WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Stanley’s report of the Congo interested the Belgian king, Leopold II. He employed Stanley to claim land in the Congo for him. Stanley worked to set up Belgian bases and build roads there from 1879-1884.

Detailed explanation-2: -Unbeknownst to most of the attendees at the conference, Leopold II had also established the Commité d’Etudes du Haut-Congo (CEHC) and hired Henry Morton Stanley, a young American newspaper reporter turned explorer, to explore the Congo River basin.

Detailed explanation-3: -(1841–1904). The first European to explore the Congo River from Central Africa to the Atlantic Ocean was Henry Morton Stanley. He traveled the great river for 2, 000 miles (3, 200 kilometers) from Nyangwe, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to its mouth.

Detailed explanation-4: -It was following this expedition that King Leopold II of Belgium employed Stanley to “prove that the Congo basin was rich enough to repay exploitation”. Stanley returned to the area establishing the trading stations that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Congo Free State in 1885.

Detailed explanation-5: -Between 1874 and 1877 Henry Morton Stanley traveled Central Africa east to west, exploring Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and the Lualaba and Congo rivers. He covered 7, 000 miles (11, 000 km) from Zanzibar in the east to Boma at the mouth of the Congo in the west.