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Émile Banning Quotes

Émile Theodore Joseph Hubert Banning was a doctor of philosophy and literature and a Belgian senior civil servant who played an important role in the Belgian politics of the 19th century.

Born in Liège, Banning started his career as a journalist with the l'Écho du Parlement, where he became an observer of the political life, after a stay at the Royal Library as its archivist and librarian, he was appointed to the department of Foreign Affairs where he quickly became a kind of oracle in all the historical and geographical questions of his time.

From a "simple" historian he became a leading actor of the great decisions in matters of Belgian domestic as well as international policy. His knowledge of the world was of great support to Leopold II of Belgium, even if the king moved away more and more from the advice of Banning.

Émile Banning was a leading negotiator at the Berlin Conference of 1884 and the Brussels Conference of 1890 both involving the Congo. His political doctrines, based on high international morality and the respect of the law of nations, influenced many Belgian personalities such as Pierre Orts.

He died in Brussels on 13 July 1898. Wikipedia  

✵ 12. October 1836 – 13. July 1898
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Émile Banning: 4   quotes 0   likes

Famous Émile Banning Quotes

“The desert reveals its secrets; the great mystery of interior Africa is revealed day by day.”

Émile Banning

All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, Emile Banning's Colonial Career. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 On January 17, February 14 and 15, 1876, Emile Banning wrote three articles in L'Echo du Parliament on the new developments in the discovery and exploration of Central Africa. See ARAB. Papiers Banning, VII, 118, Les voyages de découverte dans l'Afrique, February 15, 1876.

“The more we increase in numbers, the more we starve and become poorer. ... Either our population will shrink, or our territory will expand.”

Émile Banning

All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, A romantic associate of Leopold II. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 E.B. La Belgique doit être agrandie. Hoei, 1882, 16-17.

“A people needs air, broad horizons, an ideal which charms its imagination and makes its heart beat; reduce it to household calculations, to the politics of party interests, it will disintegrate and corrupt itself.”

Émile Banning

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, A romantic associate of Leopold II. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 CROKAERT, P. Brialmont, 23.

“The King is no longer the same; the change of character and spirit observed in him for two or three years is accentuated and makes fear of a catastrophe, at a time when he had only to let it go to be a remarkable King, perhaps to become a large figure.”

Émile Banning

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, A romantic associate of Leopold II. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 WILLEQUET, J. Le baron Lambermont, 103.

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