asserted that
5610-559: The Syndicat Commercial du Katanga to 'acquire' ivory—and Captain Guillaume Van Kerckhoven , who had been forcefully confiscating ivory from several powerful Arab traders. These expeditions united regional slave and ivory traders to fight their common enemy, the Congo Free State. The Times reported in 1892 that, during further explorations in the Congo, Hodister was captured and killed, his head stuck on
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#17327731852915720-407: The aim. This provided faster rates of fire, but this is not directly related to whether the gun is breech-loading or not. Now that guns were able to fire without the entire carriage recoiling, the crew was able to remain grouped closely around the gun, ready to load and put final touches on the aim, prior to firing the next shot. That led to the development of an armored shield fitted to the carriage of
5830-407: The atomic bomb for Hiroshima . The military contribution was also important: the Force Publique grew to 40,000 in the course of the War, formed into three brigades, a river force and support units. It provided detachments to fight Italian forces during the East Africa campaign and serve as garrisons in West Africa and the Middle East. At the end of 1940, the XI Battalion of the Force Publique
5940-414: The barrel. These held a significant advantage over muzzle-loaders. The improvements in breech-loaders had spelled the end of muzzle-loaders. To make use of the enormous number of war surplus muzzle-loaders, the Allin conversion Springfield was adopted in 1866. General Burnside invented a breech-loading rifle before the war, the Burnside carbine . The French adopted the new Chassepot rifle in 1866, which
6050-433: The battlefield, winning the respect of their British and Portuguese allies, as well as that of their German opponents. From 1916 onwards, the Force Publique grew to reach a strength of three mobile Groupes (brigades), Kivu, Ruzizi, and Tanganyika , comprising a total of 15 battalions, from the static garrison and police force of 1914. However, it did take until late 1915 for the Force Publique to finish preparations for
6160-409: The benefits of the new freedom, was disastrous. The outbreak caused fear amongst the approximately 100,000 Belgian and other European civilians and officials still resident in the Congo and ruined the credibility of the new government as it proved unable to control its own armed forces. For example, the white community in Luluabourg was besieged in improvised fortifications for three days until rescued by
6270-869: The blue uniform (with red trim around the neck and down the front opening), red fez and sash of the askaris was phased out in a series of changes during 1915–1917. Thereafter, officers and askaris wore a variety of khaki uniforms. The Force Publique was organised into 21 separate companies (originally numbered but later known only by their names) each between 225 and 950 men strong, along with an artillery and an engineers unit. The entire force numbered over 12,100 men. The companies were as follows: Aruwimi, Bangala, Bas-Congo , Cateracts, Équateur , Ituri , Kasai , Kwango , Lac Léopold II , Lualaba , Lulongo, Makrakas, Makua-Bomokandi, Ponthiérville , Rubi, Ruzizi - Kivu , Stanley Falls , Stanley Pool , Ubangi , and Uele-Bili. There were also six recruit training camps containing over 2,400 men. The separate companies comprising
6380-431: The colony on Leopold II of Belgium 's orders. The Force Publique was heavily involved in atrocities in the Congo Free State , and also saw action in the Congo Arab war , World War I and World War II . It was renamed to the Congolese National Army in July 1960 after Congo gained independence from Belgian colonial rule. The Force Publique was initially conceived in 1885 when Leopold II of Belgium , who established
6490-418: The colony would continue to fight on the side of the Allies. With Belgium occupied, the contribution to the Allied cause by the Free Belgian forces from the Belgian Congo was primarily an economic one providing copper, wolfram, zinc, tin, rubber, cotton and more. Already prior to the war uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine had been shipped to New York; it was later used in the Manhattan Project to produce
6600-419: The command of Medical Colonel Thomas, worked together with the British medical services in Abyssinia, Somaliland , Madagascar and Burma. They especially proved their value serving with the Indian XXXIII Corps on the Upper Chindwin , where they were attached to the 11th (East Africa) Division . During the confusion inherent in jungle fighting, the Belgian medical unit found itself on one occasion in advance of
