International African Association

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The International African Association (in full, "International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of Central Africa"; in French Association Internationale Africaine, and in full Association Internationale pour l'Exploration et la Civilisation de l'Afrique Centrale) was a front organization established by the guests at the Brussels Geographic Conference of 1876, an event hosted by King Leopold II of Belgium. The Association was used by King Leopold ostensibly to further his purportedly altruistic and humanitarian projects in the area of Central Africa, the area that was to become Leopold's privately controlled Congo Free State. King Leopold volunteered space in Brussels for the International African Association's headquarters, and there were to be national committees of the association set up in all the participating countries, as well as an international committee. Leopold was elected by acclamation as the international committee's first chairman, but said that he would serve for one year only so that the chairmanship could rotate among people from different countries.

The new body was welcomed throughout Europe (contributions were sent by the Rothschilds and Viscount Ferdinand de Lesseps) and the national committees were to be headed by grand dukes, princes, and other royals, but most of them never got off the ground.^[1] The international committee met once in the following year, reelected Leopold as chairman, despite his earlier pledge not to serve again, and then disintegrated. Nevertheless, thanks to the Association, Leopold succeeded in his goal of convincing the Belgian people and the major powers of Europe that his interest in Africa was purely altruistic and humanitarian-oriented. The Association was succeeded by the short-lived Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, and the International Association of the Congo, which eventually dissolved when Leopold renamed the area the Congo Free State.