The Brussels Conference Act of 1890 (full title: Convention Relative to the Slave Trade and Importation into Africa of Firearms, Ammunition, and Spiritous Liquors) [1] was a collection of anti-slavery measures signed in Brussels on 2 July 1890 (and which entered into force on 31 August 1891) to, as the act itself puts it, "put an end to Negro Slave Trade by land as well as by sea, and to improve the moral and material conditions of existence of the native races".
The negotiations for this act arose out of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90. [2] The act was specifically applicable to those countries "who have possessions or Protectorates in the conventional basin of the Congo", to the Ottoman Empire and other powers or parts who were involved in slave trade in East African coast, Indian Ocean and other areas.
For example, Article 21 describes the zone in which measures should be taken, referring to "the coasts of Indian Ocean (including the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea), the Belouchistan up to Tangalane (Quilimane)... " and Madagascar. The Act provided for the establishment of a relevant International Bureau in Zanzibar.
In Art. 68:
Similar actions were called on to be taken by the Shah of Persia and the Sultan of Zanzibar (Art. 69, 70). [3] The participants also agreed to stop sales of guns and other weapons to Africans. [4]
The parties to the agreement were: [5]
The Brussels Act was supplemented and revised by the Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1919 signed by the Allied Powers of the First World War on 10 September 1919. [7]
Because of its provisions on alcohol, the Act is considered the first treaties on the control of psychoactive substances (preceding the first opium treaty from 1909). [8] [9]
The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 was a meeting of colonial powers that concluded with the signing of the General Act of Berlin, an agreement regulating European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. The conference of fourteen countries was organised by Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of Germany, at the request of Leopold II of Belgium. It met on 15 November 1884 and, after an adjournment, concluded on 26 February 1885 with the signing of the General Act.
The Slave Trade Act 1807, or the Abolition of Slave Trade Act 1807, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not automatically emancipate those enslaved at the time, it encouraged British action to press other nation states to abolish their own slave trades. It took effect on 1 May 1807, after 18 years of trying to pass an abolition bill.
The Blockade of Africa began in 1808 after the United Kingdom outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for British ships to transport slaves. The Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West Africa Squadron. Although the ban initially applied only to British ships, Britain negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves.
The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery is an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 9 March 1927, the same day it went into effect. The objective of the convention is to confirm and advance the suppression of slavery and the slave trade and was extended in 1956 with the Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, under the auspices of the United Nations.
This is a non-exhaustive chronology of colonialism-related events, which may reflect political events, cultural events, and important global events that have influenced colonization and decolonization. See also Timeline of imperialism.
The Sultanate of Zanzibar, also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was an East African Muslim state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Sultanate's territories varied over time, and after a period of decline, the state had sovereignty over only the Zanzibar Archipelago and a 16-kilometre-wide (10 mi) strip along the Kenyan coast, with the interior of Kenya constituting the British Kenya Colony and the coastal strip administered as a de facto part of that colony.
Slave Trade Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States that relates to the slave trade.
Henry Adrian Churchill CB was an archaeological explorer of ancient Mesopotamia and a British diplomat who stopped much of the commercial slavery in Zanzibar and helped prevent a war between Zanzibar and Oman.
The Swahili coast is a coastal area of East Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean and inhabited by the Swahili people. It includes Sofala ; Mombasa, Gede, Pate Island, Lamu, and Malindi ; and Dar es Salaam and Kilwa. In addition, several coastal islands are included in the Swahili coast, such as Zanzibar and Comoros.
Slavery in Somalia existed as a part of the East African slave trade and Arab slave trade. To meet the demand for menial labor, Bantus from southeastern Africa slaves were exported via the Zanzibar slave trade and were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in East Africa and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia by the Somalis.
The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889–1890 was held from 18 November 1889 to 2 July 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the prohibition of slave trade and slavery in Africa. The convention favoured colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument. The event and its origins were shaped primarily by a narrow national interest. Governments paid lip-service to humanitarian goals in order to legitimize their imperial aims.
The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers. Slaves were widely employed in irrigation, mining, and animal husbandry, but most commonly as soldiers, guards, domestic workers, and concubines. The use of slaves for hard physical labor early on in Muslim history led to several destructive slave revolts, the most notable being the Zanj Rebellion of 869–883, and led to the end of the practice. Many rulers also used slaves in the military and administration to such an extent that slaves could seize power, as did the Mamluks.
Slavery in France, and by extension, the French Empire, covers a wide range of disparate topics. Some of the most notable ones include:
The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the East African slave trade, involved the capture and transportation of predominately black African slaves along the coasts, such as the Swahili Coast and the Horn of Africa, and through the Indian Ocean. The areas impacted included East Africa, Southern Arabia, the west coast of India, Indian ocean islands and southeast Asia including Java.
Slavery existed in the Sultanate of Zanzibar until 1909. Slavery and slave trade existed in the Zanzibar Archipelago for at least a thousand years. When clove and coconut plantations became a big industry on the islands, domestic slavery expanded to a point where two thirds of the populations were slaves. Zanzibar was internationally known as a major player in the Indian Ocean slave trade, where slaves from the Swahili coast of Eastern Africa were trafficked across the Indian Ocean to Oman in the Arabian Peninsula during the Zanzibar slave trade.
The origins of slavery in France can be traced back to the Merovingian dynasty in the 4th century. At least five Frankish queens during that period were former slaves: Ingund, Fredegund, Bilichild, Nanthild, and Balthild. Slavery continued under the Carolingian Empire.
The Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC) was a committee of the League of Nations, inaugurated in 1924.
Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1919, was an international anti-slavery convention signed in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919.
The Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 also known as Anglo-Ottoman Convention for the suppression of the African traffic and Anglo–Ottoman Convention for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, was a treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Ottoman Empire from 1880. The Convention addressed the slave trade of the Ottoman Empire, specifically the Red Sea slave trade of Africans across the Red Sea toward the Ottoman province of Hejaz.
The Kanunname of 1889 was a kanunname issued by Sultan Abdul Hamid II on 30 December 1889. It prohibited the importation and sale of African slaves from foreign lands to the Ottoman Empire. It was introduced due to British diplomatic pressure in anticipation of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90. The law included the previous anti-slavery decrees in to one code of law. It was the first anti-slavery law that was actually enforced in the Ottoman Empire, and resulted in a reduction of the slave trade.
Menelik had managed to become a part of the Brussels General Act of 1990 regulating the arms trade in Africa