6710-423: The conflict was "one of the most obscure of the wars of imperial conquest in Africa." Force Publique The Force Publique ( French: [fɔʁs pyblik] , "Public Force"; Dutch : Openbare Weermacht ) was the military of the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo from 1885 to 1960. It was established after Belgian Army officers travelled to the Free State to found an armed force in
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#17327731852916820-424: The cost of the colonial army low. As result, the proportion of commissioned Belgian officers to askaris (about one to a hundred) was very low by the standards of most colonial armies of this period. The weaponry of the Force Publique also remained mostly outdated due to the tight budgetary constraints on the colonial administration. Most askaris were armed with single shot 11 mm Albini-Braendlin rifles , though
6930-469: The crossing, the Arab defenders and their allies in the city fled, allowing it to fall largely without resistance. Free State forces established a fortified position in an elevated area in the city. On 13 March, residents in Nyangwe revolted. The Free State troops defeated the insurrection and, out of fear of further unrest, set most of the city ablaze. The majority of Free States forces left on 17 April. Free State Army Captain Sidney Langford Hinde wrote that by
7040-498: The eastern Congo until the 1920s. The participation of the Batetela and Bakusu tribes in the war marked the transcendence of their societies' traditional values by desires for wealth and power through expansionism , assimilation , and cultural exchange . Their involvement in the slave trade made Belgian authorities wary of them, and in turn, they were neglected during colonial rule. The war has generally received little academic attention. According to historian Bruce Vandervort,
7150-553: The eve of Independence. A separate gendarmerie was organised in 1959 drawn from the Territorial Service Troops of the FP . By July 1959, a total of 40 companies and 28 platoons of gendarmerie were either formed or in training. In 1960, the Force Publique comprised 3 groupements (Groups) each of which covered two provinces. The 1st groupement had its headquarters at Elisabethville in Katanga Province, according to Louis-Francois Vanderstraeten. The 2nd groupement covered Léopoldville and Equateur . The 3rd groupement, commanded by
7260-508: The event of a quarrel with the Arab slave and ivory traders at Stanley Falls. Captain Chaltin and Richard Mohun —a commercial agent for the United States and the commander of the artillery battery attached to this expedition—were ordered in May 1893 to join Captain Dhanis' forces near Kasongo. Chaltin went up the Lomami River to Bena-Kamba with two river steamers , then striking overland to Riba Riba , near present-day Kindu . At this point, smallpox had broken out in his caravan, and Chaltin
7370-489: The first rimfire metallic cartridge , constituted by a bullet fit in a percussion cap. Usually derived in the 6 mm and 9 mm calibres, it is since then called the Flobert cartridge but it does not contain any powder; the only propellant substance contained in the cartridge is the percussion cap itself. In English-speaking countries the Flobert cartridge corresponds to the .22 BB and .22 CB ammunitions. In 1846, yet another Frenchman, Benjamin Houllier , patented
7480-416: The first fully metallic cartridge containing powder in a metallic shell. Houllier commercialised his weapons in association with the gunsmiths Blanchard or Charles Robert. But the subsequent Houllier and Lefaucheux cartridges, even if they were the first full-metal shells, were still pinfire cartridges, like those used in the LeMat (1856) and Lefaucheux (1858) revolvers, although the LeMat also evolved in
7590-423: The first fully self-contained cartridges : the cartridges incorporated a copper base with integrated mercury fulminate primer powder (the major innovation of Pauly), a round bullet and either brass or paper casing. The cartridge was loaded through the breech and fired with a needle. The needle-activated central-fire breech-loading gun would become a major feature of firearms thereafter. The corresponding firearm
