Home > 125 years after the General Act of the Berlin Conference > Profit motivations > Exploration, exploitation
While Stanley was active for the Belgians, Savorgnan de Brazza was working for the French in the area around the Congo river in order to conclude contracts with the indigenous population. Consequently, the king encouraged Stanley to speed things up. "Authorise him to buy all available ivory [and] to travel upstream in Congo as fast as possible", Leopold II wrote in a letter to Strauch on 30 October 1881. Microfilm copy of a letter from the sovereign to Strauch, 1881.
NAB, Papers Maximilien Strauch, Film 2740. The original document is preseved at the NPO Dynasty and Cultural Heritage.
NAB, Papers Maximilien Strauch, Film 2740. The original document is preseved at the NPO Dynasty and Cultural Heritage.
