In a time without GPS and echosounder, European engineers and black labourers worked for decades to get a better understanding of the nautical intricacies of the Congo River. This is the first comprehensive story, in text and custom-made maps, of the, in flow, second largest river in the world. We follow the earliest explorers mapping the river, the expeditions to find an alternative access to the ocean and the first land and hydraulic surveys to improve navigation. The constant movement of shallows and islands keeps the guardians of the river constantly on their toes. Over the years, better technologies on all fronts improved safety, data collection and fairway maintenance. In conclusion, the author describes a proposal to develop a 21st container port that would rival any port facilities on the African west coast.

The Wetland Book is a comprehensive resource aimed at supporting the trans- and multidisciplinary research and practice which is inherent to this field. Aware both that wetlands research is on the rise and that researchers and students are often working or learning across several disciplines, The Wetland Book is a readily accessible online and print reference which will be the first port of call on key concepts in wetlands science and management. This easy-to-follow reference will allow multidisciplinary teams and transdisciplinary individuals to look up terms, access further details, read overviews on key issues and navigate to key articles selected by experts.

Includes the Proceedings of the Royal geographical society, formerly pub. separately.

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.

The third edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo looks back at the nearly 48 years of independence, over a century of colonial rule, and even earlier kingdoms and groups that shared the territory. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 800 cross-referenced dictionary entries on civil wars, mutinies, notable people, places, events, and cultural practices.