7700-402: The following unarmed aircraft and helicopters were used by Avimil: At independence on 30 June 1960, Avimil was placed under the control of the new government of the Republic of the Congo , and continued its missions until 20 July 1960. On this date the chief of Belgian forces in the Congo ordered the assembly of non-Congolese personnel and operational aircraft ('des appareils en état de vol') at
7810-451: The force was a de Havilland DH.85 Leopard Moth that entered service on 9 October 1940. For the remainder of the period of Belgium's rule, the Force Publique continued its joint military and police role, split into territorial units, charged with maintaining public order, and mobile units (between the wars known as unites campees ) charged with territorial defence. There was a mutiny by the XIV battalion at Luluabourg in 1944. In 1945,
7920-562: The front line troops. This incident was later used by British officers to motivate the fighting troops to greater efforts ("even a hospital can do better"). At the end of 1940, the FP headquarters, recognising the need for aviation support for the force, began forming the Aviation militaire de la Force Publique equipped with requisitioned civilian machines and based at N'Dolo Airport in Leopoldville. The first machine purchased for
8030-411: The girl had fled after being badly beaten by her master, and that he had only offered her refuge. Tippu Tip's men attacked the fort which was defended by the two officers, eighty Nigerian Hausas and sixty local militiamen — and after a four-day siege, the defenders ran out of ammunition and fled, abandoning the fort. The Free State did not counterattack , and Tippu Tip began to move more men into
8140-500: The goodwill of the local people. By this time, the Congo Free State gained military strength in the region and became less tolerant of "Arab" strongmen, determined to stamp them out. The Congo Free State forces under Francis Dhanis launched a new campaign against the slave traders in 1892, and Rumaliza was one of the main targets. By 1892, the Swahili slave and ivory trader Rumaliza dominated Tanganyika from his base at Ujiji on
8250-761: The gun had numerous deficiencies; specifically, serious problems with gas leaking. However, the rifle was used to great success in the Prussian army in the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. This, and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71, eventually caused much interest in Europe for breech-loaders and the Prussian military system in general. In 1860, the New Zealand government petitioned the Colonial Office for more soldiers to defend Auckland . The bid
8360-515: The gun, to help shield the crew from long-range area or sniper fire from the new, high-velocity, long-range rifles, or even machine guns. Although breech-loading firearms were developed as far back as the early 14th century in Burgundy and various other parts of Europe, breech-loading became more successful with improvements in precision engineering and machining in the 19th century. The main challenge for developers of breech-loading firearms
8470-517: The late 18th century, adopted the second standard breech-loading firearm in the world, M1819 Hall rifle , and in larger numbers than the Ferguson rifle. About the same time and later on into the mid-19th century, there were attempts in Europe at an effective breech-loader. There were concentrated attempts at improved cartridges and methods of ignition. In Paris in 1808, in association with French gunsmith François Prélat , Jean Samuel Pauly created
8580-481: The latter half of the 19th Century, but were slowly replaced by various designs for repeating rifles , first used in the American Civil War. Manual breech-loaders gave way to manual magazine feed and then to self-loading rifles . Breech-loading is still commonly used in shotguns and hunting rifles . The first modern breech-loading rifled gun is a breech-loader invented by Martin von Wahrendorff with
8690-498: The missionaries. The missionaries abandoned three of the new stations due to Tippu Tip's and Rumaliza's attacks. By 1891, the slavers had control of the lake's entire western shore, apart from the region defended by Joubert around Mpala and St Louis de Mrumbi . The anti-slavery expedition under Captain Alphonse Jacques —financed by the Belgian Anti-Slavery Society —came to the relief of Joubert on 30 October 1891. When
8800-669: The new Congolese Government at Camp Leopold on 8 July, the FP was renamed as the Congolese National Army ( Armée Nationale Congolaise ( ANC )), and its leadership was Africanised. The chain of events this started eventually resulted in Joseph Mobutu ( Mobutu Sésé Seko ), a former Sergeant-Major in the FP who had been promoted to Chief of Staff of the ANC by Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba , gaining power and establishing his dictatorial kleptocracy . His regime
