The Belgian Congo as a Developmental State

Revisiting Colonialism

By:

Emizet Francois Kisangani

Format:

Hardback

Series:

Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa

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Description

This book challenges assumptions that poor post-colonial economic performance is always a direct product of colonialism by reconsidering the Belgian Congo (1908–1959) as a developmental state. The book demonstrates that despite the colonial system’s economic exploitation and extraction, brutality, excessive taxation, and inequities, the Belgian Congo achieved successes in developing the economy in a short period of time. The Belgian Congo was able to achieve this by investing its higher rates of fiscal revenue in political stability, physical infrastructure, education, and healthcare. By reconsidering the Belgian colonial state as a developmental state, this book encourages scholars to adopt a more nuanced analysis of African history. Considering state capacity and state autonomy as key features of a developmental state, the book demonstrates that colonial state managers in the Belgian Congo were able to supply these public goods that sustained economic growth for decades. Whilst by no means glorifying colonialism or the atrocities that were conducted during the Belgian occupation, the book nonetheless outlines how different forms of capitalism were deployed to further economic development in the country. In contrast, predatory state managers of the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and post-colonial kleptocrats (1960–2018) have squandered Congo’s natural resources with disastrous economic and social consequences. Contrasting the Belgian Congo with colonies of settlement and other colonies of extraction, this book encourages researchers and students to reconsider the dominant narratives within colonial history, development, and African Studies.

Author Biography:

Emizet François Kisangani is Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Graduate Program in Security Studies, Kansas State University, USA.

Release date NZ

August 31st, 2022

Author

Emizet Francois Kisangani

Audience

Tertiary Education (US: College)

Illustrations

51 Tables, black and white; 20 Line drawings, black and white; 20 Illustrations, black and white

Pages

264

Series

Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Africa

ISBN-13

9781032254302

Product ID

35691617

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