8910-539: The north of Lake Tanganyika, destroying his fortified positions along the route, although Rumaliza himself managed to escape. At the lake, they joined with the anti-slavery expedition led by Captain Alphonse Jacques Rumaliza took refuge in the German colony of German East Africa . The war ended in a victory for the Free State by January 1894. The war resulted in tens of thousands of deaths among both combatants and civilians, and significantly altered
9020-491: The old slave route that led from Stanley Falls up the Lualaba River to Nyangwe , east to Lake Tanganyika and then via Tabora to Bagamoyo opposite Zanzibar. The total number of Swahili fighters in this huge region numbered around 100,000, but each chief acted independently from the main body. Although experienced in warfare, they were poorly armed with simple rifles. The Belgians had just 600 troops divided between
9130-410: The other Arab leaders escaped. For the next six months, Dhanis remained inactive, setting up supply routes and befriending the local tribes, while Rumaliza's forces were swelled by Swahili fighters who escaped earlier defeats by Dhanis. In 1893, Louis-Napoléon Chaltin was head of the Force Publique station at Basoko —the camp at Basoko had been established by the Congo Free State as a precaution, in
9240-420: The outermost parts of the Free State. By 1900, the Force Publique numbered 19,000 men. Following the takeover of the Free State by the Belgian government in 1908, the new authorities reorganised the Force Publique . This process was rather slow, however, and was only completed during the First World War . Though the new Belgian administration was "more enlightened" than its predecessor, it still tried to keep
9350-597: The political and economic geography of the Congo. The market around Nyangwe ceased to exist, while the city of Kasongo was all but destroyed. With the absence of these markets and the Arab traders themselves, much of Congo's exports were rerouted from their destinations in East Africa to the Stanley Pool and the Atlantic Ocean. The colonial authorities retained much of the Arab administrative structure in
9460-576: The region. Chaltin went on to secure the Dungu region in the northeast of the Congo Free State, and was commander of the Haut-Uélé district from 1893. On 25 June 1893, Commandant Pierre Ponthier arrived at the Stanley Falls from Europe. He immediately collected all the troops he could, took Captain Hubert Lothaire and some men from Bangala with him and followed the Arab units, who had fled from
9570-443: The river to Kasongo on 22 April 1893, while sending Lieutenant Doorme and his advanced guard to encircle the city. Caught between the Free State troops, the Arab defenders as well as civilians and slaves fled the city, letting it fall to their attackers in two hours. The Force Publique found a large supply store at Kasongo, including ivory, ammunition, food and luxuries such as sugar, candles, gold , and crystal tableware . Sefu and
9680-425: The territory as the nucleus of the officer corps. The officers of the Force Publique were entirely European. They comprised a mixture of Belgian regular soldiers and mercenaries from other countries who were drawn by the prospect of wealth or simply attracted to the adventure of service in Africa. To command his Force Publique , Leopold II was able to rely on a mixture of volunteers (regular officers detached from
9790-797: The time the troops departed, the city "had been reduced from a well-built town of about thirty thousand inhabitants to one large fortified house with a soldiers' camp around it." With Nyangwe secured, the Free State forces focused on capturing Kasongo . Tippu Tip's capital in Maniema, the city was 35 miles south of Nyangwe and regularly hosted 20,000 residents, but the population had tripled due to an influx of refugees from Nyangwe as well as troops led by Said bin Abed and Muhammad bin Amici. Having never anticipated that Kasongo would be threatened, Sefu's lieutenants hurriedly worked to organise defences. Dhanis advanced up
9900-602: The trade of breechloading firearms and ammunition in "tropical" parts of Africa. In May or June 1890, Tippu Tip left Maniema and returned to Zanzibar, leaving his son, Sefu bin Hamid , in charge of most of his territory from the governing seat of Kasongo , and his nephew, Rashid bin Mohammad, in charge of Stanley Falls. In March and April 1892, Tippu Tip's son Sefu bin Hamid began attacking Congo Free State personnel in eastern Congo, including ivory trader Arthur Hodister—sent by
10010-590: The user loads the ammunition from the ( muzzle ) end of the barrel . The vast majority of modern firearms are generally breech-loaders, while firearms made before the mid-19th century were mostly smoothbore muzzle-loaders. Only a few muzzleloading weapons, such as mortars , rifle grenades , some rocket launchers , such as the Panzerfaust 3 and RPG-7 , and the GP series grenade launchers, have remained in common usage in modern military conflicts. However, referring to
10120-672: The war their actions were supported by more than 260,000 local bearers. In 1916, Tombeur was made Military Governor of the Belgian Occupied East African Territories. After the Mahenge offensive and the capture of Mahenge in 1917, the Belgian Congolese army controlled roughly one-third of German East Africa. After the First World War , as outlined in the Treaty of Versailles , Germany
10230-471: The way over to the front end to load ammunition and then push them back down a long tube – especially when the projectile fits tightly and the tube has spiral ridges from rifling . In field artillery , the advantages were similar – crews no longer had to get in front of the gun and pack ammunition in the barrel with a ramrod , and the shot could now tightly fit the bore, greatly increasing its power, range, and accuracy. It also made it easier to load
10340-418: The western bank of the Lualaba River opposite the city of Nyangwe , a major trading port for slaves and ivory in the region. The forces made no attempt to cross and instead established a camp on their side of the river, though over subsequent weeks they occasionally fired musket rounds at the city. On 4 March, the Free State forces crossed the river using 100 dugout canoes piloted by Genia fisherman. Surprised by
10450-455: The white cadres and units in Katanga were given better Mauser Model 1889 rifles. Other weapons included Maxim machine guns , smaller numbers of Madsen machine guns , Nordenfelt 4.7 cm and Krupp 7.5 cm cannons. The uniforms of the old Free State remained in use among the Force Publique until the First World War : Belgian officers wore white uniforms until late 1914, while
10560-465: The whole length of the barrel, and in some cases the guns are simply fired to facilitate unloading process. After breech-loading became common, it also became common practice to fit counter-recoil systems, such as the hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism on the Canon de 75 modèle 1897 , onto field guns and howitzers to prevent the recoil from rolling the carriage back and forth with every shot and ruining
10670-419: Was a single-shot breech-loading rifle using a rotating bolt to seal the breech. It was so called because of its .5-inch needle-like firing pin, which passed through a paper cartridge case to impact a percussion cap at the bullet base. It began development in the 1830s under Johann Nicolaus von Dreyse and eventually an improved version of it was adopted by Prussia in the late 1840s. The paper cartridge and
10780-657: Was able to assemble another battalion from smaller units; originally called the IIIe, but changed to the 11e to avoid confusion with the Katanga IIIme battalion. During the First World War (1914–18), an expanded Force Publique served against German colonial forces in Kamerun and German East Africa ( Tanzania , Rwanda , Burundi ), as part of the East African campaign . The Force Publique performed well on
10890-496: Was also developed by Pauly. Pauly made an improved version, which was protected by a patent on 29 September 1812. The Pauly cartridge was further improved by the French gunsmith Casimir Lefaucheux in 1828, by adding a pinfire primer, but Lefaucheux did not register his patent until 1835: a pinfire cartridge containing powder in a cardboard shell. In 1845, another Frenchman Louis-Nicolas Flobert invented, for indoor shooting ,
11000-483: Was an ethnically-mixed African soldiery, who eventually became comparable to the askaris fielded by other European colonial powers. Many were recruited or conscripted from “warrior tribes” in the Haut-Congo , others were mercenaries drawn from Zanzibar and West Africa ( Nigerian Hausas ). The role required of the Force Publique was that of both defending Free State territory and of internal pacification. In
11110-460: Was forced to cede "control" of the Western section of the former German East Africa to Belgium. On 20 October 1924, Ruanda-Urundi (1924–1945), which consisted of modern-day Rwanda and Burundi , became a League of Nations mandate territory under Belgian administration, with Usumbura as its capital. On 10 May 1919, the Belgian colonial administration issued a decree formally reorganising
11220-567: Was forced to retreat by the numerical superiority of the Belgian army, and by 17 June 1916, Ruanda-Urundi was occupied. The Force Publique and the British Lake Force then started a thrust to capture Tabora , an administrative centre of central German East Africa. The army went on to take Tabora on 19 September after heavy fighting. At the time of the Battle of Tabora in September 1916, about 25,000 men were under arms; during
11330-467: Was forced to return to Basoko. Chaltin arrived at Stanley Falls on 18 May, where Captain Tobback and Lieutenant Van Lint had for five days been resisting the attacks of the forces of Rashid ben Mohammed, the nephew of Tippu Tip. On the landing of the troops from Basoko at Stanley Falls, the Arab attackers decamped, leaving the town. After defeating them again at Kirundu , the Arab traders were expelled from
11440-512: Was headed off, and Dhanis's forces closed in on Rumaliza's bomas (Swahili for fort). On 9 January 1894, Belgian reinforcements arrived under Captain Hubert Lothaire , and the same day a shell blew up Rumaliza's ammunition store and burned down the fort containing it. Most of the occupants were killed while attempting to escape. Within three days, the remaining forts, cut off from water and other supplies, surrendered. More than two thousand prisoners were taken. A column under Lothaire pursued him to
11550-473: Was intended to have four Belgian officers and NCOs plus between 100 and 150 askaris. In principle, companies comprised two or three 50-man platoons. There were supposed to be enough companies to form three Marche battalions. Eight Congolese soldiers were promoted to NCO. The 2,875 men of the Troupes du Katanga constituted a semi-autonomous force of six companies: four de marche and two other infantry, plus
11660-710: Was much improved over the Dreyse needle gun as it had dramatically fewer gas leaks due to its de Bange sealing system. The British initially took the existing Enfield and fitted it with a Snider breech action (solid block, hinged parallel to the barrel) firing the Boxer cartridge. Following a competitive examination of 104 guns in 1866, the British decided to adopt the Peabody -derived Martini-Henry with trap-door loading in 1871. Single-shot breech-loaders would be used throughout
11770-661: Was placed at the disposal of the British forces in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . The 3rd Brigade of the Force Publique , together with the XI battalion (5,700 men), took part in the campaign in Abyssinia in Italian East Africa , arriving from the Congo via the Sudan. The troops took Asosa and Gambela with little resistance, and shelled Italian forces at Saïo on 8 June 1941. Their retreat cut off ,
11880-442: Was sealing the breech. This was eventually solved for smaller firearms by the development of the self-contained metallic cartridge in the mid-19th century. For firearms too large to use cartridges, the problem was solved by the development of the interrupted screw . Breech-loading swivel guns were invented in the 14th century. They were a particular type of swivel gun , and consisted in a small breech-loading cannon equipped with
11990-399: Was to remain in power until May 1997. Prior to independence, the air component of the Force Publique (Avi / or Avimil, Aviation militaire de la Force publique ) was based mainly at the N'Dolo airport, Leopoldville. Avimil's roles included the transportation of passengers, medical supplies and other goods, as well as undertaking connecting flights and recognition duties. Between 1944 and 1960
12100-559: Was unsuccessful and the government began instead making inquiries to Britain to obtain modern weapons. In 1861 they placed orders for the Calisher and Terry carbine , which used a breech-loading system using a bullet consisting of a standard Minié lead bullet in .54 calibre backed by a charge and tallowed wad, wrapped in nitrated paper to keep it waterproof. The carbine had been issued in small numbers to English cavalry ( Hussars ) from 1857. About 3–4,000 carbines were brought into New Zealand
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